Madeleine Mccann Missing Girl

[Pink Freud]

I just get the feeling that someone is advising them badly now. They must have someone booking them to do things like the Festival, going on the old "all publicity is good publicity" thang.

I don't think that is the case here though. It's not going to achieve anything in what should be their only priority at the moment and that is what is swaying people away from them.

I know what you're saying BA, but it strikes me that the McCanns would have sex live in front of a global audience if they thought it would do any good.

I find it bizarre that people can't see that. What Joe Public thinks of them as people, parents or anything else is, I would imagine, a matter of extreme indifference to them at the moment.

[H_B]

I find it bizarre that people can't see that. What Joe Public thinks of them as people, parents or anything else is, I would imagine, a matter of extreme indifference to them at the moment.

On the contrary - I think it is very important to them, hence their attempts last week in the British broadsheets to repair the damage caused by the media backlash in Portugal.

They have far better chance of controlling and using a compliant media (and therefore public), than one which has turned against them. The only rule of selling newspapers is "what the public wants, the public gets".

[AndyBud]

I just get the feeling that someone is advising them badly now. They must have someone booking them to do things like the Festival, going on the old "all publicity is good publicity" thang.

I don't think that is the case here though. It's not going to achieve anything in what should be their only priority at the moment and that is what is swaying people away from them.

Advising them badly...? Despite being still on the front page of the national news?

Seems like pretty good advice they're taking.

[footiechick]

I think it's incredibly naive to thing they can jusy hop on a plane, come back home, forget about Madeleine and get back to work. Life is never going to be the same for them again and whether that is down to their negilgence or not they are still parents and I can't begin to think of what they must be going through.

No one said they should forget about her, and yes their life will never be the same again. But what good is still being in Portugal doing? The police are investigating it, not the McCann's. I'm sure they would be informed if anything was found.

The twins are never going to have a normal life if Kate & Gerry continue like this. That should be their priority now. Get them home to mix with their extended family and friends children.

[Guest Ron Burgundy]

But Div, be fair. People are getting fed up of having to read this in the papers and watch it on the telly. They've had enough. And what is the suffering of two parents going out of their minds with worry and guilt, and the very, very slim possibility of their child still being alive and still being found, compared to the mental wellbeing of, say, Centralparker and xbl?

Really, enough is enough. This topic is tired. They really ought to show some compassion for the P&B massive and let them get stuck into the next issue that will hold their limited attention span for more than two minutes.

my problem is not with the couple in question but rather with the faux emotional reaction of many individuals.

This is one little girl and the grief her family have is nothing/nada/f**k all/zip/zero to do with anyone apart from them. Those fawning disgust at some posts should perhaps cast their emotional net a little wider than middle class blonde pretty kidnapees and understand that the anger towards this family stems from disgust at the pedestal their situation has been placed on whilst every day children die that could have been saved with a fiver from their ill gotten campaign fund. Thats the tragedy here, our hearts are ruling our heads and our energy is being used to flog a dead horse when their are thousands of children in positions to be helped right now but we find it easier to direct al our faux emotion towards one wee girl. Fucking absurd.

ANYONE who says they understand what they are going through is kidding themself on. What you are doing is recalling personal experiences of guilt, fear and mourning and reconstuting them when you read about this little girl. Ask yourself why, given it is enough to make your stomach churn, you are able to continue with life normally when thousdands of children are starving in Sudan, thousands are homeless in India etc etc etc. Is it simply that this wee girl is better than them?

There is a great deal of self deliusion happening here to assuage guilt and I fully undertand it.

It would be nice perhaps if a small fund was set up to help other children...perhaps a Pie & Bovril based charity to help donate strips/money to less fortunate children because the example of Maddie has enough money/resources etc etc to choke a horse. then instead of all this backbiting sniping and emotional oneupmanship some good may come of the thread.

Even if it was just one wee wean the P&B massive sponsored it is at least equal in ther bigger picture to helping find Maddie.

I'm sorry for the family but this little girl is the new peoples princess and the reaction is just another Diana story. We have already had the arm band, song and vigils.

Misadventure involving pretty white blonde brit abroad = national tragedy and null & voids any criticism.

[vikingTON]

my problem is not with the couple in question but rather with the faux emotional reaction of many individuals.

