A £10,000-a-table charity fundraiser – and a very civilised picket line. Familes fight Scope over plans to close homes for severely disabled.
On 1st December, Rosa Monckton and 86-year-old family carer Frank Lindsell took the campaign against care home closures ‘to the streets’ – or more exactly to the entrance hall of the Guildhall in the City of London. To avoid premature ‘eviction’ Rosa and Frank behaved with appropriate decorum, but still managed to distribute leaflets and ‘button-hole’ guests at the £10,000-a-table event, such as Sir Jackie Stewart.
The protest, and the behaviour and words of Scope’s corporate representatives, were recorded by two journalists from the Independent, James Cusack and Marcela Kunova, who published a feature article on ‘a very civilised picket line’ in the following day’s Independent and ‘i’. Please read this article for your further enlightenment – and amusement.
Rescare recognises that there are degrees of learning disability, but also that some are so severely disabled that they cannot ‘choose’ where to live, and cannot live ‘independently’.
The Independent article concludes with Frank Lindsell’s words to Scope’s Director of Services (about his severely disabled daughter, Claire) “I only want what’s best for my daughter, not for Scope,” he says. “Is that too much?… How does a person like Claire live independently? Would you tell me? How?”