your own actions

[curlyperm]

just reading stokeaces post regarding these parents meeting with the pope, i have stayed away from the posts about this little girl, cos no matter what your opinions are, someone will take offence, but .. watching the news last night and the last few weeks made me think that somehow its always easier to blame someone else when something goes wrong? The fella in Cyprus who rented out a jet-ski to 16 year old kids, and then the fatal accident that occurred where he collided with his girlfriend and killed her.....well how does THAT make it the jet-ski owners fault? ok he should have asked for ID BUT also they should NOT have rented the jet-skis, and the girl murdered by the japanese student.... well millions of youngsters go travelling the world and are OK, why was she in his apartment with him alone?? bit risky to say the least, now her parents are blaming his father, yes i know these are terrible tradgedies and should not happen BUT they do and sometimes you have to take responsibility for your own actions, these are my opinions and i am entitled to them so dont bother having a go cos i'll only have a go back, i am one of the minority i expect -that whilst hoping that this little girl gets found safe! that her parents were to blame for what has occurred, and no-one else, YES we should be able to leave our children unattended but the fact is we cant, and IF WE CHOOSE TO, then we have to suffer the consequences, blaming the Portugese police for being too slow is not the way to go, i am not being heartless here, we have had many holidays with little miss CP, and taken it in turns to go off and eat rather than leave her, not great fun i know but having kids is the decision you make! in the paper last week centre pages and photos of 30 kiddies missing for months and not a single mention? why is this one so different?

[Reverandfunk]

Curly - If I could get odds on it I would bet on their being a book/Martin Bashir type programme.

[cascarelli]

God yes, I've had enough of this too.........the video played at the cup final, the web site, the European tour, audience with the pope. They're acting like celebrities.

Blaming someone else (the Portuguese police) just seems par for the course these days.

[Reverandfunk]

Expect the greatest hits album soon....

[sp1814]

Something this case highlights is that with increased availability to news sources and information site, the court of public opinion now changes it's mind incredibly quickly.

Has anyone else clocked how it's now the public who seem in control of the snowball effect.

A few recent examples - the Royal Navy personnel who were captured by Iran.

One minute it was 'Bring Back Our Navy Heroes', then all of as sudden the whole country turned against them.

Big Brother/Shilpa Shetty - suddenly the whole country had an opinion on it...

And now the McGanns.

Courting the public can be a very dangerous thing. We're a fickle bunch.

[curlyperm]

SP aint that the truth!!! oh how we love to have a pop at people (myself included) there but for the grace of god tho eh?? it appears that they might OVER publicise themselves to the point where people think 'Oh christ not again......... we shall see x

[NJOK]

I bet you they don't give a toss what the public think - as long as people are still talking about the story.

They just want their daughter back and as long as she's still on the news agenda, that's fine by them.

I'd be exactly the same in their shoes.

[alijangra]

Regarding the trip to see the Pope...

"We have mixed emotions about being here," Gerry McCann told reporters.

"Under normal circumstances it would be one of the most exciting things we could do in our own lifetime, but very much on our minds is the fact that we're here without Madeleine."

I find this comment very odd. Mixed emotions?? I cant believe the word 'exciting' came out of his mouth.

[gina32]

on the pope thing, anyone can have an audience with the pope but the front row is usually only for dignatry, all seems to be a bit of a circus, i truly hope she is found fit and well very very soon, people are going on that the police over therer are not doing anything but they work differently to the uk police as in that when they have info they dont blab about it thus making it so the criminal doesnt think they know anything and therefore, hopefully, get caught quicker unlike our police who mention every last detail, i dont know which is the best.

[stokeace]

so theyve had their meeting now the pope kissed little maddys picture and he is praying for them......so if there is a god and he is listening to the prayers being said from his second in command we can expect the little one to be returned back to her family soon....................dont hold your breath for some kind of divine intervention but i do wish they could find her.

[Pink-Fizz]

I still find it bizarre that the mother , on finding Maddie missing, says that her first thought was instantly that she had been abducted, even though the patio doors were unlocked and the child could have easily slid them open and wandered out. For all we know she could have fallen somewhere and still be there, though sadly not alive. Or got lost , curled under a bush to sleep and , well the rest goes without saying....

