Medal With Bar

His Majesty's Government has intervened to prevent the export of a medal awarded to Ernest Shackleton, the polar explorer whose name remains almost on a par with that of Robert Falcon Scott despite Shackleton's comparative lack of Britishness and heroic fatality. The medal is the last of Shackleton's remaining in the country, so the Minister for Non-Degenerate Art and Ruritanian Rah-rah was forced into a temporary adjustment of market forces which might have allowed it to be expatriated. It is valued at £1.8 million including VAT and may still end up in greasy foreign paws if a buyer from the master race cannot be found. Although the Minister burbled that the medal should be saved to inspire future Lords Parkinson of Whitley Bay, the state religion forbids any thought that the Government might spare some small change from its tax cuts and wog disposal for the sake of mere historical sentiment.