The McCanns - what's this all about?

I have been wondering when we were going to do this.

I find the media circus that they whipped up to be bizarre and unprecedented, class and religion seem to be wrapped in this in weird ways as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_white_woman_syndrome

I actually agree with that petition, for what it's worth.

I got banned for another Internet forum for posting a satire of the McCanns' media coverage, and a Facebook group I was in entitled 'If 10,000 people join this group, I'll let little Maddy go' was deleted by the FB admin. Despite this war on free speech, I still think the tasteless ones are the grief merchants forcing these peoples' lives down our throats, compelling us to carry the sympathy card and thus earn cheap points, whilst simultaneously digging into a complete non-story (there has been no further news since the kidnap) with quite terrifying fervour. The McCanns themselves aren't helping, with their self-promotion 'tour' around Europe, The Vatican and North Africa to raise awareness for their probably long-decomposed daughter/their own maudlin plight.

Moreover, instead of closing out the story when they got bored of it, the media softened the blow by resurrecting their trustiest old standard...Diana!

Sorry 2 b hartless :(

That petition is actually one of the most reasonable responses I've seen. It's the media coverage I object to.

btw I am impressed that ILX held out a month before starting its own Maddy thread. I was sorta hoping there'd never be one.

Well, i'm surprised at then ilx reaction so far. That petition makes me feel sick. The McCanns are not to blame for their childs plight it's the fucker who took her. I don't think they've gone about their 'campaign' the right way but if i was in a simialr situation fuck knows what I would do.

You'd leave your three-year-old daughter alone in a house in a foreign country with the doors open while you went and had a few drinks Ned? I suggest perhaps you don't have any children.

don't suggest that

I have 2. And I may well make a mistake in the future and while I'm still grieving/trying to come to terms with my mistake what I really want is some self-rightous fucker who has clearly never done anything wrong in their entire lives starting a petition to have me thrown in jail. And what the fuck has 'foreign' got to do with it?

The "unlocked" part is completely new to me, to be honest.

So you don't think parents that leave their children unattended while they go out on the lash should be investigated by social services?

xp

Although the petition is somewhat discomforting, the fact that the parents left their children unsupervised in an unlocked hotel room does raise questions. Of course the abductor is to blame.

I have no idea what the campaign is achieving, other than providing some bizarre mawkish entertainment to the daily mail/sun/OK/heat marketspace, but I have no idea what I would do in that situation (anything possible is the only answer). The campaign is unprecedented and i have no idea if it would have happened had the McCans been from a lower socio-economic background.

we live in a blame culture, these days

and also: surely better the hotel room was unlocked, rather than locked?!?!?!??!?!?

have you not seen those adverts about leaving children locked in a house?

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0002VEOG8.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

we're already talking the extremes

replace "foreign country" w/ "somewhere they didn't know" and
forget "on the lash" or "unlocked" (worse if true but don't know)

it was a bit more than a "mistake" and it was "irresponsible"

There was a (complementary) creché facility which they failed to use, for some reason. Obviously they're going to be cursing themselves for doing this, but... Oh I dunno. What's common sense? I wrote about it on my blog and someone called me a bastard. For my book I'm planning a chapter on a husband who drugs his wife and artificially inseminates her with other mens' sperm to order, then has the babies 'abducted' as toddlers as a cover for selling them.

I think the petition is a little steep, myself, but at least it isn't ploughing into what Ed rightly calls the 'mawkish entertainment' of feigned, unquestioning sympathy. You have to be skeptical if you don't know all the facts, and it's gotten to the point where anything that redresses the ludicrous imbalance towards the McCann family is welcome. The person to blame is the abductor, yes, but for what's happened subsequently, the family have to take at least partial responsibility.

The couple were questioned by police on 10 May about why Madeleine was left alone in an apartment, with the patio doors unlocked, while they dined at the restaurant

We also wish to ensure that no parent will ever be able to evade responsibility for the safety and welfare of their children by citing the example of Mr and Mrs McCann, whose negligence is unreasonably being discounted in the tidal wave of sympathy brought about as a consequence of their media campaign".

i don't understand this part either, do people who don't have a media campaign normally get scolded by people about having their children snatched?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!

