Thread by @WhatIsRobShaw

Hello to followers who are National Trust members 👋 If like me you have NT membership for days out, but rarely vote in AGMs, in 2021 you may want to vote to protect the NT's support for LGBTQ+ inclusivety & its recokning with colonial past of properties. 🧵follows #nationaltrust

A group called The Restore Trust are seeking to place ‘anti-Woke’ campaigners on the Council. They accuse the NT of using “history as a weapon” and “demonizing people’s heritage”. They want to “restore the Trust’s original apolitical ethos”

and their website contains numerous articles which seek to downplay the ways in which British heritage is embedded in its colonial past. They also post links to critical articles about LGBTQ+ inclusivity events that the Trust has run, and "anti-woke" material from GB News

Ironically for a group seeking an apolitical NT, their members include a Conservative Party campaigner; and a former Tory party doner. Their webpage has shared a letter by Tory MP Andrew Bridgen & they have been linked to the Conservative Party ‘Common Sense Group’ of MPs

The NT has 5.5million members but only 0.5% vote in a typical AGM. So a small number can have a disproportionate effect on the direction the Trust takes. This also means *you* can make a meaningful difference by voting, and encouraging others to do

The AGM elects 6 Council members but 45 people (!) are standing for election. There are 36 Council members so the results can’t completely change the NT’s direction, but the Restore Trust endorsed 6 candidates would form a significant block.

It is unclear how connected all 6 candidates are to the Restore Trust, and 1 of them (Min Grimshaw) is also endorsed by the National Trust Nominations Committee, whose role is to assess candidate’s skills and experiences in order to achieve a broad balance on the Council.

I’ll be voting for the 6 endorsed candidates & suggest you do the same. Among 45 candidates, the Restore Trust are the only ‘block’ other than those endorsed by the Nominations Committee, so any other approach risks vote-splitting & the Restore Trust winning all 6 seats

To be clear then I recommend voting for Sandy Nairne, Caroline Kay, Min Grimshaw, Philip Monk, Sarah Green and Christopher Stewart, to try and avoid the Restore Trust winning all 6 positions in the face of vote-splitting and apathy.

Vote by 22nd October 2021 - all you need is your membership number (on your card) & to visit cesvotes.com/nt21. You can vote by post if you still have your voter form (& if you're mega-keen you can visit the AGM in person in Harrogate & enjoy a Betty's afternoon tea)

I should probably add,- the five names to *not* vote for are Michael Goodhart, Stephen Green, David Pearson, Andrew Powless and Guy Trehane. The Restore Trust also endorses Min Grimshaw, but having one of their endorsed candidates elected seems a tolerable outcome

And yes, the Sally Hunt standing for election is *that* Sally Hunt