This is one little girl and the grief her family have is nothing/nada/f**k all/zip/zero to do with anyone apart from them. Those fawning disgust at some posts should perhaps cast their emotional net a little wider than middle class blonde pretty kidnapees and understand that the anger towards this family stems from disgust at the pedestal their situation has been placed on whilst every day children die that could have been saved with a fiver from their ill gotten campaign fund. Thats the tragedy here, our hearts are ruling our heads and our energy is being used to flog a dead horse when their are thousands of children in positions to be helped right now but we find it easier to direct al our faux emotion towards one wee girl. Fucking absurd.

ANYONE who says they understand what they are going through is kidding themself on. What you are doing is recalling personal experiences of guilt, fear and mourning and reconstuting them when you read about this little girl. Ask yourself why, given it is enough to make your stomach churn, you are able to continue with life normally when thousdands of children are starving in Sudan, thousands are homeless in India etc etc etc. Is it simply that this wee girl is better than them?

There is a great deal of self deliusion happening here to assuage guilt and I fully undertand it.

It would be nice perhaps if a small fund was set up to help other children...perhaps a Pie & Bovril based charity to help donate strips/money to less fortunate children because the example of Maddie has enough money/resources etc etc to choke a horse. then instead of all this backbiting sniping and emotional oneupmanship some good may come of the thread.

Even if it was just one wee wean the P&B massive sponsored it is at least equal in ther bigger picture to helping find Maddie.

I'm sorry for the family but this little girl is the new peoples princess and the reaction is just another Diana story. We have already had the arm band, song and vigils.

Misadventure involving pretty white blonde brit abroad = national tragedy and null & voids any criticism.

Round of applause for that speech.

Hits nail right on head.

[H_B]

Round of applause for that speech.

Hits nail right on head.

I thought it was good too.

[Pink Freud]

my problem is not with the couple in question but rather with the faux emotional reaction of many individuals.

This is one little girl and the grief her family have is nothing/nada/f**k all/zip/zero to do with anyone apart from them. Those fawning disgust at some posts should perhaps cast their emotional net a little wider than middle class blonde pretty kidnapees and understand that the anger towards this family stems from disgust at the pedestal their situation has been placed on whilst every day children die that could have been saved with a fiver from their ill gotten campaign fund. Thats the tragedy here, our hearts are ruling our heads and our energy is being used to flog a dead horse when their are thousands of children in positions to be helped right now but we find it easier to direct al our faux emotion towards one wee girl. Fucking absurd.

ANYONE who says they understand what they are going through is kidding themself on. What you are doing is recalling personal experiences of guilt, fear and mourning and reconstuting them when you read about this little girl. Ask yourself why, given it is enough to make your stomach churn, you are able to continue with life normally when thousdands of children are starving in Sudan, thousands are homeless in India etc etc etc. Is it simply that this wee girl is better than them?

There is a great deal of self deliusion happening here to assuage guilt and I fully undertand it.

It would be nice perhaps if a small fund was set up to help other children...perhaps a Pie & Bovril based charity to help donate strips/money to less fortunate children because the example of Maddie has enough money/resources etc etc to choke a horse. then instead of all this backbiting sniping and emotional oneupmanship some good may come of the thread.

Even if it was just one wee wean the P&B massive sponsored it is at least equal in ther bigger picture to helping find Maddie.

I'm sorry for the family but this little girl is the new peoples princess and the reaction is just another Diana story. We have already had the arm band, song and vigils.

Misadventure involving pretty white blonde brit abroad = national tragedy and null & voids any criticism.

Good post, and I agree entirely. But for the torch carrying mob, here's a question: do you think that it is inappropriate that a family who can do what they have done have done what they have done?

I don't think anyone can dispute the issues regarding starving masses, lost children from poorer families etc., but what pisses me off on this thread are the unfounded attacks on two people who are doing their level best to rectify the results of a horrible mistake. It's the fact that they have been so succesfull at maintaining their public profile that appears to be what is annoying so many people on here. Footychick makes the one valid point IMO-how is this affecting their other children. That is a matter for them to address, but the fact that they haven't given up, and are perfectly happy to continue to plaster themselves all over whatever front covers that will have them seems to me to be wholly sensible and admirable, if a little desperate.

This isn't about the McCanns being a special case for me. That is a totally different debate. What I've found so nauseating on this thread is the queue of people basically saying that they deserved it (where Madeleine fits into this I don't know, you'd have to ask the posters) or that they are milking it for cash. Or in one particularly vile instance, that they killed the child themselves.

Their tragedy is no different from thousands of others. What is different is that they have used every single resource at their disposal in order to keep it going, and that they had considerably more resources than most people have. I can't understand why that surprises, infuriates or is questionable to anybody.

