MADELEINE'S DISAPPEARANCE AND NEW LABOUR

Madeleine's disappearance had pound/dollar signs all over it, almost immediately. Not only were the McCanns trying to build an empire on their daughter's tragedy, but so too were all those jostling for a slice of the cake. Police agencies and charities used the iconic cherubic Madeleine picture to remind us of the vital work they do.  

 

I don't think there can be any doubt that the way in which Madeleine's disappearance was reported came from the 'top'. It wasn't until several years later that the public became aware of the cosying up of Prime Ministers and media moguls, but the enlightened among us knew before.

 

The 'top' in this case is most likely Tony Blair.  By 2007, he knew how to use and manipulate, not only the media, but the secret services.  If he stated the parents were innocent, it was the party line. He had appointed to top positions, people he could control and henchmen who would ensure his orders were obeyed. Who knows what means he used, but it might be worth noting that he had under his belt, thousands of names collected during Operation Ore.  All hypothetical of course, but considering the lengths he went to, to take us into an illegal war, anything is possible. 

 

What were the benefits to New Labour of siding with the parents and promoting the abduction story? Where to begin. Blair had reached that stage of leadership where he believed he was all powerful, he wasn’t quite referring to himself as the Thatcher ‘we’, but he wasn’t far off it.  Our forefathers had the good sense to prepare for the mad as a box of frogs leadership stage, by ensuring PMs don’t serve more than two terms. The backstabbing of their friends and colleagues takes care of the rest.

 

In 2007, New Labour were promoting the idea of compulsory Identity Cards, and all the benefits of compiling a national database, which would include our DNA.  Only pedophiles and criminals have anything to fear they said, thus sparking social media division as the sanctimonious preached the benefits of a national database, while accusing those who could see all the dangers of being criminally minded and worse.

 

For the benefit of those wearing blinkers and ear plugs and the terminally thick, let me shout it out. A database holding all our private and confidential details is a huge threat to democracy.  Theoretically a ruling government could stay in power forever.  Eleven years on my fears are now moot - we already give so much of ourselves on social media, the ‘Lists’ have been compiled. Eg. Cambridge Analytica.  We could say at least these lists are not compiled by a sitting government, but it’s worse, they are being compiled by people who know what they are doing. Apparently it is possible profile a person’s character from just 10 tweets.

 

In reflecting on this case, we have to consider the political and cultural climate in 2007. The internet was in its infancy, and all sorts of entrepeneurs and wannabe billionaires were thinking up ways in which to capitalise on the wonders of the world wide web. Dr. Evils everywhere were stroking cats and dreaming of world domination. Top of a wannabe tyrant's wish list would have been a database of every citizen containing their entire medical, financial and possibly criminal records. Accessible to who? Government employees, the police, the local authorities, vindictive neighbours?  

 

How do you persuade voters that a national database is the best idea since sliced bread? You create fear. Fear of terrorism for example, rouses up the patriots and the right wing loons do the rest. For a government eager to bring in ID cards and compulsory DNA testing, the disappearance of Madeleine was manna from heaven.  Possibly the most appealing tot ever to have gone missing, her face was used unscrupulously to suggest children being taken from their beds was a regular occurrence, and every child was at risk.  If it could happen to responsible, highly educated professionals, it could happen to anyone.  

 

That was Myth One. If that wasn’t enough to send anxious parents scuttling to have their babies DNA stored and tracking chips planted under their skin, it was supported by Myth Two. There are thousands of pedophiles, disguised as normal people, lurking in our midst.  Especially on the internet.  A special force was needed to track them down to prevent further ‘Madeleines’.  They were desperately trying to link the disappearance of 3 year old Madeleine to grooming online.  The still new internet offered all sorts of opportunities to gain access to people’s personal online activity.  Some hoped, and still hope, that Law and Order can be imposed on the internet.  Undesirables removed and all that sort of thing.  Crime has changed, pickpockets no longer knock you over the head and steal your purse, they friend you on social media and get your bank details. 

