{"id":30479,"date":"2022-04-13T12:14:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-13T11:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/?p=30479"},"modified":"2022-05-16T13:53:04","modified_gmt":"2022-05-16T12:53:04","slug":"national-trust-agm-2021-so-close","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/national-trust-agm-2021-so-close\/","title":{"rendered":"National Trust AGM 2021 – So close!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
National Trust AGM 2021<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Out of 46 candidates, I came 8th in the Council Elections at the National Trust AGM 2021.  I missed out on the 6th vacancy by 850 votes. I want to thank each and every one of the 33,564 National Trust members who voted for me. In one sense that is a miracle, even if it was not quite the one I was praying for. The results were announced at the Trust\u2019s Annual General Meeting in Harrogate on Saturday 30th October.<\/p>\n

Why were the elections important? Because the National Trust is but one of our many institutions, from the BBC, to the media, to academia, to quangos, NHS trusts, the civil service, the armed and response services, even some of the established church, taken over by a God-hating liberal-left elite.<\/p>\n

\u2019Recommended\u2019 candidates<\/h2>\n

The Trust \u2018Nominations Committee\u2019 recommended six candidates.  In my election address I described this procedure as \u2018anti-democratic\u2019 and \u2018corrupt\u2019. Nevertheless, the Committee did not have it all their own way. Four of their recommended candidates were elected, led by Min Grimshaw, who made much of her Sikh heritage and gained 43,536 votes. Their fifth recommended candidate came seventh and their sixth was well down the field.<\/p>\n

Two candidates recommended by protest group Restore Trust<\/b><\/a> were elected, Andrew Powles and farmer Guy Trehane. Restore Trust is urging the NT to return to its founding principles. The group was kind enough to add me to its list of six recommended candidates. I did not ask for their support, but it was welcome nonetheless.<\/p>\n

AGM AND CLIMATE CHANGE<\/h2>\n

The AGM itself was nothing like as well-attended as the last one Judy and I went to, in Swindon in 2017. Perhaps 250 members turned up this time.<\/p>\n

\"Hilary<\/a>
Hilary McGrady, National Trust Director-General<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Trust Director-General Hilary McGrady felt driven by complaints she had received to reassure the meeting that the Trust\u2019s focus was still on the preservation of houses. At the same time Ms McGrady illustrated her AGM talk with a number of pictures.  One of these was of the National Trust in the 2019 Birmingham Gay Pride Parade.  That was just one of the pro-LGBT excesses I complained about in my election address.<\/p>\n

Ms McGrady promised that staff and volunteers would \u2018reflect the communities they serve\u2019. It will not happen, but it is one of those things any right-on DG is expected to say. She also spoke of the \u2018threat of climate change\u2019 and promised the Trust would plant 20 million trees.<\/p>\n

It was not clear where they would be planted. On scrub-land? Or on prime farmland? However, Harry Bowell<\/b><\/a>, the Trust\u2019s Director of Land and Nature, said 12% of the Trust\u2019s 250,000 hectares of land was currently woodland but they wanted to increase it to 17%. It seems a \u00a32.23m National Lottery Heritage Fund grant is allocated to that project.<\/p>\n

RESOLUTIONS<\/h2>\n

Restore Trust tabled two resolutions.  One complained about dumbing-down and loss of proper curators, the other about the Trust\u2019s alleged cavalier treatment of volunteers.<\/p>\n

The Daily Telegraph reported<\/b><\/a>: \u2018The National Trust has been accused of \u201carrogant abuse\u201d of its historic properties by prioritising \u201cvisitor experience\u201d over heritage.\u2019 It described it as \u2018a heated members meeting.\u2019<\/p>\n

The paper went on: \u2018charity executives were forced to defend themselves against accusations that they had abandoned their purpose of protecting the nation’s heritage \u201cfor everyone, for ever\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u2018Members and former staff accused bosses of losing valuable curatorial experience and replacing it with \u201ctrite\u201d displays in order to increase footfall and make money. Volunteers also accused bosses of \u201ctaking them for granted and not listening to them\u201d whilst one 25-year-old member said that they \u201cdid not care\u201d about young people.\u2019<\/p>\n

A number of National Trust members each year allow the Chairman to cast their vote for them. I have described this as another corrupt National Trust practice. Using these \u2018proxy votes\u2019, the Trust narrowly defeated the two resolutions.<\/p>\n

FOCUSSED ON POLICY<\/h2>\n

Before the voting for the council closed on 22nd October, a couple of people asked me who else they should vote for. As it happens, under the rules no candidate was actually allowed to promote themselves outside the NT process. But the truth was you could whittle it down to two or three.<\/p>\n

