The proposed changes to the National Trust’s trail-hunting policy, which are to be voted on by the members in October, have come about as a result of lobbying by a small clique of anti-fieldsports NT members. We have been here before. Periodically over the past thirty years’ attempts have been made to change Trust policy on both hunting and shooting, only for them to be roundly defeated when put before members; hopefully the same will happen this time around.
For the past twenty years or so a hardcore of animal rights activists supported by the odd celebrity NT member have agitated for a ban on hunting over Trust land. Although the leadership of the NT has had a tendency to lean toward the left and is thus accompanied by its handmaiden of “knowing best”, it has always recommended that proposals for a ban be voted down. But these are uncertain times and over the past year the leadership has been less than exemplary. In no particular order over the past twelve months it has been accused of bullying Cumbrian hill farmers, the accusation coming from no less a figure than Lord (Melvyn) Bragg; it has pleaded guilty to coercing staff into wearing Gay Pride rainbow badges and sought to secularise Easter by removing the word from its annual (Easter) Egg hunt. from the term “Easter Egg”. The odd thing about this sort of virtue signalling – ergo the National Trust is welcoming to religious minorities, special interest groups etc., – is how the grand sweeps of such gestures tend to ignore the detail. Something clearly demonstrated in its proposals for trail hunting over Trust land, details of which have been published on its website. According to the website the changes emerged after an ‘in-depth review’ carried out by the Trust.
In-depth? Really? How in depth could a review have been which did not canvass the views of any of the hunts involved nor the farmers across whose land the hunts work? Perhaps it was as in-depth as the research the Trust carried out before unveiling to the world that the former tenant of its property Felbrigg Hall, Robert Wyndham Kenton-Cremer, was homosexual. Mr Ketton-Cramer’s relatives deny that he was gay and presumably therefore were not considered to be of sufficient depth to have their opinions canvassed. And, anyway, the ubiquitous Stephen Fry was on hand to tell us that he was certain of Ketton-Cramer’s sexuality. Clearly as far as the Trust was concerned that settled the matter. Whilst the members should be relied upon to exercise the common sense so sadly absent from the Trust’s leadership, there is no room for complacency. The League Against Cruel Sports and its supporters maintain a barrage of propaganda aimed at NT board members and staff, some of which could be said to border on intimidation. The Countryside Alliance is therefore asking all NT members among the fieldsports community to ensure that they make their vote count.