 Whilst the police might have identified new areas of crime on the internet their powers are pretty much restricted by our rights to freedom of speech. There is no actual physical violence, and it is debateable whether really, really, horrible words, are just as hurtful as a punch in the mouth.  Unfortunately, oiks are oiks wherever they may be, they cannot be removed from society just as they cannot be removed from the internet.  Cries of shock, horror and 'it shouldn't be allowed' won't ever make social media a walk in the park for the easily offended, and to be fair, shock/horror is pretty much what the troll is going for.  Dragging social inadequate off in chains will never remove the problem of getting rid off those who disagree with you online.  Just as soon as you hang one unwashed miscreant upside down in a dungeon, a hundred more appear.  The sane get that.  The fearful and the paranoid do not.  And in any event, an internet crime force wouldn’t have prevented Madeleine from being taken, she was  only 3, she didn't use the internet.

 

But back to the machinations of those in power.  As daft as the masses are most of the time, they still have to be persuaded that handing over all their personal details and blood, is for the greater good.  Most of the Madeleine publicity was about spreading the fear.  It broke friendships and divided family like no other human interest story in history. Those who believed in abduction, also believed in the ‘Bogeyman’ and the need for tanks to be sent into Heathrow.  Non believers were subversives on the outer fringes of society, united by their intense hatred of anyone goodlooking or well off. Malcontents, driven by emotion and envy, the backstreet kids laughing at the Emperor in the nip, whilst the sanctimonious and smug middle classes admired the fine cloth.  

 

As if young parents didn’t have enough to worry about, they now had to fear their children being stolen from their beds. Not that anyone would have been stupid and reckless enough to leave their babies alone in a holiday apartment in the first place.  To convince us of the parents fragrant lifestyle, we were sold decent, God fear, law abiding folks.  The McCanns became Stepford’s First Family.  Perfect in every way.  Perfect home, perfect marriage, perfect friends (‘do you have faith in your friends Kate?’ ‘Yes, 100%’) perfect holiday - no discord whatsoever. OK, it was mostly Team McCann selling Gerry and Kate as the world’s most responsible parents, but it gelled with New Labour’s agenda to scare the bejesus out of anyone with kids.  

 

The McCanns wanted stricter border controls, Madeleine was ‘taken’ by a swarthy fellow. They wanted DNA stores, maybe even microchipping, more hell for people passing through borders. They also led the movement to gag the press. ALL stories about Madeleine should be run by them first. Most of their demands could have come straight from the script of a Trump Rally. From a NL perspective, they were probably thanking the McCanns for doing their job for them. Spreading the fear in order to introduce new legislation that would allow them to spy on anyone they wanted.    

 

As it turned out, the internet has not been the threat to our safety the fearmongers predicted.  They still cannot police social media, because it is owned by private individuals who’s aims are philanthropic. I side with Zuckerberg, not even he could have imagined the impact Facebook would have on democracy. He has reacted to the flaws in FB, obviously working towards new and innovative ways to keep FB to it’s original principles.  We should thank whatever Gods there may, that those on Silicon Valley are for the many, not the few. Blair’s hopes for social media included getting a slice of the action.  Jim Gamble for example wanted donations for his department, for providing a policing service that the owners of social media didn’t want and refused to pay for.  What brave new world is this that private individuals can tell PC Plod to naff off. These new Masters of the Universe, accept the concept of personal responsibility. Most people can be trusted to behave themselves online, to behave as they would in the ‘real’ world.  That’s why social media has been so successful.  Twitter for example, would never have got off the ground if it had begun with a bunch of monitors censoring every tweet.  

 

Social media is now the only battlefield - for literally everything. It is the political arena that dominates news worldwide. Major news stories are ‘chip paper’ within hours, sometimes minutes. Trump runs his presidency on twitter.  Literally anything he tweets will wipe all previous breaking news off the front pages. For winners of libel payouts, any victory they may have will be short lived.  On the internet, the libel laws of old barely apply, law making simply cannot keep up with the advances in technology.

