Britain’s death rates for January to July 2015 were 30,000 up on similar figures for 2014 – the highest for a decade. Health analysts are trying to work out why: flu and the cold winter, heat related deaths in June-July? Or the 60 per cent cut in the public health budget since the abolition of the Primary Care Units and the absorption of public health into local authorities with subsequent decimation of health staff?
But you can never keep a good entrepreneur down. Dignity Pallbearers, which claims to be Britain’s largest undertaker, sees the silver lining: pre-tax profits for this period up by 44 per cent to £46.5 million. Capitalism in life and death can be relied upon to turn a profit.