We tend to be a bit squeamish about death. Some cultures see it as a rite of passage, and perhaps feel less scared of the Reaper.
Perhaps we ought to have a healthier attitude to death here in the West, and be able to cope with it better than we do.
Be that as it may, this week, the UK’s High Court will hear a case in which a Hindu is claiming the right to cremate a body in the open air. He was denied this in 2006 by his local council, Newcastle, but is now mounting a legal challenge.
One assumes the body he hoped to consign to the conflagration has now been dealt with in some other way, but I guess he wants to establish a principle.
Open-air funeral pyres have been illegal in the UK since 1930, and a (London) Times leading article says this should remain the case.
Whatever the views of other cultures, this is Britain, with British culture, and we’re just not used to that type of thing. So I go along with the Times leader writer.
Not to mention Mrs Bloggs’s washing, hanging out on the line and getting spotted as the lighter bits of dear old charred Mr Gupta are scattered to the four winds.
