Everyone failed Isabella Purves

Dear All

Here is a tragic case which shows how bad society and how it is run has become.

The badly decomposed remains of an 89-year-old woman were discovered in her flat five years after she died.

Five years is an incredibly long time to have lain undiscovered and where were social services?

Why didn’t her neighbours notice she wasn’t about?

Isabella Purves' body was found after a neighbour noticed water dripping through a ceiling of her tenement flat and reported it to the local council. Police Officers forced their way into her flat, making a gruesome discovery.

Today people are speaking of the horror of Miss Purves plight and point this out as a glaring example of the country's fractured society.

The sad fact is that society failed Isabella dreadfully and lessons have to be learned by social services.

When I first moved to my present address the eldery neighbours were the first to welcome me. My next door neighbour was a fantastic wee woman and it was a shock when I discovered she had cancer but despite this she always put on a brave face and smile.

Despite asking if she needed help she would always decline but when I came home; she would always open her door and chat to me. It made me feel like I had a proper neighbour; she was a wonderful person.

The way society has been developed is ridiculous and politicians have played a big part in dragging it down.

There needs to be a return to what people everywhere recognise as community.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University