 

But back in 2007, almost anything was possible, including brainwashing the public on a scale never seen before. That it didn’t work out, is just gravy now. Selling a child abduction story in 2007 was vastly different to how it would be today and history has been far from kind to the parents and the tapas group’s telling of events. And even less kind to the Madeleine Fund.

 

Madeleine’s disappearance tied in with the ‘pedophiles everywhere’ message the Blair government and certain individuals were trying to promote.  It was, as it were, at the  centre of a perfect storm. It fit like a missing piece to a puzzle, the sum of all our fears, a small innocent child stolen by one of these bogeymen they had been warning us about. Think of the children they yelled, as the sanctimonious are inclined to do.  Your children are prey to monsters unless they are fitted with tracking devices. Welcome to a future even the pessimistic George Orwell couldn’t imagine. 

 

Tough for Team McCann that things didn't work out quite as they had dreamed in 2007.  Despite all their libel actions, that cloud of suspicion hasn't gone away, and they can't move on until it does. They will of course still blame Goncalo Amaral, blind to the fact that their irrational hatred of the detective who searched for their daughter is one of the main reasons people do not believe them.   

AN EPILOGUE TO THE MADELEINE FORUMS

My regular readers will know I am sure, that I am trying to wean myself away from the whole topic of Madeleine McCann and all the plots and machinations that surround it. I still of course think it was a total affront to justice, the public have been treated like mugs and the interception of the British government has I am convinced, prevented this crime from being solved.   

 

But now is a good time to reflect.  Happily, I am not emotionally attached to anyone or anything Madeleine related.  I will of course, forever have on my radar 'all the bad guys' involved - karma is unfolding, probably not as quickly as some would like, but truth always wins in the end.

I didn't come into this case through hatred or through any other emotional issue.  Studying is my way of blocking out the demons. I tackled this case as I would have tackled a degree assignment, that is, the eternal student in me, had to look at it from every angle. I didn’t enter the arena as a ‘pro’ or an ‘anti’, and I truly wanted to give the parents the benefit of the doubt. Accepting their involvement was a huge blow to my faith in human nature. Academic study is the one area where you cannot bury your head in the sand, you have to face every aspect of your subject, even that which is unpalatable.  Probably why I am so horrified at the number of experts and professionals who have literally sold their souls to support this debacle.  

 

But many thanks to those still looking in, and many thanks to the poster who gave us a run down on what’s happening on other Madeleine blogs and forums.  As they are so ‘fact centred’ and closed off to any other form of debate, I am not surprised only the die hards remain.  Verdi is totally is off his/her rocker, a real nasty piece of work who has good reason for hiding ‘it’s’ identity.  I haven’t looked there for ages to be honest, so have no idea who is still posting.  Ditto the other forums.  I have finally learned, after all this time, that those who run, or who have aspirations to run, a forum, are closet dictators and wannabe tyrants!  All have advised me on where I am going wrong and how to be more like them, something that has never appealed, lol.  

 

Not Textusa, like Verdi, is totally off his head.  I think of him as an angry young man, but more likely he is middle aged and bitter, a bit like Ben whatisname.  Jill Havern I have a soft spot for, she knows that I understand her situation exactly and has reached out a couple of times. Sadly, she is still under the influence of Tony ‘Mad as a box of frogs’ Bennett, and gawd knows what she has invested in him financially and with her name and reputation.  If he goes down, she, Verdi et al, go down too. And depending on how deep the investigations of Operation Grange, Bennett too could find himself on charges of perverting the course of justice.  

 

Textusa is a joke.  Astonished sooooo many bought into her batshit crazy theory that there was a swinging holiday in PDL in May 2007.  It is absolutely laugh out loud funny.  Only people who don’t have sex, or who have been doing it in the missionary position with one person forever, would believe in a ‘swinging holiday’.  It just doesn’t happen.  And it certainly doesn’t happen when you have babies, toddlers and the mother in law with you. Those who don’t have sex, have to imagine what those who do have sex get up to, and, as can be seen with Textusa, they let their imaginations run wild.  

