The cockles of The Scrapbook’s reactionary heart were warmed this past week by some news from England. On second thought, make that our “traditional” heart; but the news was still good.
For nearly as long as laws have been made and recorded in England, they have been written or printed on vellum, a heavy, highly durable, and nearly indestructible parchment made from calfskin. All acts of Parliament are printed on vellum—as are many Torah scrolls, commemorative volumes, and diplomas. Part of the reason the actual Domesday Book (1086) and Magna Carta (1215), for example, can still be seen and read is because they were written on vellum.
As might be expected, vellum is not cheap, and there is only one firm left in England that manufactures it. Accordingly, it was announced in February that, beginning in April, the laws of England would no longer be recorded on vellum but on “high-quality” archival paper, at an annual savings to British taxpayers of approximately $113,000. Archival paper is, indeed, of high quality, and designed to last about 500 years. But a mere half-millennium still falls well short of vellum’s lifespan, and there is no comparison between bland archival paper and vellum’s historic elegance.
This being England, once the House of Lords announced the end of the vellum era, there was an immediate and vociferous public outcry against the prospect, including from members of Parliament. Which, in turn, prompted Britain’s paymaster general, Matthew Hancock, to move a few budgetary eggshells around and find the money to pay for vellum. The Scrapbook, as might be expected, is ecstatic.
This is not because The Scrapbook is unaware of the source of the funds—the hardworking taxpayers of Great Britain—but because some things in life, including in government, are worth the expense. Governments here and everywhere have a distressing tendency to spend colossal amounts of money to dubious ends while practicing economy where it doesn’t really matter. Nor, for that matter, is The Scrapbook steadfast against change. In this instance, preservation of the history of the world’s oldest democracy is the issue, and the best way to do it happens to be the old way.
