> ...it was set up to own The Guardian for purely philanthropic reasons.

You're right, of course, but the Scott Trust is not philanthropic in itself. It only exists to keep the Guardian and Observer going as they are. As such when finances become tight there are undoubtedly tensions between the overall philanthropic aims of the Scott family and the brute need for the trust to survive so the papers survive.

The intentions of the Trust were explicitly carried over to limited company in its constitution. Whether that's sufficient to protect it, well we'll see.

Did you read your own link? It says right there it was created to avoid death duties. It was a tax avoidance measure.

>>The Trust was established in 1936 by John Scott, owner of the Manchester Guardian (as it then was) and the Manchester Evening News. After the deaths in quick succession of his father C. P. Scott and brother Edward, and consequent threat of death duties, John Scott wished to prevent future death duties forcing the closure or sale of the newspapers...

The one does not preclude the other, for instance in the case where I want to run something for philanthropic purposes, but death duties may force it to close.

One does not preclude the other, but if not for Death Duties the Scott Trust would not have been created.

The Guardian and tax avoidence goes hand in hand. The Guardian Media Group is based in the Cayman Islands and notably used the tax haven to avoid paying any tax on the £302 million in profit it realised from the sale of Auto Trader in 2008.

Over the years, the Guardian has responded (satisfactorily, IMHO) to such claims many, many times. Here are a few that I personally remember:

https://www.theguardian.com/help/insideguardian/2008/mar/06/...

https://www.theguardian.com/help/insideguardian/2011/feb/22/...