It may well be that PAS will soon be swept away (or replaced with a decorative "shell" of itself.) Not what Sir Anthony Grant hoped for in the Commons in 2001: “I trust that we will now join the great majority of other civilised countries in passing a law to protect our rich and important heritage of portable antiquities” nor what Baroness Blackstone hoped for in the PAS Annual Report: "It is the long term aim of the Scheme to change public attitudes to recording archaeological discoveries so that it becomes normal practice for finders to report them”.*I think HA are rather too optimistic about the ability of many archaeologists to get involved in critical thought. While to us it is obvious that what was a great and generous offer to detectorists has failed, it is far from clear that in archaeological circles "all would agree". The Ixelles Six/Helsinki Gang for example don't, they've collectively got a lot of grant money hinging on believing the opposite. So the produce a fuzzy smokescreen of a text denying the existence of a serious problem that has been completely swallowed by the unreflexive archaeological community instead of being called out for the self-interested twaddle that it is. But then twaddle seems to be what the pro-collecting case thrives on.
20 years later there is no "law to protect heritage" and no major change in "public attitudes to recording archaeological discoveries". All must agree that what was a great and generous offer to detectorists has failed. Soon they won't have PAS to use as their figleaf but they'll have another, equally effective one: the widespread belief held by the public (put around for 20 years by PAS to get their annual funding) that most detectorists are responsible and metal detecting is mostly fine.
The public belief that detecting is mostly "a good thing" has caused incalculable damage yet will survive long after PAS has gone, like cockroaches after a nuclear war. It's not a good legacy. Will the PAS employees, free of their employment, start saying it's wrong? We'll soon see.
*Foreword to the PAS Annual Report 2000-2001
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Not sure whether it even matters long term whether the Ixelles Six continue to say PAS had succeeded. PAS HAS succeeded in convincing the public that detecting is mostly fine and detectorists will reiterate that at farm gates forever. A couple of further Ixelles Six papers saying yes that's right won't affect anything (other than boosting their departmental grants!)
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