The couple were questioned by police on 10 May about why Madeleine was left alone in an apartment, with the patio doors unlocked, while they dined at the restaurant

so, in a way, this petition is pointless as it already has been investigated?

Strap your seatbelts in fellas, the dam's burst, 500 posts by tomorrow morning...

I guess this shows how little I know of Catholicism, but I cannot fathom that they left their twins in another country and went to see the pope.

The person to blame is the abductor, yes, but for what's happened subsequently, the family have to take at least partial responsibility.

what happened subsequently?

For my book I'm planning a chapter on a husband who drugs his wife and artificially inseminates her with other mens' sperm to order, then has the babies 'abducted' as toddlers as a cover for selling them.

sounds like a spiffing yarn!

(xxpost) Taking little children to see a catholic official is a lot more irresponsible these days.

xpost to Dom.

I think that's up to social services. It's the fact that some cnut has made a petition and AT THIS POINT that I am frankly incredulous over. And if you read the signatures you'll see that half these people signing it are hating the McCanns for not being like them.

As I say, it's not the way I would have gone about it, but ffs how is this helping anyone?

Ken, they whored themselves out to the media, and thereby lost just about any sympathy I had towards them.

Caption this photo -- Bush meets the Pope edition about six posts down can be found my own take on their Papal visit.

How far is too far? :-D

if the mccann's are in any way responsible for scik mouthy's chapter outline they should be punished severely.

Which other crimes do you think the McCanns should be allowed to commit because their daughters been kidnapped Ned? Public order offence? Selling pirated DVDs at the Sunday market?

Ken, they whored themselves out to the media, and thereby lost just about any sympathy I had towards them

i bet they're kicking themselves about that. and yes i agree they're at least partially responsible for this tragic outcome.

unlocked = she could have wandered off by herself (initially) ?

xxpost omg estela OTM

So be honest I really thought about not starting this thread, and am already wishing I hadn't really. But it was a little strange that we hadn't talked about it, if not from the point of view of what we think of the (shit it's s crap word but I can't think of anything else) campaign.

I too was shocked at the sheer amount of ribbons and bands and stuff but then I live a mile away from Rothley (where they're from)and believe me, although there is a lot of faux grief out there, a lot of parents around here are very upset. They know it's ridiculous in some ways, kids are always dying or being killed and who the fuck cares about them but they also know that sometimes, their child has been out of their sight for a few minutes and that cold fear that strikes you at that moment is the worst thing in the world. If the McCanns are having to live with that all the time, I, for one, have sympathy with them because I can't imagine what that must be like.

Which other crimes do you think the McCanns should be allowed to commit because their daughters been kidnapped Ned? Public order offence? Selling pirated DVDs at the Sunday market?

-- Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 13 June 2007 11:47 (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

I'm sorry Dom you've lost me. Did I say they should be allowed to commit crimes?

Leaving a three-year-old child unattended in an inadequately protected room while getting pissed in a tapas bar and relying on assumed Middle England disaster immunity/eternal life fantasy: blame or no blame?

Otherwise, if she'd been the child of a 20-year-old black single mother on benefits, you wouldn't have heard anything further.

Ummm... yes. That's the whole point of this thread isn't it, you saying that the McCanns should be above the law because their daughter's gone missing?

xp

No it's isn't and I didn't.

So you agree that they should be investigated by social services then?

So their other kids will be taken away/they'll be sent to jail? I think losing one child is punishment enough.

there's a lot of faux grief, and a lot of faux hate, i think.

at the end of the day, unless you know them personally, or happened to have seen the kid, it's kind of nothing really to do with you aside from feeling sorry for what happened?

i don't particularly understand the whole touring the world thing, it seems like losing focus a little, but then i can't think of anything more practical or helpful to suggest.

So you agree that they should be investigated by social services then?

did you not say that the police have already questioned about this?

