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PROGRAMME INFO |
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Intelligent and entertaining conversation about business, money, technology and workplace issues.
Presented by Heather Payton, each programme picks up on trends and returns to stories that have moved out of the headlines. |
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a LifeGem diamond, (©LifeGem) |
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FUNERALS
They say that nothing in life is certain except death and taxes. As you might expect of one of life’s few certainties, the business of death can be very lucrative - the UK funeral market is worth 800 million pounds a year.
Although our vision of funerals runs deep - the hearse, the black clothes, the frock-coated undertaker, the graveside, and preferably some inclement weather to complete the picture - it’s an industry which is facing quite an upheaval.
These days for a start more than seventy percent of us opt for cremation, not burial, a trend started through lack of space after the war and given a nudge by the Pope lifting the ban on cremation for Catholics in the 1960’s.
Huge social changes mean that many of us want non-religious funerals or eco-friendly burials. Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and other groups also want their own funerals.
A continuing shortage of land for burials has brought calls for existing graves to be re-used. However, a recent survey by Cooperative Funeral Care has found that six out of ten of us would not want to share a grave with a stranger.
At present anyone can set up as a funeral director, which raises another issue: should the industry be regulated?
GUESTS
John Weir
funeral director
Annie Kiff-Wood
volunteer for Cruse Bereavement Care
Ibrahim Mogra
Chair of the Mosque and Community Affairs Committee for the Muslim Council of Britain
Lesley Leon
Communications Manager of Dignity
Tim Beresford
General Manager of LifeGem
Co-op Funeral show-room in Walthamstow)
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RELATED LINKS
John Weir
Cruse Bereavement Care
Muslim Council of Britain
Dignity
LifeGem
Co-op Funerals
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