There are few British organisations quite as “establishment” as the National Trust, a conservation charity that works to preserve historic properties and spaces up and down the country — from Winston Churchill’s stately home at Chartwell in Kent to the striking basalt columns of the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland. It was therefore a sign of the times that this week the Trust found itself caught up in a heated controversy over its annual plans for an Easter egg hunt. It has held the event — during which children up and down the country scour National Trust sites for chocolate eggs — in conjunction with confectioner Cadbury for the past 10 years.

While the organisation’s website was dotted with references to Easter, the event itself had been called the “Cadbury Great British Egg Hunt”, a point which was swiftly noted by sections of the press, which accused it of “airbrushing” Easter. The Trust had banished the word Easter from its egg hunt, the Daily Mail declared. A senior figure of the Church of England condemned the development, pointing to the history of John Cadbury, the 19th century businessman who started the company in Birmingham. Dr. John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, declared there had been a clear connection between Mr. Cadbury’s religion and his business, and decried the dropping of the word “Easter” from the title as “spitting on the grave of Cadbury”.

Prime Minister Theresa May took things a step further and, on a trade visit to Saudi Arabia, took time to comment on the controversy. “I’m not just a vicar’s daughter — I’m a member of the National Trust as well... I think the stance they have taken is absolutely ridiculous,” she told the news channel ITV. The National Trust dismissed the controversy as “nonsense”, while Esther McConnell, a direct descendant of Mr. Cadbury, pointed out that as a Quaker he would not have celebrated Easter.

PM under attack

Ms. May’s comments were swiftly picked apart online. Some observers contrasted the speed with which she was willing to chastise Cadbury and the National Trust with her refusal to condemn the inflammatory comments of former Conservative leader Michael Howard, who suggested that the government would be willing to use military force to protect its interests in Gibraltar. However, many focussed on the irony of her comments coming at a time when there are concerns that Britain is willing to overlook human rights violations and wider concerns about the political climate in countries it hoped to partner with as it extracts itself from Europe. The Guardian’s ever astute cartoonist showed Ms. May stepping out of her plane in Saudi Arabia, pushing a wheelbarrow full of warheads and espousing her fury as a vicar’s daughter and a member of the National Trust.

However, others pointed to another angle to the story: the statement released by the Archbishop suggested it might be “appropriate for everyone to buy The Real Easter Egg”, chocolate eggs that market themselves as the only egg sold in the U.K. that include a story book, involve a donation to charity and are made of fair trade chocolate. “This has all the hallmarks of a publicity stunt by the Church of England,” said a spokesperson for the National Secular Society. “It would not be surprising for a company to choose not to use the word Easter in an attempt to reach the widest market possible and be as inclusive as possible... For the Archbishop of York and the Church’s burgeoning PR department to be seeking to promote a particular brand of Easter egg is descending to a new level of indignity in attention seeking manoeuvres.”