Looting Iraq, Looting Mali and Metal Detecting

Nigel Swift of Heritage Action points out to me "Your piece on Mali happens to correspond exactly with the 9th anniversary of this: 'Six years ago in Iraq…' (09/04/2009)". He adds that: "Needless to say, Iraq at that time wasn't in a position to have "taken measures [...] to protect its cultural patrimony” so probably some would say got what it deserved!". Well, Britain is not taking decisive measures to protect its archaeological heritage from looting by metal detectorists, so the British public deserve to lose the lot, but what about future generations, shall the sins of the fathers be forgiven by them?