[matt66]

when was maddy last seen

who last saw her and at what time

were the children sedated to help the parents go out regularly while on holiday

was there any evidence of childrens drugs on the premises in Portugal. Could there have been an overdose.

why did Mr McCann come home. Was he interviewed. Could he have disposed off drugs that could be used to sedate at home in the Uk

all these questions have to be answered. There is a british child missing. everyone is considered suspect.

thats the only way to proceed.

[prattler]

curlyperm made a good point earlier-what repercussions will this have for their relationship?They appear very controlled when doing the press interviews, but I think the mother is clearly emotionally and physically drained.
another thing -what about the other 7 families in the taverna that night? they disappeared back to the UK pretty fast.they all left their kids(all younger than madeleine) alone that night too.madeleines abduction was a one in a million chance, but when you have kids, you dont tempt fate, do you?all for not 'disturbing' their routine or putting them under the care of 'strangers'?
I cannot for the life of me understand the dad's reasoning for saying he had messages of support from people saying they'd have done the same thing or have done in leaving their kids that way!I for one cant empathise with that point of view and never will and will it make him feel less gulity in the long run? No, but maybe a meeting with the Pope will.....

[cruella]

I agree with your sentiments curlyperm.
From the very beginning, the parents must take responsibility for their actions. They could have taken their children out earlier to eat with them instead of leaving them alone in a strange room in a strange country.
I for one, if I was the little girl's parents would not wished to be photograhed every day either. I would also not hide behind the Catholic Church to get empathy from the Media.
When the little gilr went missing first, it is true what one Newsreader said "Had that been a single parent the public would have ripped that person to shreds".
Once again, they havetaken off to another country, leaving their kids behind again.
Me personally, I would have been out walking the streets or driving around, looking for my Daughter, not sitting in churches or having photographs taken. Also, the last thing I would be doing is making sure I had all my jewellery on too. I would have left no stone unturned until I found my Daughter. Who is to blame? I hope they find their Daughter alive and well, but I would hate to be in their shoes when they do finally have to reurn to this country.

[trakcab]

After the European tour what next support act to the Police reunion tour of the USA?

[Neilzulu1]

It is so easy for you as an outsider to throw the first stone. Simple fact is, if we were rid of these people who kidnap ( and do terrible things to kids ), this would not have happened in the first place.

[trakcab]

The fact is that IF they'd not left her alone she'd still be with them

[topkapi]

I am amazed that the other two children have not been sent home to family members leaving these 'distraught' parents to scour the area, putting up posters and asking questions. They appear to have sat on their backsides and are letting everyone else do the work. It's a pity the mother didn't hang on to her child the way she hangs on to that toy. It obviously means more to her than her daughter did. If this poor child is ever found alive just expect the exclusive interviews in the daily papers, sunday papers, magazines and an hour long special on TV. By all means keep Madeleine in the news but I would be happy if I never heard of these two gormless idiots again. If I was one of their patients I'd be moving to another practice/hospital pdq.

[jonnythebosh]

In an ideal world there would not be the type of people who abduct kids etc etc. But the sad fact is that they exist, and so parents have to take responsibility and do everything in their power to prevent just such a thing happening. Awful as it is and however much sympathy i have for their and Maddy's plight, i'm afraid they are culpable for what has happened. What if one of the kids had woken up and had an accident or played with matches and started a fire? That would be the parents fault as well. You cannot leave 3 kids under 4 alone while you have nights out.

[Aschenbach]

It is self-contradictory of me to say so but the 38+ posts here and millions of internet hits are what keeps this on the front pages of the news.

But I do have to ask myself how much actual emotional loss do I suffer when an anonymous three-year-old girl is abducted or dies? Absolutely zero and without apology. If I mourned people I didn�t know how would I get through a single day?

Expressed as a percentage the importance of this is about 0.0001% (together with all the other unsolved crime in the world) yet it takes up about a quarter of our news each day .

And it is with some repulsion that I imagine an OK v Hello! exclusive photos bidding war that would result in the event of her return.

My eyes are peeled for any lost children but my mouth and ears are now SHUT.

[joko]

mmm...interesting angle matt66

are you suggesting that, as doctors, they had access to sedatives and accidentally overdosed their daughter to keep her quiet and killed her, hid the body somewhere and have now cooked up this story in order to through the police off the scent....?

certainly possible. they would know how long it takes before their is no trace of the drug in her system....

or could the child have taken them herself as sweeties...

mmm...not sure what i think of that...