Mega-mortuary creaks open its doors in Westminster
CharleyBoy
just what they deserve #
Posted Thursday 20th March 2008 10:17 GMT
"– and give victims the justice they deserve"
Hmm, Slice and Dice by the Government - just what people deserve. They shouldn't have been so negligent as to be involved in a crime in the first place.
Craig Edwards
death house #
Posted Thursday 20th March 2008 10:17 GMT

i, for one, welcome our new death house overlords... :-)
David Rollinson
Good value #
Posted Thursday 20th March 2008 10:17 GMT

I wouldn't have though £780,000 would get you a one-bedroom flat in Westminster.
4.1.3_U1
Price? #
Posted Thursday 20th March 2008 10:17 GMT

Does seem a bit of a bargain in terms of govt. spending - 102 slots for under a mill. Or is it missing a couple of zeroes?
Mine's the blood spattered one with the scalpel in the pocket.
Gerhardt
"The still-breathing Jacqui Smith"... #
Posted Thursday 20th March 2008 10:17 GMT

Ah-hahahaha. That is all I have to say.
dervheid
Why 102? #
Posted Thursday 20th March 2008 10:17 GMT

Peculiar number!
Sure there's a very good (plausible) reason for this?
Isn't there?
Anonymous Coward
"...and gunned-down TV celeb Jill Dando" #
Posted Thursday 20th March 2008 10:17 GMT
James
Great writing! #
Posted Thursday 20th March 2008 10:17 GMT

"we shan't just be stacked like floppy firewood " - that made me laugh this morning
Ben Bradley
Only £783,000? #
Posted Thursday 20th March 2008 10:17 GMT

That actually seems pretty cheap for something gov.uk has initiated?
Whether it's any use? I don't know - I can only assume so.
I still have the feeling our cops are still WAY behind the yanks in all this CSI stuff.
milan
780k? #
Posted Thursday 20th March 2008 10:17 GMT
Either this was one of the very few value for money projects the government have come up with or there are a couple of 0's missing.
Eponymous Cowherd
A mortuary in Westminster? #
Posted Thursday 20th March 2008 10:18 GMT

That'd be the House of Lords, wouldn't it?
spiny norman
Mr Dead #
Posted Thursday 20th March 2008 10:18 GMT

I bet they got this second-hand from CSI.
Anonymous Coward
Murder Central #
Posted Thursday 20th March 2008 10:18 GMT

Good Lord! How many murders-per-day do you people have over there?
You didn't mention how many pathologists will be lurking there. 50? 20? 10? Or is this really just a big freezer unit to hold victims until one of the 2 employees can get around to them?
The skull and crossbones because... well, bones, obviously.
Mike Richards
Other purpose #
Posted Thursday 20th March 2008 11:45 GMT
It could be used to store a large number of New Labour's backbench zombie army within easy lurching distance of Parliament for when they're needed to vote through a particularly gruesome piece of lorranorder legislation.
Senor Beavis
Free autopsy #
Posted Thursday 20th March 2008 11:45 GMT

I recall a story of an eminent forensic who used to say to rookie cops during their first attendance at a post-mortem examination that anyone found horizontal would be treated to a free autopsy...
Mike Smith
Freudian slip? #
Posted Thursday 20th March 2008 11:45 GMT

"by maximising forensic technological advances to find and punish criminals – and give victims the justice they deserve," Smith proclaimed"
What's missing from that sentence?
Yep. One tiresome obstruction.
We have to try them and convict them before we can punish them. Mind you, with Benito Blair's legacy still in power, I wouldn't be remotely surprised to see the independent judiciary's days numbered...
Anonymous Coward
Re: Why 102? #
Posted Thursday 20th March 2008 11:45 GMT

On the TV show CSI, they stack the bodies 3-high in the fridges.
Some bureaucrat probably specified 100 as a nice round number. But that doesn't divide by 3. 102 (or 99) does. So I guess the designer rounded it up.
Disclaimer: All my knowledge of mortuaries was gained from watching CSI, NCIS, and Tru Calling.
George
Thats because Ben... #
Posted Thursday 20th March 2008 11:45 GMT

