View source for National Trust Boss Says She apos;s Not apos;woke apos; And Defends Slavery Report

The head of the National Trust has insisted she is not 'woke' as she defended the charity's slavery report into dozens of [http://search.usa.gov/search?affiliate=usagov&query=stately stately] home after 500 members complained - but admitted the timing was a mistake as it was 'conflated' with the [/news/black-lives-matter/index.html Black Lives Matter] movement. <br>The National Trust had been [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?sel=site&searchPhrase=accused accused] of 'wokeism,' after it published a report into 93 historic houses' links to slavery last September. <br>Hilary McGrady, the trust's director general, insisted she was not woke, but accepted the timing of the report's publication was 'not brilliant in the middle of trying to deal with Covid and everything else'.<br>Speaking to Jeremy Paxman on the podcast The Lock In, she said: 'My biggest mistake was publishing it when we did, because it got conflated with Black Lives Matter.'<br>         Hilary McGrady, director-general of The National Trust, has insisted she is not woke as she defended the trust's report into 93 stately home's links to slavery and colonialism <br>         The report discusses Chartwell, in Kent, and its owner,  [https://www.kynghidongduong.vn/tours/tour-trung-quoc-quang-chau-tham-quyen-bang-tuong-5-ngay.html kynghidongduong.vn] Winston Churchill.<br><br>It details his leadership of the Bengal Famine of 1943, his 'exceptionally long, complex and controversial life' and his position as Secretary of State for the Colonies (1921-1922) as the reason for its inclusion on the list.<br>The report was published after a summer of protests by the BLM movement, in the wake of the death of George Floyd in the US while being restrained by police officers.<br>Protests in London saw a statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square vandalised with the words 'was a racist' sprayed beneath its feet, while in Bristol, a statue of slave trader and merchant Edward Colston was pulled down and thrown into Bristol Harbour.<br>Ms McGrady revealed the trust received 500 complaints from its members over the report, as well as redundancy plans, with 500 of its 12,000 full-time staff losing their jobs.<br>         Ms McGrady said it was a 'mistake,' publishing the report last September, as it meant it was 'conflated' with the Black Lives Matter protests that took place across Britain. Vandals scrawled 'was a racist' under a statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square last June <br>         The trust's audit, which was published last September, detailed links between 93 of its properties and historic slavery and colonialism.<br><br>Winston Churchill's former home, Chartwell, in Kent,  [https://www.kynghidongduong.vn/tours/tour-trung-quoc-quang-chau-tham-quyen-bang-tuong-5-ngay.html tour quảng châu] was among the properties on the list because the wartime Prime Minister once held the post of Secretary of State for the Colonies <br>