9th November 2013, 05:02 PM
P Prentice Wrote:when i said research i was of course referring to the product of our labours, the report on the work that attempts to explain the implications of what was found. it is research if done correctly. it is what archaeologists do - or at least contribute to and be recognised for that contribution. and you may well say that producing some of the data is as important - i would not disagree, but i dont think the majority of diggers at the start of their career, dreamed they would still be digging at the end - particularly those that hope to remain til retirement. most people who start drop out because they dont get enough back considering what they have to put in. this is not acceptable and should not be tolerated. but it is and it is our own fault. many in positions like mine spent 10 or 20+ years digging and know exactly what it is like - we are not another species and we worked hard to get where we wanted to be to do the work that we want to do.
your second point is decidedly ukip
By its nature, this business is always going to be bottom-heavy. It takes a lot more people to dig a site than it does to write the report on it. There is never going to be the positions where the pen is used more than the trowel to account for everyone who starts in the business.
But you do raise an interesting point. The task of the digger is often incredibly physically demanding both in terms of the work itself and the conditions in which it is done. It takes its toll. Is there a simple solution to this? Higher pay might help, but all the money in the world doesn't fix a knackered body.
So you think the concept that a body supposedly representative of an entire and diverse industry should be appealing to, and representative of, a large percentage of its employees is a bit UKIP do you? Now that is the funniest thing I've heard today! Well it would be funny if it didn't represent the very real situation where the body that is supposedly representative of an entire and diverse industry seems content to alienate a whole segment of that industry's employees. A dictatorial irrelevance seems even more apt... Me? UKIP? That's going to keep me chuckling for a good few hours!