The charity looks after places of historic beauty
(Picture: Getty Images)A tweet from the National Trust’s account sarcastically joked the charity was busy “flushing someone’s head down the toilet” following accusations of bullying levelled against it.
The tweet, which was swiftly deleted, was posted in response to an article, written for the Spectator by Charles Moore, in which he claimed that there is a bullying culture in the charity.
The National Trust is absolutely Done With Your Shit pic.twitter.com/7bVADLO5W9
— Joe McNally (@GaspardWinckler) July 1, 2021
Moore alleged he was approached by an anonymous employee who said the organisation asks people how they voted in the Brexit referendum during interviews and does not hire anyone who voted Leave.
He added that his source said: “There is an atmosphere of fear and bullying — not, as the upper echelons in the Trust would like to believe, among downtrodden minorities, but among anyone who holds a view opposed to the neo-Marxist model prevalent in the organisation”.
But responding to his article, Moore faced criticism from those who thought his claims lacked substance:
I too write my articles based on the testimony of a single unnamed employee. I also, seemingly, do not contact the organisation for comment. This is real journalism.
— Adam Smith (@adamndsmith) July 1, 2021
The National Trust have since confirmed to indy100 that an employee really was responsible for the tweet. But at least they have the backing of a few people who found the exchange hilarious.
Historian Charlotte Riley said:
GIVE THE NATIONAL TRUST SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER A SWORD https://t.co/sfg0x5njHh
— Dr Charlotte Lydia Riley (@lottelydia) July 1, 2021
The Trust later posted a, shall we say, more moderate response to Moore’s article, denying Moore’s claims and stating that they had asked the Spectator to retract them:
Hello, thanks for getting in touch. This isn't correct. These allegations are without evidence or foundation, and some are plain ludicrous. We’ve asked for a retraction from the Spectator.
— National Trust (@nationaltrust) July 1, 2021
They also said they would be reporting the Spectator to the press watchdog IPSO.
A National Trust spokesperson said: “We try to remain mature in our outlook. Everyone has their limits. Shortly after we tweeted it we decided it probably wasn’t up to our usual standard so we removed it from our feed.”
Still, gave us a good laugh.
