Bodies of the dead not being buried in echo of Winter of Discontent as effects of credit crunch spread across Britain

The spectre of the Winter of Discontent threatened to return to haunt Labour last night after funeral directors revealed that the burial of 'hundreds' of bodies is being delayed for financial reasons.

In a bleak new sign of the growing economic crisis, hard-up families are having to wait more than two months before receiving Government money for funerals.

Organisations representing undertakers accused the Government of putting them in an 'impossible' position by dragging their feet over burial costs for poor families.
Previously, undertakers would pay for the cost of funerals and wait to be reimbursed by the State, but the lack of credit in the banking system means many firms can no longer afford to do so.

The row has ominous echoes of the Winter of Discontent in the dying days of the last Labour Government 30 years ago, when economic problems led to rubbish piling up in the streets and bodies lying unburied - symbols of political failure that did lasting damage to the party.

REST HERE

Tarn Lass