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Elaine McDonald

It is reported that Elaine McDonald has died.  She was by all accounts an extraordinary person and I hope she is remembered for this and her brilliance as a ballerina.  I did not know her personally, but sadly her name will forever be linked in my mind with injustice, indignity and indifference.

Rhydian Fôn James wrote a brilliant letter to BASW concerning her dreadful Supreme Court judgment and its likely implications, and sadly his fears have proved to be correct.  I (like many others) simply managed to write an angry paper about  it.  Elaine’s case was a litmus test: a measure of how civilised a society we really are. It is a test that the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea and our judicial system failed.

For a wonderful tribute to Elaine McDonald see Ally Writes blog Fragments from a Half Life ‘Our Butterfly Has Flown’- click here.

Luke Clements

 

Image ‘Wild Garlick’ photograph by Dr Martin Elliot Research Development Office at the Wales School of Social Care Research and landscape photographer