The Brexpig: not all bad.

An extraordinary 86% of detectorists on the Minelab forum said they supported Brexit (far higher than every district of the country). The reason is clear, they have long feared Europe would get Britain to regulate what they do. Not now though and, as a bonus for detectorists, Europe’s environmental stewardship payments will now end, leaving thousands of protected acres available for unregulated detecting once again. So there’ll be jubilation in the club room at the back of the Pig and Whistle and many similar venues.

So is there an upside? Yes, if you see yourself as European:

> In Europe The Assembly’s wish for further legislative control of detecting will no longer be obstructed by a single country.
> In Europe any further international conferences held by PAS praising themselves and unregulated detecting won’t be heeded.
> Equally the British inspired European Council for Metal Detecting will be dead in the water (for who in Europe will now listen to the Brits?)
> No national museum within Europe will be telling European landowners that metal detecting is  “citizen archaeology”
> In Europe there won’t be hundreds of legal, unregulated mass digs followed by boastful videos belting out the  lyric “We do not fear what lies beneath, We can never dig too deep!“

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More Heritage Journal views on artefact collecting

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