{"id":30901,"date":"2022-11-07T16:39:12","date_gmt":"2022-11-07T16:39:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/?p=30901"},"modified":"2025-07-09T09:47:39","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T08:47:39","slug":"national-trust-quick-vote-is-corrupt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/national-trust-quick-vote-is-corrupt\/","title":{"rendered":"National Trust Quick Vote is \u2018Corrupt\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"National<\/a>Following Saturday’s National Trust Annual General Meeting held on 5th November 2022 in Bath, Christian Voice today criticises the Trust over a new voting practice we describe as \u2018corrupt\u2019.<\/p>\n

The National Trust is Britain’s top conservation charity, so its woke posturing and virtue-signalling matters and affects our spiritual and cultural climate. To avoid criticism of its wokeness, this year the National Trust introduced a controversial mechanism known as \u2018Quick Vote\u2019 this year. Members voting online were invited to tick the \u2018Quick Vote\u2019 box to vote for all the candidates for Council the Trust recommended and against the resolutions it disliked. \u2018Quick Vote\u2019 was even presented as \u2018Option 1\u2019, ahead of proper voting.<\/p>\n

We have now framed a Resolution against Quick Vote for debate and vote at the 2023 AGM. We know our petition against Quick Vote will be voted down, ironically by their use of Quick Vote, but that will make our point even stronger, to the glory of God.<\/p>\n

If you are a National Trust Member<\/u>, please pray into this matter<\/u>, then Download, Print, Sign and Return the Resolution by clicking the yellow button below<\/u>:<\/p>\n

Download the Resolution \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n

Sign our Petition against Quick Vote \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n

Support Christian Voice \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n

QUICK VOTE USED AGAINST RESOLUTIONS<\/h2>\n

There were six resolutions in all. They included a policy resolution to stop banking with Barclays and another to pull the Trust back from a tunnel project for the A303 at Stonehenge.<\/p>\n

Christian Voice proposed two resolutions, one to cease wilding and wetting projects on Trust farmland, the other to stop the Trust parading in gay pride. The latter topped the yes vote for policy resolutions. But it made no difference with Quick Vote in the mix.<\/p>\n

Two management resolutions were proposed by pressure group Restore Trust. They were firstly to appoint an ombudsman for the Trust, and secondly to prevent the chairman skewing the vote on resolutions with ‘discretionary’ members\u2019 proxy votes.<\/p>\n

EVERY MEMBERS\u2019 RESOLUTION VOTED DOWN!<\/h2>\n

But they were behind the curve. Overnight, the Trust had moved the goal-posts. In the event, as the headline over an article in the Daily Telegraph put it<\/b><\/a>, the \u2018Annual General Meeting featured (an) unusual moment when every resolution proposed by members was voted down.\u2019<\/p>\n

Discretionary proxy votes this year were down by a factor of ten from last year. In 2021 the chairman cast around 20,000 block votes against each resolution the Trust objected to. This year, 2022, that was down to around 2,000. But hiding in the \u2018No\u2019 vote were the Quick Votes. The Trust did not disclose the number of Quick Votes. They simply included them in the \u2018No\u2019 vote, making it appear as if the resolutions lacked much more popular support than they did.<\/p>\n

Based on the figures below, Restore Trust probably won the popular vote on the Chairman’s use of discretionary votes.  It is shameful that the National Trust used both discretionary votes and Quick Vote to vote down that very resolution.  Furthermore, our resolution on the Trust’s participation in gay pride possibly came close to securing half of the popular vote.<\/p>\n

QUICK VOTE SKEWS COUNCIL ELECTIONS<\/h2>\n

It was worse when it came to the Council Elections. Last year<\/b><\/a>, a candidate needed between 34,402 and 43,536 votes to be elected. This year<\/b><\/a>, however, with Quick Vote tilting the table, the winning candidates secured between 63,771 votes and 72,963.<\/p>\n

The Restore Trust candidates scored between 28,205 and 46,612 votes. Not one of them was elected. Under last year\u2019s members-only voting system, at least three, possibly four, would have made it.<\/p>\n

Quick Vote appears to have raised the bar for election by an average of almost 30,000 votes.<\/p>\n

FULL BREAKDOWN CHALLENGE<\/h2>\n

Stephen Green, National Director of Christian Voice, proposed the wilding and gay pride resolutions. Today he said:<\/p>\n

\u2018I have already challenged the National Trust to disclose the full breakdown of voting, separating votes cast by \u2018Quick Vote\u2019 from those cast in the popular vote in both the Council Elections and the Resolutions. Let\u2019s see if the Trust can follow Biblical principles of honesty and transparency. I remind them:<\/p>\n

Matt 10:26b there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018Then I call upon the National Trust to declare elected to Council those candidates who took the first seven places in the popular vote alone. Candidates only sneaking in because of Quick Vote lack all credibility and legitimacy.<\/p>\n

