Desecrating war memorials offends against everything we hold dear But they are vulnerable. The Lydford cross, made of granite, would be a job to move; you would need a crane. But many others have metal parts - perhaps sculptures, as with, to take other Devon examples, Ilfracombe and Totnes. Across the country, the returning soldiers of the Cambridge war memorial, sculpted by the Canadian military doctor R Tait McKenzie; Holborn's Royal Fusilier by Albert Toft, who came from a family of Staffordshire ceramic artists and first trained with Wedgwood; or the great figures by Charles Sargeant Jagger, an ancestor of Mick Jagger as it happens, on the Royal Artillery Memorial and elsewhere, are a gallery of early 20th century sculpture, whose loss would be as great as the Henry Moores that have also been stolen - although how it is possible to lift a Henry Moore beggars belief. Thank goodness, a politician has woken up to the enormity. Richard Ottaway has tabled a Private Member's Bill which reaches its report stage today. It may not pass down a mandatory death sentence on the lowlives who spit on our most hallowed shrines, but it will make it more difficult to get a metal dealer's licence, while making it easier for the authorities to revoke them. It has stung the Government into action. Home Office minister Jeremy Browne, speaking at a war memorial that was damaged by thieves in Erith, Kent, announced his own Scrap Metal Dealers Bill, one of whose reforms will be to stop traders from doing deals in cash. It is a subject which brings out stereotypes. Many people assume the perpetrators of these crimes are gipsies. Like the present legislation, which dates from the 1960s, this perception is out of date. The value of metals has risen to the point that they are targeted by a wide range of thieves, some of them from Eastern Europe. Already it helps that the police have directed resources to the problem. The War Memorials Trust, which advises on protection, says that crimes have fallen significantly over the past year. Even so, metal thefts are running at a rate of 1,000 a week. It is not only memorials that are at risk. Churches, too, have from time immemorial been subject to the theft of lead roofs. This is a miserable crime, whose fruits, in terms of the cash received for stolen metal, are nothing in comparison to the damage wrought on ancient buildings that are left open to the elements. The first a congregation may know about this crime is when water pours through the ceiling. The specialist insurer Ecclesiastical Insurance is running a "Hands Off Our Church Roofs" campaign. It reckons that seven churches fall victim a day. Roof alarms are one option, but as ever in the countryside, difficult in hamlets, where the nearest police presence may be miles away. A few years ago, I saw a man hammering a notice to a church door. He was not Martin Luther. It was a poster to alert potential malefactors that the drainpipes had been coated in anti-theft paint. They had, he told me, just suffered yet another theft of roofing material, even though they had specially put down the wrong sort of lead. The problem will only fall when scrap metal transactions are made transparent. Farmers have to provide documentation so that meat can be traced through the food chain. The same thing will happen - too late - to trees. For too long, we have accepted that a degree of dodginess is integral to the scrap metal business. Society must protect itself, and insist on the traceability that is expected elsewhere. We should be grateful, perhaps, for one thing. The spate of thefts, which appears to be increasing, reflects the rise of commodity prices. If prices are up, the economy, somewhere around the globe, is still booming. Perhaps eventually we'll bask in the glow. In the meantime, good luck to Mr Ottaway and his campaign. Just bump up the sentences a bit. Hang the miserable wretches who are responsible for these vilest of crimes from the lampposts - assuming the lampposts haven't been stolen first. Clive Aslet is editor at large of 'Country Life. His new book 'War Memorial" is published by Viking