11th March 2011, 12:39 PM
I agree that there wasn't a 'goose' as such. Then again, there rarely actually is in any industry or sector, at least not for anything more than a fleeting moment. A durable and long lasting 'goose' probably means someone is getting ripped-off (I can't stop thinking of rubber chickens now). The reference to 'the goose' suggests that aggregate extractors probably feel like they ARE getting ripped off, which means that they don't see the value in funding archaeology.
We may or may not agree with them (I suspect/hope we disagree with them, but still). The point is that if they are seeing things this way, we need to pay attention to it and recognise that if they start to pull down the commercial shutters on archaeology by whatever means, we are going to lose even more money, jobs, security and everything else that we work for. Not only that, but if one part of the construction and development industry takes a lead, others are fairly likely to follow.
We may or may not agree with them (I suspect/hope we disagree with them, but still). The point is that if they are seeing things this way, we need to pay attention to it and recognise that if they start to pull down the commercial shutters on archaeology by whatever means, we are going to lose even more money, jobs, security and everything else that we work for. Not only that, but if one part of the construction and development industry takes a lead, others are fairly likely to follow.