\u2018In the past, the Trust Chairman used to cast proxy votes for Council Candidates. The Trust stopped this corrupt practice only very recently. It has now returned, called \u2018Quick Vote\u2019 instead.\u2019<\/p>\n

A COUNCIL OF YES-MEN<\/h2>\n

\u2018Under Quick Vote, if your face doesn\u2019t fit, you won\u2019t be elected to the Council. No outsider need even apply any more. Quick Vote is a stitch-up. And if Council members want to be re-elected, they will know not to rock the boat, because now they must be a \u2018recommended candidate\u2019 to secure the Quick Vote.<\/p>\n

\u2018It is clear the Trust have introduced Quick Vote to entrench the status quo. In future, no Members\u2019 Resolution critical of the Trust will ever be passed. The Trust don\u2019t trust the members to vote the right way or elect the correct people to the Council. They are now plainly trying to eliminate dissent and build a Council of time-servers and yes-men. Quick Vote is designed to prevent accountability.\u2019<\/p>\n

CHAIRMAN SHOULD BE ASHAMED<\/h2>\n
\"Ren\u00e9<\/a>
Ren\u00e9 Olivieri, Chairman of the National Trust, cast all the ‘Quick Votes’ against the members’ resolutions and for all the Trust’s recommended candidates.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u2018The new Chairman, Ren\u00e9 Olivieri<\/b><\/a>, was appointed in a fanfare as a safe pair of hands after the disastrously woke Tim Parker. But Mr Olivieri is entirely culpable for casting every single \u2018Quick Vote\u2019 to support the Trust\u2019s establishment line and candidates. Brought in as a breath of fresh air, he has become just as corrupt as the rest of the National Trust Board. Ren\u00e9 Olivieri should be ashamed of himself.<\/p>\n

\u2018Quick Vote is also now being used by a great many building societies, trying to avoid proper accountability just like the National Trust. The Building Societies Members Association (BSMA) is particularly critical of \u2018Quick Vote\u2019. In a list of desired changes, BSMA says: \u201cAll underhand practices such as the infamous \u2018Quick Vote\u2019 and tick boxes hidden in the small print should be banned\u201d.\u2019<\/p>\n

John 3:20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.<\/strong><\/p>\n

STOP PRESS 11\/11\/2022<\/h2>\n

We have today heard from ‘Jo’ in ‘Governance’ who says the Trust won’t disclose the numbers:<\/p>\n

‘Following the weekend\u2019s AGM, the Trust will not be issuing any further details in respect of the breakdown of voting.
\n‘The voting results as published are already broken down into the number of specified votes and the number of discretionary proxy votes cast. Only the discretionary votes are cast by the Chair. Using Quick Vote means members specify how their vote is cast \u2013 and these are therefore counted in the specified votes declared in the results.
\n‘For the avoidance of doubt, the Chair has no rights in respect of casting votes on the Council elections. A discretionary voting option is not available for the elections.
\n‘There is no governance requirement to break down the results further.’<\/p>\n

Indeed the couple of thousand ‘Discretionary’ Proxy Votes were cast at the Chairman’s discretion against all the Resolutions the Trust disliked. But so were the Quick Votes, in much larger numbers, AND they were cast for the Trust’s preferred candidates as well. It is just not true that the members ticking the Quick Vote box ‘specified’ how their votes were to be cast, resolution by resolution, candidate by candidate. They allowed the Trust to vote for them.<\/p>\n

This lack of honesty and transparency in revealing the number is worse in its way than how Quick Vote has skewed, not just the resolution voting, but the Council Elections, as one might say, for everyone, for ever (or until it is ditched). This corruption is going to reflect very badly on the National Trust. Not only have they brought in a dishonest voting system, but they won’t even disclose how many votes it was responsible for! On any measure, the whole affair is disgraceful and will be seen as such.<\/p>\n

Prayer and Action!<\/h2>\n

If you are a National Trust Member<\/u>, please pray into this matter<\/u>, then Download, Print, Sign and Return the Resolution by clicking the yellow button below<\/u>:<\/p>\n

Download the Resolution \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n

Sign our Petition against Quick Vote \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n

Support us!<\/h2>\n

We appreciate your support; it enables our research and helps us inform your prayers.
\nSo click below to support Christian Voice and stand up for the King of kings<\/b>
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Or fill in the form below to keep in touch:<\/p>\n

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Following the National Trust 2022 AGM, Christian Voice criticises the Trust over a new voting practice, ‘Quick Vote’, described as \u2018underhand\u2019 and \u2018corrupt\u2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30480,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,4322,11,4892],"tags":[15,104,43],"class_list":["post-30901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christian-freedom","category-environment","category-homosexuality-trans","category-quangocrisy-wokeness-blob","tag-christian-voice","tag-gay-pride","tag-stephen-green"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t