CSI isn't actually real. I don't what we're like in real life.
Anyway who cares about justice in the US...all the cops have guns, you don't need forensics!
The skull? Need I say?
Anonymous Coward
Jacakass-in-office #
Posted Thursday 20th March 2008 11:45 GMT

We have a Home Secretary who plainly doesn't know what "forensic" means: pertaining to a court or the courts. Why's that not a surprise?
Anonymous Coward
People! #
Posted Thursday 20th March 2008 11:45 GMT

Soylent Green is PEOPLE!
Anonymous Coward
Not Just a load of dead bodies. #
Posted Thursday 20th March 2008 11:45 GMT

If this is the Mortuary in Lisson Grove, I remember it being written up when it was built and what impressed me was the Septic Shower suite for cleaning infested Gentlemen of The Road - all that stainless steel - so Hi-Tech !!
Gavin Jamie
102 capacity #
Posted Thursday 20th March 2008 12:11 GMT

The fridges probably stack 3 high. Probably a toss up between 102 and 99.
102 probably isn't that huge depending on how much of London they are planning to cover.
Still they can always use a refrigerated container in the car park as hospitals occasionally do at time of crisis. Apparently Sun have a few air conditioned crates going a begging with nice metal racks already installed.
Mine's the lab coat.
Anonymous Coward
Special "Musta been Excited Delirium" room for taser-deaths? #
Posted Thursday 20th March 2008 13:40 GMT

Instructions: List all possible contributing factors EXCEPT the taser shot. Don't mention the taser shot. For god's sake, don't mention the taser shot. In-grown toe nails are a possible contributing factor, but not the taser shot.
ben
Mega? #
Posted Thursday 20th March 2008 13:40 GMT

Hardly - it only holds 102, although hecta-mortuary sounds just weird and kilo-mortuary, although only 1 order of magnitude out, sounds almost right if pronounced Killer...
However if you just mean large mortuary, why not say so?
Mine is the one with PEDANT written across the back
Ted Treen
Multiples #
Posted Thursday 20th March 2008 13:40 GMT

If we get another 5 built - then that would accommodate virtually ALL the inhabitants of the Palace of Westminster...........
Just a thought.........
(but rather a nice one)
Mine's the one with arrows on - or probably soon will be...
Malcolm
Re: Why 102? #
Posted Thursday 20th March 2008 13:40 GMT

Presumably Shelf 101 is reserved for those unfortunate individuals that Big Brother merely wishes to forget about. (with shelf 102 providing overflow capacity - bureaucrats are ever-pragmatic)
Darkside
NOT in Trafalgar Square? #
Posted Thursday 20th March 2008 14:12 GMT

I want you all to know that if I'm machine-gunned by panicky Yank invaders while manning any barricades, I want to be stacked in Trafalgar Square, not hidden from the eyes of the world.
Helicopter, because we'll never see tanks in Trafalgar Square (though only because they'd fall through the streets into the Underground).
Colonel Panic
@MIke Smith #
Posted Thursday 20th March 2008 14:55 GMT
>We have to try them and convict them before we can punish them
Presumtion of innocence ? That is sooooo 90s...
No, you see under the watchful eye Citizen Gordon, you will be issued with an ASBO at birth, together with your identity card. That way, when you breach it, you know where you live. Oh, and just so we know where you are when you're not at home - bend over, we need to fit you with this rectally implanted GPS tracker. Don't worry, if you've done nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear.
Tim Blair
Unemployed #
Posted Thursday 20th March 2008 16:59 GMT

I was going to be a pathologist...
But they say it's a dieing trade...
Tonto Popaduopolos
@ Tim Blair #
Posted Friday 21st March 2008 13:48 GMT

I always wanted to be a lexicographer but my thesaurus got in the way. That is a DYING trade.