It is easier to fool people, than to convince them they have been fooled. [Mark Twain]

Ain't that the truth in the case of missing Madeleine McCann.  There are going to be a lot of very red faces when the Truth Of The Lie becomes known, and all signs point towards January 7th 2014, the final day of the McCanns v. Amaral libel trial.

It will not be the day of judgment unfortunately, that we will have to wait for, but it may well see Gerry and Kate on the witness stand giving evidence. They have asked for permission to speak, and for the for the moment are awaiting the Judge's decision.  So too is Goncalo Amaral, who has put in a similar request.  If the requests are granted, the trial will end with barristers for each of the parties summing up.

If this were the Wild West, the forthcoming trial would be the equivalent of the Gunfight at the OK Corral, the protagonists are finally coming face to face and they ain't messing about this time.  Unfortunately for them, the Lawman Goncalo Amaral is waiting for them, this time, he has back up, and they are big guns, whose testimony carries weight.  Lawman Amaral will not back down.

If I were a gambler, I would say the investigation was not going well for the McCanns.  The Smith family sighting has had the public airing they hoped to avoid, and everything has gone quiet, including the kerching of the online shop. 

Time has not been kind to the abduction story, or the incredible Team McCann Campaign, some might say, in retrospect, it all looks like staging, phoney even. The need to raise money for only one child went into the realms of ridiculous. The Fund stacked up to millions, the amount unknown, the 'transparent' Fund accounts give no details.  Yet, by November 2010, the McCanns were appealing for more money, £10 for a 24hr hotline, £20 for tat and £30 for more tat etc. We know previous phone calls were not followed up, not by the PI's, nor by the family, which makes it appear that the appeals had little to do with the 'Search'. 

At least two firms of private detectives employed by the McCanns have since faced criminal charges. It would seem, the only genuine report obtained by the McCanns was suppressed and the PI who wrote it was threatened with legal action should he ever make it public. 

Those still demanding we should believe the McCanns, because it would unkind not to, need to step out of Lilliput, take the blinkers off, and re-program their thinking - the child, Madeleine, was the victim, not the parents.  I really cannot see any way for all those red faces to be avoided, other than heavy panstick stage makeup, because some day soon they are going to have to say those words we all stumble over and hate to say, 'Sorry, I was wrong'.