This is my personal Twitter account, but I want to say this in my professional capacity as an academic deeply engaged in cultural heritage - it is not ok for the National Trust for Scotland ( @N_T_S) to sustain an affiliation with Neil Oliver, given his expressed sympathies.

I have been told, though I don’t have direct evidence of this, that @N_T_S have been blocking people on here who criticise them on this matter. This, too, is unacceptable. How can a leading heritage charity in Scotland give even tacit support to racism?

And here’s some more. https://twitter.com/scotnational/status/1278779727365525505?s=21 https://twitter.com/scotnational/status/1278779727365525505

@N_T_S claim that being ‘inclusive’ is one of their core values. How can they reconcile this with the ‘values’ expressed, increasingly stridently, by Mr Oliver? https://www.nts.org.uk/our-work/our-manifesto-and-values

Oliver’s reply to Grimes proclaiming his ‘love’ for David Starkey (posted prior to the interview being broadcast), has stayed up even as publishers and heritage organisations have sought to distance themselves. Do you still love him, @thecoastguy? https://twitter.com/thecoastguy/status/1277671480726298631?s=21 https://twitter.com/thecoastguy/status/1277671480726298631

And now @N_T_S are defending their association with Oliver in the full knowledge of his support for Starkey. It is totally wrong for a leading heritage organisation in a country still reckoning with its involvement in the slave trade to behave like this. https://www.thenational.scot/news/18557930.nts-defends-oliver-gives-support-slavery-row-historian/