[Guest The Phoenix]

ANYONE who says they understand what they are going through is kidding themself on.

I take it you are not a parent then?

I agree that unless you have experienced having a child abducted you can't fully understand what they are going through but most (all?) parents can personally relate to a child going missing for a period of time (i.e. not returning home when they were supposed to).

Trust me that sinking feeling kicks in very soon after the ETA and increases by the minute.

Multiply that up to hours, days, weeks and months and I think it's pretty easy to get a pretty good handle on what they are going through.

[vikingTON]

This isn't about the McCanns being a special case for me. That is a totally different debate. What I've found so nauseating on this thread is the queue of people basically saying that they deserved it (where Madeleine fits into this I don't know, you'd have to ask the posters) or that they are milking it for cash. Or in one particularly vile instance, that they killed the child themselves.

Firstly, I don't think they deserve it.

They should, however, have social services onto them for being negligent with their child in the first place, IMO.

Secondly, as much as it may be taboo, the reality shows that family members are frequently the perpetrators in homicides.

It may not be palatable, but no stone can, or should, be left unturned.

[H_B]

I agree that unless you have experienced having a child abducted you can't fully understand what they are going through but most (all?) parents can personally relate to a child going missing for a period of time (i.e. not returning home when they were supposed to).

That's bollocks though - to appropriate some sense of "special" understanding because you have children yourself.

Almost everyone who is here will have nieces, nephews, little brothers and sisters etc. and are therefore well capable of empathising with the loss of a loved one in this situation.

[Musketeer Gripweed]

Advising them badly...? Despite being still on the front page of the national news?

Seems like pretty good advice they're taking.

Thats the thing though. They are on the front pages now, not the lassie.

People are starting to think more about the parents and their behaviour than the search for the kid. That has become something of a side issue now.

[Guest The Phoenix]

That's bollocks though - to appropriate some sense of "special" understanding because you have children yourself.

Almost everyone who is here will have nieces, nephews, little brothers and sisters etc. and are therefore well capable of empathising with the loss of a loved one in this situation.

Where did I say "special"?

That said there is no stronger bond than that between a parent and child.

If you are not a parent you cannot relate to that.

[H_B]

Where did I say "special"?

That said there is no stronger bond than that between a parent and child.

If you are not a parent you cannot relate to that.

There you go again. And that is utter rubbish.

There are terrible parents out there - absolutely awful, who have no empathy with their children at all, and whose children absolutely despise them. To try and create such a bond through accident of birth is laughable.

[Guest The Phoenix]

There you go again. And that is utter rubbish.

There are terrible parents out there - absolutely awful, who have no empathy with their children at all, and whose children absolutely despise them. To try and create such a bond through accident of birth is laughable.

Sorry but (as you well know ) I was speaking generically about being a parent.

Everyone knows that there are bad apples in every barrell.

[Pink Freud]

Firstly, I don't think they deserve it.

I didn't say, or even imply, that you did. We've been here before.

They should, however, have social services onto them for being negligent with their child in the first place, IMO.

And there we agree in principle. However, given the circumstances it would be a bit like giving two of the belt after a 6 year term.

Secondly, as much as it may be taboo, the reality shows that family members are frequently the perpetrators in homicides.

It may not be palatable, but no stone can, or should, be left unturned.

And again, I agree. However, there were people on this thread who stated categorically that the parents did it. It was justice by hearsay and statistics VT. They should be very, very ashamed of themselves.

[AndyBud]

Thats the thing though. They are on the front pages now, not the lassie.

People are starting to think more about the parents and their behaviour than the search for the kid. That has become something of a side issue now.

Either way, whether its the parents as the focus of the article/TV slot, or the little girl, they are both instantly linked. They're keeping the search for her in the headlines, which is their main aim.

I would disagree that the search for her has become a side issue.

[vikingTON]

I didn't say, or even imply, that you did. We've been here before.

Just clearing it up.

[flogelsleftpeg]

I think there have been many intelligent points made by the so called "torch burners" just because they are parents and no one knows what they are going through does not mean that they should not have questions asked of them.

[Savage Henry]

I think there have been many intelligent points made by the so called "torch burners" just because they are parents and no one knows what they are going through does not mean that they should not have questions asked of them.

Who was that daft English backpacker whose boyfriend got killed in mighty suspicious circumstances in Australia a few years ago? She seemed to think she was above and beyond any form of interregation or scrutiny. There does seem to be something of a similarity in the two cases.