Domenica Lawson, daughter of Rosa and Dominic, the former editor of this paper, has Down’s syndrome. She is classified as ‘extremely clinically vulnerable’ to Covid and has therefore been living with her parents since October. When Rosa was briefly not around to interpret last week, Domenica opened a letter to herself from the NHS: ‘You are considered to be at highest risk of becoming very unwell… you are someone with Down’s syndrome, and so the government now considers you to be in the highest risk category.’ This shocked Domenica. ‘I have spent the last year trying to protect her from the worst of the news and now she is more scared than ever,’ Rosa tells me. The problem arises from the Mental Capacity Act 2005, which assumes capacity until proved otherwise. Domenica is an adult, so her parents have no legal right to filter her communications. Rosa agrees that many adults with Down’s syndrome are capable of handling such information, but many aren’t. She has done good repair work by explaining to Domenica that the letter means she is getting extra care. But surely the law could change to reflect the reality for hundreds of thousands of such adults? Its current state produces unintended cruelty.
‘Abraham and the Angels’ is a great, though small, painting by Rembrandt. I happened to meet its co-owner, Dr Alfred Bader, roughly when he bought it in 2005 for $5 million. He loved economy: I gather that he travelled with it in a bag on the Tube. It is now valued at £22 million. Bader was a remarkable man. A Czech Jew, he escaped to Britain on the kindertransport from Vienna in 1938. Unfortunately, he fell into the unjust category of ‘enemy alien’ during the war, and was sent to an internment camp in Canada.
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