Your Ruins Are Safe With Us

Someone has apparently informed the Minister for Cultchah that history can be a commodity, too. After only sixty years of making excuses, Britain is to ratify the 1954 Hague Convention, which was set up to protect archaeological, historical and cultural artefacts in wartime. Various little problems have prevented our doing so thus far, such as lack of parliamentary time (translation: MPs have been too busy expressing their unstinting patriotic support for the next bit of wog-bombing) and a supposed risk that Britain might be asked to return some stolen property. There is nothing in the 1954 Hague Convention which would bind the Government to give back the Parthenon Marbles, but these international obligations are often slippery slopes. One moment you're signing up to stop foreigners waging aggressive wars, and then suddenly it turns out that the foreigners believe those same rules apply to you. Anyway, although the Government will continue to exercise itself about the human cost of the more horrific and less business-friendly conflicts, efforts will henceforth also be made to preserve any merchandise and real estate which can be said to form part of the heritage market.