(my previous post doesn't mean I think they shouldn't have been more careful, but they don't deserve this extra witchhunt either. They already know they're at fault.)

i still want to know what happens to other people who have had their carelessly left unattended children kidnapped: do they normally go to jail? or are they all "above the law"?

someone write to the social services to get some facts already: site the freedom of informaion act and you can get full statistics on what happens during these circumstances. we NEED TO KNOW. because we care.

think about the CHILDREN.

Social Services targets are of course a different matter (Orkney "scandal" etc.).

i'd assume that the mccanns drafted the entire apology?

Lawyerspeak, it reads like.

well, yeah, but their lawyers.

British national pastime: deconstructing the groveling in legally obtained apologies.

Other British pastime: the pointed 'sorry' expressed when someone steps ON YOU.

it's an apology for being in their way, innit?

No, it's much more barbed/indignant in delivery.

I wonder how big a tip the McCanns left at the tapas restaurant

"couple of peseta on kike alvares first goal"

"The apologies came on the same day that Britain's High Court was due to rule on libel action brought by the McCanns over the newspaper coverage of the search for their daughter."

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=4477750

let's get sued!

£550,000

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/libel-payout-for-mccanns-over-madeleine-allegations-797875.html

And it's back to "madeleine" as well?

Meanwhile, on the Shannon front...

Yeah, I put that on the Shan thread.

McCanns angry over Madeleine leak

Am I the only one who could have seen a sub-heading that read:

Couple tell of regret at not using better quality bin bags.

Kate and Gerry McCann have been promoting a child alert system

...

"we're so impressed by it, we lost our kid with it"

"No lost kids, or your money back"

Frank Lampard has been promoting a diet booklet.

Cleared by police in Portugal. Or, if you're a Daily Mail reader, let off on a technicality.

The technicality being that there is no evidence against them.

It's crazy round here again. Huge amount of press folk in Rothley asking passers by what they think. I can't believe it's still such a big story. Or is it?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/madeleinemccann/2305425/Madeleine-McCann-Suspect-Robert-Murat-settles-libel-claim.html

Robert Murat, the first formal suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, has spoken of the "utter destruction" of his life after settling a libel action against several newspapers which implicated him in her abduction.

several newspapers which implicated him in her abduction.
Robert Murat, the first formal suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, has spoken of the "utter destruction" of his life after settling a libel action against several newspapers which implicated him in her abduction. ; http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1488655367/bctid1672670235 http://www.brightcove.com/channel.jsp?channel=1139053637

He won £600,000 in damages and an apology over nearly 100 "seriously defamatory" articles.

The newspapers involved - including Associated Newspapers, Express Newspapers, MGN Limited and News Group Newspapers - conceded that 34-year-old Mr Murat had no involvement in Madeleine's case.

So each newspaper coughed up 55 grand for wrecking this guy's life. Bearing in mind some newspapers had Maddy headlines pretty much every day last Summer, racking up thousands of extra sales it seems a pretty insubstantial amount to lose.

Everyone's a winner!

um, except maddie?

Sobering:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/jul/23/madeleinemccann.spain

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/maddie/article1525122.ece

Explains why StanM has been so glib throughout this thread.

I love this idea, that they (the portuguese police) might just try and sweep this whole internationally high-profile abduction case under the carpet and hope the whole thing blows over

*whistles*

Huh? Belgian police say this is the first they've heard of such a claim. It's just the final chapters of the 'someone from portugal did it' - 'the parents did it but we can't prove it' - 'portuguese police suck' - 'the parents did it but we give up, here, take the dossier' - 'any old foreigner did it and we won' ping pong match with the tabloids.

also, in the mind of the average british red-top editor, belgium = beer and/or child-porn rings, and occasionally cake.

Does anyone still mention the 48 or 49 questions the McCann's didn't answer during their interrogation? Any shady link to anyone other than the parents = enthusiastic press worldwide.

Bah, they're just rediscovering old links now the papers are public.

June 2007: "Spanish investigator Antonio Toscano has insisted the four-year-old was abducted by a French sex offender, as part of a Europe-wide paedophile network." ( http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Sky-News-Archive/Article/20082851272511 )

Does anyone still mention the 48 or 49 questions the McCann's didn't answer during their interrogation?

yeah, this was all printed out in the mail or the express a couple of days ago.

oh, and it's on the beeb.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7542939.stm

america did this sleazier the first time around with jon benet ramsey

I know, aren't we great!

