As The Guardian has reported:
A gardener and activist hired by the Royal Horticultural Society to help it reach out to younger and disadvantaged people has said its flagship Chelsea flower show celebrated “exclusivity over equity” as he walked away from the role.
They added:
Tayshan Hayden-Smith, 28, was asked in 2022 to become the charity's ambassador for young people and communities. But now he says that after three years working with the RHS, he has lost hope that it genuinely wants to become more accessible.
Announcing his resignation on Instagram this week, on the eve of the RHS's biggest annual event, the Chelsea flower show, Hayden-Smith said: “I entered this role well intentioned and optimistic. On reflection, I now see that I was also naive.
“What I've come to learn is that representation without redistribution – of power, resources or decision-making – is not justice. And working within institutions that aren't prepared to listen, adapt or truly share space only goes so far.”
He was particularly critical of the Chelsea flower show: “Year after year [the event] sets a precedent that celebrates spectacle over sustainability, exclusivity over equity.”
As the article makes clear, Tayshan Hayden-Smith was appointed because of his work after the Grenfell disaster, using gardening as a means of recovery, creating the Grenfell Garden of Peace.
Now, he has quit making his reasons very clear.
Who would have thought that the Royal Horticultural Society (of which I was, quite a long time ago, a member) would be, as a bastion of upper-middle-class England, a hotbed for the promotion of continuing inequality? I am shocked.
And yes, Tayshan Hayden-Smith might have been naive, but I admire him for both trying and for now speaking out.
But the real question is, why does the BBC keep broadcasting this celebration of blatant gross inequality, which is always, it seems, heavily sponsored by financial services companies dedicated to maintaining everything that reinforces economic injustice? I like gardening, but is this view of the art something that really deserves as much coverage as it gets?
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Quite. I think its part of what the BBC regards as an essential element of British life – like the boat race, Epson and the Cheltenham festival, Glastonbury and cricket. Oddly enough all are minority activities which I guess most people are not bothered about. Of course there is also the focus on the royals!!
Cricket is a minority sport – but the BBC refuse to recognise that fact. Most players are of Asian origin. You would never guess from the national team of public schoolboys.
Tennis, snooker, golf, darts, rugby, hockey, netball, basketball, are all minority sports too. I dare say the only sports that get anywhere near majority status are football and athletics (if you include jogging). Possibly cycling. Walking is far and away the most popular physical activity, if not exactly a sport.
Many of these sports require time and apparatus. Unsurprisingly football and athletics require the bare minimum – a ball and/or some footwear.
Cricket remains popular in South Asia. And eg Australia. It is dying in the Caribbean. But in the 2021 census the UK remained 83% white. 9% Asian. 4% black. And cricket has effectively disappeared from state schools. There are people of South Asian decent in and around the England cricket team, eg Adil Rashid, Rehan Ahmed, Saqib Mahmood. There should probably be more. But 9% of 11 is only one. Two out of eleven might be about right.
The things listed are all English absolutely nothing to do with the other three nations of the uk
@Andrew: It’s important to specify which level of a sport one is talking about, because status can differ between them.
However, you are right about elite cycling, i.e. any level from semi-professional upwards; for instance, non-white elite cyclists are practically non-existent on teams that can compete in the top three tiers of cycling, male or female.
I love this video of how cricket looks to people who don’t play it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYrue4oXCbo
It seems that even gardening is now part of the elitist body politic.
Monetisation old chap – turn what should be pleasurable (& inexpensive) gardening into a way of making money & of course putting the uppers in a position to call the shots. Having our Ukrainian lady staying with us has been interesting. Elderflower cordial was made yesterday plus all sorts of other concotions all sourced from the countryside around us. I have a sense that. at least in Ukraine, people have a much better understanding of the land, what it can produce (wild) and how to process that produce. Is this “gardending” in the wider sense?
I know nothing about the Chlelsea flower show apart from its summat to do with flowers (clue in the name) and am happy with that state of affairs.
🙂
I always wonder why these kinds or organisation are always prefixed with the Royal etc. Maybe getting rid of both the royal family and renaming all these royal societies as national would help get Britain away from this fixation on a pretty disfunctional but extremely priviledged family and towards a more equitable and better functioning country.
Let’s drop the eugenicism.
I have always been mildly interested by the fact that animals’ intersts are protected by the RSPCA, while childrens’ interests are protected by the NSPCC. The Royals don’t care for children?
There are rumours the RSPCA does not care much for animals.
The Royals do care for children. That is exactly why they have not become patrons of the NSPCC.
Although I’m not sure whether the distinction comes from them or the Society, it deliberately points out the universal nature of the charity and allows all political “families” to support its work.
I, for nigh on 50 years now, have refused to attend, visit, buy products from, contribute to or have anything to do with any organisation that is prefixed with or starts with Royal. Just my little way of saying no, this is very very wrong
BTW – Did you mean a ‘Flower bed of Gross Equality’?
🙂
@ PSR: I find ‘Hotbed of gross inequality’ fitting, since the Victorians, who developed the hotbed in Britain, used horse manure to generate the heat.
That was my reference: the National Trust tends to venerate this style of gardening.
Thank you for elucidating me Mr Bartel.
Reference: https://video.allotment-garden.org/65/victorian-hotbed-garden/
I, too, venerate much of traditional gardening – but I practise it most of the time in communities devoted to diversity, equality and inclusion, e.g. helping the unfortunate use gardening as a means of recovery.
Quite. Especially irritating that there is little coverage of the Download festival, in comparison to the coverage of Glastonbury.
If you want a egalitarian gardening programme try the Beechgrove Garden
Needless to say it’s Scottish but it did introduce me to Quadgrows for my tomatoes
Thanks
As the article makes clear, Tayshan Hayden-Smith was appointed because of his work after the Grenfell disaster, using gardening as a means of recovery, creating the Grenfell Garden of Peace..
Tayshan Hayden-Smith is a person to be admire for his work with the Grenfell. I applaud him for quitting the RHS. I am sure The Daily Fail now hates him and will commence a full-on hate attack immediately.
Meghan Markle did the same type of work with the Grenfell Community Hub Kitchen and the fund raising cookbook success. I applaud her for quitting the British Royal Family. I know the The Daily Fail hates her.
Take care! England is not alone! The same elitist BS goes on ad nauseum in the USA.
Gardening in England is often a soft power class discourse. Just as highly paid professional recognise and are comfortable around their fellows through the silent recognition of the high cost of their attire and watches, those with access to land to create a luxury garden take their privilege for granted. As the Chelsea Flower Show is just a beautiful display of the privileged class environment that they inhabit, like the Ascot races, its inequality is structural and so can not be changed by reform.
Gardening always showed you had enough – not to grow food.
I want flowers and vegetables, so cottage garden vibe for me. I was a member of RHS in my twenties learning about horticulture, but my one trip to the big show was an eye opener and I soon learned there was a class structure here as elsewhere. Off-putting.
‘Gardening guerillas’ tending lost spots in cities, and the likes of Incredible Edible make me smile. I’ve worked in horticultural therapy briefly, part of the area of horticulture Timothy Bartel is involved with. Plenty of potential for supporting people to get all sorts of peace and health through nature.
Tayshan Hayden-Smith gives an articulate analysis of the situation, and will soon find a better post at am certain. I hope RHS will sit up and really think about this.
The best garden is, in many ways, an allotment.