We've ALREADY "Supported" the Staffordshire Hoard

On their "Heritage calling" blog, Historic England (May 26, 2015) give "Six reasons to support the Staffordshire Hoard". Number one is because the metal detectorist took half the munny. The finder reportedly split £3.285 million with the owner of the land from which he took it. The team carrying out the detailed research on this group of complex objects has received a grant of just £400,000 from the heritage budget, and there is still a shortfall of £120,000 and HE are asking for public donations. Meanwhile the partially investigated site from which the material came is out there, unguarded with a flimsy fence.

Here's the situation shown graphically. The green bar is the "reward" the public purse has paid Farmer Fred Johnson for saying "yes" to artefact hunting on his land. The red bar is the "reward" (ransom) the public purse paid the detectorist on benefits for going out there and hoiking stuff out of that field. The blue bar underneath is the money available in the public purse to support a team of professional researchers with the sophisticated equipment needed to study, document and prepare for publication of these items over the next two years. Quite a discrepancy isn't there? Everyone but the Bonkers British can see that this is no way to treat the irreplaceable archaeological heritage.