Totally agree with all that George. Saves me ranting.

Yes, it's a huge issue, that we hardly notice.

Some additional random facts -

Most scheduled sites have been nighthawked. Many lots of times.

The vast majority of sites aren't scheduled. It is a legal and entirely normal detecting practice to seek them out and detect on them. The archaeological establishment and PAS never suggest this is other than perfectly OK.

Detectorists spend far more time looking for crop marks and using aerial photos and the MAGIC map than people here do. See their forums for proof. They know all about TMA, Meg Portal and all the rest.

Tomorrow, up to 10,000 of them will be out detecting on non-scheduled sites. 80% of those tell no-one what they've found.

A large proportion of them collect flints. Again, see their forums for proof.

"Make all buried historic artefacts older than 1,000 years property of the crown."
Absobloodylutely! Why the hell not? Fixed in a jiffy.