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