Quote of the week #4: John Hooker (Canadian collectors’ rights spokesperson) on Heritage Action!

“Anyone very familiar with the anti-collecting lobby will be able to spot likely astroturfers. They frequently hide their identities and do not attach any real name to their blogs etc. They also frequently show up in blog responses of their allies. Sometimes, they adopt a number of identities for this so that one appears as many….  Heritage Action is almost a text-book definition of the term, although we cannot know if they are funded from other sources and thus are true astroturfers or are merely adopting many of the techniques of astroturfing….”

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Moneta-L/message/93380

Crumbs! Well Mr Hooker, all we can tell you is that our identities are well known, we receive no funding from anyone else and despite your fantasies we are exactly what we say we are, ordinary people caring for extraordinary places.

As such, we think we are more representative of the British people than you or your metal detectorist suppliers and our message to you is the same as our message to metal detectorists (who also often attack us in the same way):  it is not Heritage Action members who are damaging the British archaeological resource, it is not Heritage Action members who are helping themselves to history uninvited. And especially for you Mr Hooker: it is not US that are paying oodles of dollars to those that do – it is YOU.

When you stop, we’ll discuss morals with you.