The GFG Blog
2010Jun
Fooneytunes
Charles
Jun
18
4 comments
There are limitations to blogging. If a post looks overlong people won’t read it. So you need to stick to a single line of argument; you haven’t space to expand or balance. Once you’ve written it you must strip it down, starting with the best bits. As you contemplate clicking
Sad ha ha
Charles
Jun
17
5 comments
Throughout Funeralland, bothered undertakers, exasperated priests, weathervane secular celebrants, opportunistic accessorisers and furrow-browed academics are inserting their fingers into their mouths, holding them aloft, seeking to determine where the wind of change is blowing from. Funeral consumers give them little to go on. They don’t talk about funerals until they
Sods’ law
Charles
Jun
16
3 comments
The funeral industry is right to be wary of those who claim to scrutinise it on behalf of consumers. After all, Jessica Mitford did much injury to the American funeral industry with an exposé which held it up to ridicule and focussed on price at the expense of value, and
Vile and baseless rumours
Charles
Jun
15
No Comments
Yesterday I reported that rumours are swirling in Funeralland concerning the response of the People’s Undertaker to the release of the IPSOS-Mori funeral price comparison commissioned by the independent funeral directors’ trade association, SAIF — a survey which revealed Co-op charges to be, on average, higher than those in the
Memorial of a concentration camp
Charles
Jun
15
1 comment
From the Nameless Dead blog: A 10-meter magnolia tree is planted in the center of Chile’s National Stadium where dictator Pinochet in 1973 imprisoned thousands of political prisoners who were tortured and killed. After planting the tree, the stadium doors are open to the public as a park; offering a
All Greek to them
Charles
Jun
15
No Comments
If you are one of many who has incredulously endured a funeral conducted by a minister of religion for a dead person of known no faith, spare a thought for the people of Belgium, where the language feud (Dutch vs French) means that if you’re a French speaker in a
The Grim Stopper
Charles
Jun
15
No Comments
England’s World Cup 1-1 draw against USA was brought about by the butterfingered England goalkeeper Robert Green. By way of neat symmetry, it’s worth recalling that when the USA achieved a shock win over England at the 1950 World Cup, the star on the day was the USA goalkeeper, Frank
Only in America?
Charles
Jun
14
No Comments
Scheduling a funeral for a loved one is not easy, especially when you can’t afford one. That’s the situation the family of Clementina Michelle Hagin, 34, found themselves in after her death Thursday. On Saturday afternoon, Lynn Sims, Hagin’s pastor at Life Changing Outreach Ministries off Martintown Road in North
Anything in it?
Charles
Jun
14
2 comments
Perhaps the most important recent consumer information to reach the public domain was the SAIF IPSOS-Mori price comparison survey (26 Feb 2010) which showed that “Average funeral directors’ charges are highest for Dignity funeral directors and lowest for independents. Co-operative Funeralcare branches fall between the two.” SAIF wouldn’t share these
Chasing the money
Charles
Jun
14
1 comment
Sometimes a google goosechase can take you to interesting places. Where did I start? I wanted to find out the current average price of a simple funeral. I found a Guardian article which concluded with a tranche of good advice from Anne Wadey, author of the Which? publication What To
