Archive for February, 2014

An 89-year-old ex-politician, whose extraordinary life embraced many of the moral and ideological battles of the 20th Century before she was stricken by dementia, has triumphed in her landmark legal fight to return to her home of 60 years from the nursing home where she was being detained against her will. Lifelong feminist and campaigner for women’s rights Manuela Sykes, whom the Court of Protection unusually allowed to be named in reports of the case, was described as ‘ever a fighter’ who had served as a Wren in the Fleet Air Arm before standing for Parliament and editing a trade union newspaper for 40 years. Always in the public eye, she had devoted much of her life to helping the needy, including dementia sufferers. Because of her declining mental condition, however, she had been ‘deprived of her liberty’ at the behest ... Read more