Mine was the most \u2018political\u2019 election statement the National Trust has seen in years.  It was certainly the most focussed on policy in this election. Mr Powles and Mr Trehane were the only other two to mention matters of policy, respectively concerns over political correctness and re-wilding.<\/p>\n

Every other profile, without exception, was unrelentingly bland.  They limited references to policy to \u2018climate change\u2019. They were all (a) \u2018I\u2019ve done this, I\u2019ve done that\u2019, (b) \u2018The National Trust is wonderful\u2019, (c) \u2018I can really be an asset.\u2019  To put that in curriculum-vitae-speak, as one lady did: \u2018I can contribute an extensive and relevant range of skills and experience…\u2019 Politically-correct references to \u2018marginalised voices\u2019, \u2018protect out planet\u2019, \u2018inequality of access to nature\u2019, \u2018building resilience throughout rural landscapes\u2019, \u2018the promotion of biodiversity and connectivity,\u2019 \u2018we can collectively advocate for systems change\u2019, were dotted through.<\/p>\n

CORPORATE JARGON<\/h2>\n

Perhaps the most excruciating example of corporate jargon was penned by Phil Hardy-Bishop.  \u2018I am a keen networker and have a significant personal skill in identifying and establishing synergies for mutual collaboration\u2019, he wrote. Mr Hardy-Bishop gained 2,157 votes.<\/p>\n

My own favourite piece of nonsense came from one Martin Pugh: \u2018I will challenge the Trust to improve access to their assets for everyone irrespective of ethnicity, culture, social background, sexual orientation or locality\u2019. Is there really a notice on the front door at Polesden Lacey saying, \u2018No blacks. No chavs. No gays.\u2019?<\/p>\n

This is a prime example of how the diversity crew propose solutions to problems which do not exist. And what does he mean by \u2018locality\u2019? This is the way it works: People make their own way to a National Trust property they wish to visit. Was he proposing a fleet of free buses to carry people from London to the North Downs? Mr Pugh secured 8,778 votes.<\/p>\n

JUST ONE FARMER<\/h2>\n
\"Mike<\/a>
Mike Innerdale – ‘wetting up’ farmland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Trust was criticised in the press in 2016 HERE<\/b><\/a>, HERE<\/b><\/a> and HERE<\/b><\/a> for buying up Thorneythwaite sheep farm in the Lake District in order to \u2018rewild\u2019 it. Elsewhere, according to Farmers Weekly<\/b><\/a> the Trust\u2019s tenant farmers have complained the Trust is putting what it thinks is \u2018the environment\u2019 above food production.Indeed, one Mike Innerdale, the Trust\u2019s regional director for the north, gave a presentation to the AGM in which he spoke of \u2018wetting-up our farmland\u2019 and a \u2018drive to net zero\u2019.<\/p>\n

Guy Trehane was the only full-time farmer standing in the election. He drew attention to the policy in his election address, calling for a restoration of \u2018local food production and thriving rural enterprise at the the heart of our treasured countryside property.\u2019 Mr Treharne sought and won re-election to the Council. Needless to say, he was not one of the committee\u2019s recommended candidates. There\u2019s gratitude for you.<\/p>\n

COLONIALISM AND THE SLAVE TRADE<\/h2>\n

The only other candidate I thought it was possible to vote for was Andrew Powles, who complained about the \u2018energy expended on the interim report on colonialism and the slave trade at (last year\u2019s) virtual AGM\u2019. He called for a \u2018retain and explain\u2019 approach. However, one victim of the National Trust\u2019s interpretation of that very approach has been Sir Winston Churchill, who donated Chartwell. The report criticised him for opposing independence for India. The report was also unable to see any difference between slavery and colonialism.<\/p>\n

How many of the Trust\u2019s grand houses, or for that matter how many of our pubic buildings, are totally untainted by colonial-era profit, from slavery, or indeed by less than favourable pay and conditions imposed on men and women within these shores?<\/p>\n

Perhaps we should try to view our historic forebears through the lens of the own time, rather than our own. In fact, they might well be horrified by what we take for granted.<\/p>\n

Read and pray<\/h2>\n

READ<\/b>: Psalm 118:23, 119:126,165; Isa 8:20; Matt 21:42, 23:12; Jas 2:12.<\/p>\n

PRAY<\/b>: Give thanks for the Lord granting me a strong showing in the election. Pray that more candidates might stand against \u2018woke-ness\u2019 and for a return to founding principles, and be elected.  Intercede for the National Trust itself.  May its leaders recognise that our spiritual Christian heritage is of far more value than our tangible built heritage and that the former has inspired the latter down the ages. Pray for Almighty God to move in power.<\/p>\n

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Out of 46 candidates, I came 8th in the Council Elections at the National Trust AGM 2021.  I missed out on the 6th vacancy by 850 votes. I want to thank each and every one of the 33,564 National Trust members who voted for me. 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