Nighthawks, "imaginary beasts", the NCMD Rests its Case

I see the representative of the National Council for Metal Detecting (NCMD), a rather shady individual going by the pseudonym "Remic" has posted a comment on a metal detecting forum near you ("Detectorist.co.uk: Setting the Standard") and setting out the position of the organization he represents on the issue of illegal artefact hunting. Basically the phenomenon does not actually exist (8th November 2013,  5:41 pm):

Good to see that [Paul Barford] has bit on this one and is running around in circles making silly comments as normal. He of all people should know all about staged nighthawking incidents with his now regular spurious accusations that the Staffs Hoard site has been hawked along with photos of conveniently placed "holes" in the field ,which of course could have been dug by anyone with an anti detecting agenda. All too easy to report and blog about, but not supported by any real evidence as usual. I rest my case 

Note that although this post has been up a couple of hours, not a single member has questioned his logic. The NCMD's representative  does not explain to his readers why it is "good to see" what he alleges is misinformation being put about concerning UK artefact hunting, and what the NCMD proposes doing about it to put the record straight. Or do they intend just to sit back chuckling and ignore it? What kind of representation of the metal detectorists that pay their subs is that? 

I wonder at the phrase "he of all people should know all about staged nighthawking incidents". Is he accusing me of getting on a plane with a spade, flying into Luton, hiring a car, driving across to Brownhills in the middle of the night, hopping over the fence (with or without the landowner's permission?), digging a few "conveniently-placed" holes them bombing back to the airport to be home in time for breakfast? All while Britain's nighthawks sit at home with a warm mug of cocoa huddled up in front of "Britain's Got Treasure" on the telly? Is the National Council for Metal Detecting's representative for real? What is the matter with these people? Where do they have their brains?

He says "I rest my case", but it will only escape the attention of the utter Neanderthal that he has not actually made any kind of "case" whatsoever to support his asinine assertion that instead of nocturnal visitors with metal detectors, fields all over the country are being interfered with by archaeologists, intending to make a victim of the metal detectorist. This sounds like paranoia and not any kind of explanation.  But it is interesting to see the NCMD protecting the nighthawks here.

I leave it up to the reader to check out the facts (unless the tekkies delete their posts) and what metal detectorists themselves are saying, and decide for themselves who of us is making the "silly comments". Check it out.

Vignette: Remik is the Polish name for a card game. Here's the joker.

UPDATE 9/11/13

Some metal detectorist (fiddiewebb 9/11/13 at 1:28 pm) seems rather pleased, apparently referring (though giving no link) he writes:

That caught his attention....Shady Neanderthal [two emoticons]

I wonder why he thinks that we should not pay attention to what the National Council for Metal Detecting says on their behalf about nighthawking in the UK. Personally, I think we should all pay close attention to what metal detectorists say candidly on their forums about their hobby.   

It will be noted that I used the n-word above to refer to any readers of the forum who think that "Remic" has made any sort of a case. Can we take it that this "fiddiewebb" considers his hobby's representative has made a case to support his conspiracy theory? If so, I doubt there are many outside metal detecting who will agree that he has.