The NT has deliberately disenfranchised its members

Dear Editor,

I have complained to the Charity Commission (copying in the National Trust) on a variety of issues.

Apart from the competence and corporate governance issues within the National Trust, my concerns have centred on their lack of openness and integrity, their refusal to engage and debate issues with interested parties, the increased and blatant politicisation of the organisation, the callous treatment of, and lack of respect for, volunteers, the scant regard for getting history right and the unwarranted and hurtful vilification of some leading historical figures, including Churchill. 

One of the tipping points was the Chairman of the Trust being allowed to have a casting vote on behalf of all the discretionary votes entrusted to him. I suggested to the Charity Commission that the voting process deserves very close examination by it as Regulator (and by all concerned with the corporate governance standards of the Trust and of charities generally).  

Last year the discretionary vote was replaced by the so-called “Quick Vote” system whereby many members were “funnelled” into voting for all the National Trust’s resolutions by means of the easy (and most visible) option of a single vote. The National Trust has  failed to reveal how many members voted using this quasi default basis voting mechanism which is entirely skewed towards supporting the status quo. 

The National Trust has therefore deliberately perpetuated a system whereby members who do not vote via what is now known as the Quick Vote are effectively disenfranchised. This is just nothing short of disgraceful and scandalous.

The National Trust is one of the leading charities in the land, with some 6,000,000 members. It is de facto a Non Governmental Organisation and should enjoy governance standards of the highest order.  Its byzantine and archaic voting system is, however, more reminiscent of Renaissance despotism or the days of rotten boroughs.

Yours faithfully,

Nick Gent
London