National Trust


Who owns the UK? This is a perennial favourite for newspaper articles and has spawned a series of books. There is no simple answer as wealth can be measured in different ways: cash, shares, GDP and, most tantalisingly of all, land. Land has always been an emotive issue and, even when the vast majority of people no longer work in primary industries, it continues to generate […]

Who owns the UK?


What do the membership rolls of Britain’s largest organisations say about Britain and the British? Wildlife lovers, passionate about history and the countryside, keen Scouts and Guides but less bothered about politics and trade union membership than ever before. This year for Christmas my sister bought my mum and dad a year’s membership to the National Trust. They were absolutely delighted – a whole world of […]

Mass membership organisations in the UK



The Duke of Devonshire’s gamekeepers were on high alert. A left-wing group had been agitating in the Derbyshire village of Hayfield, threatening to “take action to open up the fine country at present denied us.” Their target was Kinder Scout, part of the Duke’s extensive moorland estate in the Peak District. But if they wanted to trespass on His Grace’s land, they would have to get […]

Mass trespass