Election Time in Bonkers Britain

Britain goes to the polls

The Daily Detectorist satirises what it sees as the issues in the British elections from an artefact hunting point of view:

"if you want to see priceless national artifacts and collectible coinage of Britannia in the hands of foreigners and immigrants instead of our national museums: vote Labour”.

And how many of the latter would actually brave the blatantly xenophobic forums to actually take up the hobby? Note that the option that one of the parties might opt for policy change and actually regulate artefact hunting and collecting is not one of the options the writer considers likely. In the real world, Helen Geake is standing for election with the Green Party in Bury St Edmunds - so I find it odd that she apparently supports the non sustainable erosion of the archaeological record for personal entertainment and profit in the form of her work for the PAS. Bonkers.

Meanwhile Elginism has been running posts on the different parties' approach to doing the right thing and sending the sawn-off Parthenon Marbles back ('The Parthenon Marbles and the 2015 General Election'  May 4, 2015).

What could the future hold for the heritage? See the analysis by the Heritage Alliance . None of the parties seem overly concerned about Britain's pre-eminent place in the global antiquities market (including the dodgy bits) or artefact hunters gobbling up non-renewable bits of sites all over the country.