Young Tory dressed as missing Madeleine
By James Tapsfield and Emily Ashton, PA
Friday, 9 January 2009

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A leading young Tory activist was expelled from the party today for boasting about dressing up as Madeleine McCann at a New Year bash.

Conservative Future (CF) member Matthew Lewis wrote on his Facebook site that his costume would include a blonde wig, "pink pyjamas, a teddy bear and a vial of fake blood".

Other figures from the organisation joined in the joke about the missing five-year-old, with one responding: "Is this a cunning (Baldrick style) plan to obtain the reward money?"

Tory chairman Caroline Spelman today branded Mr Lewis's behaviour "totally unacceptable", indicating that moves were under way to eject him.

"This offensive behaviour is not only shocking but intolerable and completely unacceptable," she said. "There is no place for this sort of person in the party."

Mr Lewis - believed to be in his early 20s and a student at Queen Mary, University of London - resigned as chairman of Staffordshire CF last month in protest at internal reforms. Images on the group's website show him campaigning with David Cameron for last year's Crewe and Nantwich by-election.

Mr Lewis was not answering his mobile phone this afternoon, but most of the exchanges were still visible on his Facebook profile. Page snapshots showing other comments were featured on the Tory Bear blog.

On New Year's Day, after the party, Mr Lewis told another CF member, Flick Cox, online: "There was a brief moment when I thought I might have gone too far with elements of the costume, but it was ok".

He added that another guest at the party was dressed as Baby P, the toddler who died after a catalogue of horrific abuse.

"There may not be photos, I don't think anyone wants to risk being associated with them!" Mr Lewis went on.

Ms Cox suggested that he may have "pulled a Prince Harry" - a reference to the royal's controversial decision to wear a Nazi uniform to a fancy dress party in 2005.

She said she would "hate to have to end our friendship when I become an MP" if he got into trouble over the fancy dress outfit.

Madeleine McCann went missing while on holiday with her family in Portugal in May 2007. She has yet to be found despite a massive worldwide hunt.

Massive worldwide hunt still going on near my house, by the way. Some fool tooled up their van with 'find Maddie' signs. I used to see it rolling around a lot during the hysteria = was surprised to pass it, still painted up, on my way home the other night

another CF member, Flick Cox

real name, no gimmicks

F LI CK COX

^ squint at that a bit and it becomes ... less funny, probably.

There is no place for this sort of person in the party

lol Young Conservatives.

Was just gonna post this on the "Shit to Stop Cameron Being Elected" thread.

Classic YC's. Gotta love 'em, those guys are struggling now there's no Russia to advocate nuking.

"Let's bomb our chances of getting elected instead!"

(Wishful thinking ^)

He added that another guest at the party was dressed as Baby P, the toddler who died after a catalogue of horrific abuse.

"There may not be photos, I don't think anyone wants to risk being associated with them!" Mr Lewis went on.

I really want to see photos of this twunt.

Can the Daily Mail just do that, name the new (maybe, possible) suspect? I don't care if he's guilty or not, I don't want the mob to know anyone's name before you've got absolute proof, you lowlives.

Who cares, story, etc.

The police forces have gone out of their way to say the guy is innocent of anything in relation to Madeleine's disappearance.

The media have gone out of their way to mention that, just not on the front page.

Poor (otherwise evil) dude.

it's a bit iffy to have these private investigators putting guilt on people

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2676742/mccanns-find-girl-in-swedish-photo-she-could-be-our-missing-madeleine.html

The same jawline! OMG! (/sarcasm)

Madeleine McCann: Police to Investigate Link Between Sir Clement Freud and Missing Girl, Reports Say

Police will reportedly look into the late politician after two women accused him of pedophilia in an ITV documentary. Freud owned a property in the Portuguese town where McCann went missing in 2007.

Presumably, today's Daily Express front page?

coppers fancied a jolly to portugal eh