5th March 2005, 02:41 PM
Invisible- As you have written extensively on the subject, how would you feel about writing something for the public? An open appraisal of the way things are is well overdue. Much of the diatribe here is inspired by a clearly bent, skewed, hypocritical, arrogant and profit-motivated system.The new IFA moves are openly designed to "silence the critics" and no more. Unfortunately, the "critics" in this case are those in the profession. The IFA have silenced us for 20 years and, largely due to a pandemic fear of legal implications, the system survives intact.Clever is`nt it? It`s bad enough that the results of commercial archaeology are lining the shelves of SMRs around the country written in archaeo-speak. Deny the public (and academic archaeologists) open and clear access to the results of commercial endeavour and, ignorance en masse, becomes the systems greatest asset.Those responsible for the crisis in British archaeology can rest assured that the mass of professionals will say nothing and that the public are blissfully ignorant.