Has the National Trust lost the plot with its promotion of gay rights?
I AGREE with Max Hastings (Mail) that the National Trust has acted stupidly in its promotion of gay rights at its properties. I visited Felbrigg Hall in Norfolk and while viewing the delightful walled garden I noticed that a cheap rainbow-coloured hat had been put on the statue in the fountain (pictured). I am not quite sure what the Trust hoped to achieve by this, but it has certainly lost my support.
JOHN MORGAN, Coventry. HOW astonishing that National Trust volunteers have been asked to complete a questionnaire that includes a nonsensical request for personal information about a range of genders and sexualities. It is no one’s business to ask your views on gender
issues. The Trust should not go beyond a male/female tick box on its forms. BARRIE CHRISTIAN, Sutton Coldfield, W. Mids. I AM sorry that Max Hastings (Mail) has given up his membership of the National Trust having been a loyal supporter for 40 years. As he suggests, the National Trust was created to protect places of historic interest and natural beauty, and it will always do that. One of its founding purposes was to be for the nation. We believe that to make everyone feel welcome at our properties is what our founders would have wanted and is central to our charitable purpose. The recent programme of events and exhibitions is not the zealous pursuit of a politically correct social agenda, as Mr Hastings would suggest, but an expression of its core purpose. The Trust is fortunate to have 65,000 volunteers who believe passionately in what we do and our membership has never been higher. To us, accessibility is anything but a ‘grisly word’ — it is central to protecting our heritage. SANDY NAIRNE, Trustee,
National Trust, london. WITH all the recent National Trust controversies, two friends who are longtime members voted for the first time at the AGM. They voted by reading candidate profiles and not selecting anyone who had used the phrase ‘passionate about the National Trust’ or who had misused an apostrophe! Gender wasn’t an issue, as more relevant things were important to them.
ROS ELLIS, Ilford, Essex. LIKE Max Hastings (Mail), I have cancelled my National Trust membership. It has chosen to politicise its role, takes its members for granted and is insufferably patronising. It’s yet another victim of metropolitan political correctness. Should it decide to return to its conservation mission, I may rejoin. Name and address supplied.