The right’s ongoing fixation on the National Trust reared its head again this week.
The right’s ongoing fixation on the National Trust reared its head again this week.
‘Thousands quit National Trust amid competition from ‘anti-woke’ rival’ headlined the Daily Mail.
According to the report, the National Trust lost 89,000 members last year, while its rival, Historic Houses boasts 85,000 members and is reportedly gaining 10,000 more each year.
Historic Houses is a not-for-profit association. For an annual membership of £68, members can access 303 venues across the UK, more, according to the Daily Mail, than the National Trust and English Heritage combined.
While this may sound like a commendable and legitimate alternative, the Mail uses the rise of Historic Houses to attack the National Trust, claiming that its decline is due to its ‘woke’ culture. The article suggests that “lovers of stately homes” are now turning to this “less political” option.
The newspaper goes on to list what it calls the National Trust’s “long history of woke rows,” such as its 2023 calendar where Christmas and Easter were excluded, while other religious festivals were included. This is presented as further proof of the Trust’s so-called woke agenda.
The same narrative was echoed in the Telegraph, which gleefully reported:
“With the National Trust losing 89,000 members last year, a lesser-known rival “without the woke attitude” is growing in popularity…”
However, such sensationalist reporting overlooks the likely factors behind the Trust’s membership decline, namely, the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, which has forced many people to cut back on non-essential spending.
In fact, in 2023, while membership numbers dropped by 89,000 to 2.62 million, visitor numbers at Trust sites actually increased by 5 percent. More people are opting to pay for day passes instead of committing to memberships, with non-member visitors rising by 12 percent compared to the previous year.
Hilary McGrady, the trust’s director general, said: “It’s really heartening that people still want to spend time in and support amazing cultural and natural places, whether that’s immersing themselves in art or wandering through our gardens and woodlands.
“We know the cost of living crisis is still biting and we’ll keep doing more to give everyone a great day out.”
But such logical facts are far less sensational than the narrative the right-wing media prefers. After all, the push for the ‘anti-woke’ Restore Trust group to infiltrate the National Trust’s council failed on multiple occasions. Now, it seems the focus has shifted to Historic Houses. One to keep our eye on given the right-wing media’s strange obsession with the National Trust.
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