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https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/oct/27/how-the-national-trust-fought-back-against-the-culture-warriors?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other>
"Corinne Fowler remembers sitting alongside her son in their garden shed during
the first Covid lockdown, when the very start of what would become an avalanche
of hate mail popped up in her inbox.
“There was a barrage of emails but the first one just said in the title:
‘You’re cooked.’ And it went on from there,” recalls the historian, who in 2020
had just published a landmark report into the colonial history behind some
National Trust properties.
The author of the email, she adds, seemingly shared the views of some prominent
Conservative MPs, such as Jacob Rees-Mogg, who had accused Fowler and the trust
of “denigrating” British history by detailing the connections to slavery of 93
historic places in the charity’s care.
Looking back now, Fowler believes “heated rhetoric” from politicians and others
encouraged anger and even death threats against her and the National Trust’s
director general, Hilary McGrady.
An intervention by leading historical bodies took some of the heat out of the
debate over the trust’s perceived “wokeness” and headed off threats of
interference by the Conservative government.
But the actions of the trust itself – alongside supporters including a slew of
keyboard warriors – have also worked to blunt the impact of the culture war the
charity found itself caught up in.
Four years on, the National Trust has largely defeated repeated attempts to
elect opponents to its council, which appoints board members – though the
latest is coming up this week. Some hope that its fightback may serve as a
lesson to other bodies caught in culture war crosshairs."
Via Susan ****
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
