The leadership of the National Trust is in the hands of accountants and glorified HR managers.

A thread..... https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/national-trust-to-scrap-its-experts-hdmzlqbhd

The primary purpose of the National Trust is set out in an Act of Parliament. It states as follows:

"The National Trust shall be established for the purpose of promoting the permanent preservation for the benefit of the nation of lands and tenements (including buildings)...

of beauty or historic interest and as regards lands for the preservation...(so far as is practicable) of their natural aspect, features and animal and plant life".

Section 4.1 National Trust Act 1907.

Charities have a tendency over time to slowly move away from the charitable purpose for which they were set up and eventually become the purpose itself. The danger of capture for their own ends of a charity by its administrators is ever present.

The National Trust is just another example of a major charity which seems to suffer from periodic moments of forgetfulness about its raison d’etre. This failure is illustrated by the following exchange with the then Chief Exec, Dame Helen Ghosh in the Daily Telegraph.

"People were also put off because there is “so much stuff” in some of the stately homes. The Trust was now looking at featuring only a handful of interesting artworks in some homes to see if it increased their appeal....

Dame Helen said: “We just make people work fantastically hard, and we can make them work much less hard.”

The obsession with class continues...

“It is not surprising, given where we have come from, that the kind of places that we own are places where the middle classes feel more comfortable, because it is more part of their cultural life.”

The National Trust, like so many of our culturally elite institutions, trumpets equality and diversity and yet has an unthinking belief that the lower orders are so stupid that they do not understand the cultural significance of our built heritage.

Dame Helen drives the point home by saying that it was not the entrance fee at a lot of attractions that was likely to put visitors off, but a feeling that “this place isn’t for them”.

The next bit is a doozy...

"The challenge was to persuade people that they did not need to feel awkward “if they didn’t know who George II was”.

Yes, she really said that.

There are over 4 million members who want to visit historic houses and gardens, but the National Trust is obsessed with accessibility for those who don't visit historic houses and gardens, hence clearing furniture out and turning these places into a sort of twee Centr Parcs.

They'll continue down this path until there are no experts at all, the grand ballroom will be a softplay area, the formal gardens a water park and though the members will stop going and the patronized working classes won't come, the National Trust will at least be tremendous fun.