The GFG Blog
2014Jul
About time too?
Charles
Jul
04
No Comments
Lord Bonomy’s exasperation with the NHS, cremation authorities and funeral directors, whose ill-informed advice and guidance led so many thousands of parents of babies who had died to suppose that there would be no ashes after cremation, caused him to recommend the establishment of an inspectorate of crematoria: Scottish Ministers should appoint an
Tim Morris of the ICCM on the baby ashes scandal
Charles
Jul
03
No Comments
We are pleased this morning to publish the responses of Tim Morris, Chief Executive of the Institute of Cemetery and Crematorium Management to four questions we emailed him last weekend concerning the recommendations of the Bonomy Report which was set up in the aftermath of the Mortonhall Investigation Report. We are extremely
All that remains
Charles
Jul
01
No Comments
There is no legal definition of ashes. Perhaps you prefer to call them ‘cremated remains’. Or ‘tangible remains’. Or even ‘total recoverable remains’. Selecting just one term and assigning an exact definition to it was one of the jobs Lord Bonomy set himself in his report. The fact that there
2014Jun
Baby ashes scandal: responses to Bonomy
Charles
Jun
30
No Comments
The Bonomy report lays bare the reasons why some crematoria have been able and willing to recover ashes from infant cremations and others haven’t. Given the enduring and agonising distress and uncertainty this has caused to an uncountable number of parents, it can only be a matter of time before the
The science of what works
Charles
Jun
28
1 comment
We’re the last people to gloat over the mortal remains of the Funeral Business Innovation Show, slated to happen at Olympia in November this year. The organisers recently wrote to those who signed up to it: The event was designed to benefit the funeral industry in a big way, at
Cremating all over the world
Charles
Jun
19
No Comments
By Dr Clive T Chamberlain: The cremation culture and equipment used in the UK is not the only way to dispose of human remains, although cremation in the rest of Europe is similar – driven as it is by a commonality of environmental regulation. The cremators used, and the legislation
Mother of all swear words
Charles
Jun
18
5 comments
Posted by Wendy Coulton Recently I had a dilemma in that a funeral I was planning and conducting was for someone who was known among their close friends for using the expletive C*** (C U Next Tuesday) with affection and as a genuine term of endearment. I winced when I heard
A day of reckoning for our crematoria?
Charles
Jun
17
3 comments
The Bonomy report is published today in Scotland. Its 64 recommendations will address cremation practice in that country and, by extension, throughout Britain. They will impact the NHS, funeral directors and cremation authorities, especially the ICCM and the FBCA. Shockwaves are expected. Lord Bonomy’s brief was to “examine the policies,
It’s all aboard for the Ideal Death Show
Charles
Jun
16
No Comments
First off, we think we’ve got the name right at last. The Ideal Death Show. It’s sufficiently edgy to be eyecatching without outraging some of our supporters. We’ve got the right location. Brum. Big city. Easy for you to get to. We’ve got brilliant community contacts to advertise the event
“It’ll save you the bother when I’m dead.”
Charles
Jun
15
3 comments
Jeremy Clarkson, writing in the Sunday Times about the death of his Mum: Right in the middle of all that brouhaha about sloping bridges and Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe, my mum died. So there I was, in Russia, in the middle of a Top Gear tour, trying to organise her