 

Those who imagine this case involves adults having sex with children are a whole other league.  It would be wrong of me to go into the reasons behind their fixation with child sexual abuse, but this case has attracted hundreds, if not thousands, who want this case to be about paedophilia. Each of course, have their own reasons, as do paedophile hunters, but even an amateur psychologist can see what is going on.  I always remember a scene in a play about Quentin Crisp, when attacked by a gang of queer bashers the divine Quentin grabbed the lead bully by the testicles and whispered in his ear that he knew exactly what he was.  The gang retreated.

 

Bennett is most definitely among those to whom sex will always remain a mystery.  Not only was he not blessed with good looks, but he has zero charm!  He’s pretty textbook, so I have already ‘profiled’ his childhood - it almost makes me pity him. Mine was tough, but I had two parents who oozed charm and charisma, not so hot on the rule following, but, I imagine, a zillion times better than Dickensian God Botherers.     

 

The Mystery Forum I haven’t looked in for ages.  They are not really my sort of people, lol.  The last time I was there they were discussing the burning of art and subversive bloggers (me), lol.  The subject of their of outrage was a quite beautiful painting of a teenage girl showing a hint of a nipple.  Becoming incensed by the sight of a nipple is not something I can relate too, lol.  The stunningly beautiful young girl is probably now an OAP with a twinkle in her eye.  Anyway, I’m not sure if I got to say ‘Fuck you’ (I hope I did) before they pulled the plug on me. I was a tad miffed, as I had, I feel, been more than accommodating with their ridiculous and over zealous censoring.  How dare they!  I was the best thing they had on there!  No-one ever knew what I would say next, lol. Referring to Bennett as a lowlife money grabbing scumbag for example, was a no no, unless I put ‘Mr.’ in front of it.  

 

Sadly, over 90% of the people who latched onto the Madeleine case, myself includes, were and are loons.  In my defence, I have chronic OCD. On the academic side, I am literally driven insane by problem solving.  In my arrogance, I cannot and will not accept any conclusion unless I have reached the same conclusion myself.  And that is not confirmation bias, I argue (in my head) both sides equally.  I have to know the answer to every question before it is put to me.  From the McCanns perspective, I would have argued the positioning of the apartment - a corner plot and vulnerable, yet they never have.  Their 'prove it' defence, is hostile, it makes cops try harder, but arguably, they have no choice. What else can they say?

 

Naturally, I looked into all the connotations.  Young child goes missing in Algarve.  Parents and friends not in apartment, but dining nearby.  We are told there are predators out there who steal young children to sexually abuse.  We have never heard of anything like it in our lives, but we believe the ‘authorities’ - they know better.  Gerry mentions paedophile gangs.  CEOP, Child Exploitation and Online Protection rushes to their aid.  Madeleine was 3, she wasn't being groomed online.  Suddenly every tourist travelling with young children has something tangible to fear. Babies do get stolen from their beds, especially when on holiday (all those foreigners). Fortunately, it hadn’t happened before, and it hasn’t happened since.  Ergo, there wasn’t an an epidemic, that new police division Gamble proposed to respond to abductions of British children worldwide was never needed. It’s still only Ben Needham and Madeleine McCann in 30 years.  

 

Those who have put their hearts and souls into deviant sex crimes, will, I fear, be disappointed. No child sex rings, no swinging holidays, no senior VIP or celebrity hastily flown out of PDL.  A tragedy where the lies and the runaway train went completely out of control.  How do you quantify each lie? Each crime?  Each suspect?  The Mueller investigation looks simplistic by comparison.  

BREXIT - WAS THE REFERUNDUM RESULT LEGITIMATE?

All Theresa May’s character failings are being exposed right now, just as much as they were during her disastrous last General Election, when her failure to connect with any audience was brutally laid bare.  She couldn’t debate with Jeremy Corbyn nor could she relate to members of the public, on any level.  She has no people skills, there is nothing endearing about her, she has zero charisma.  Her cold, hard, humourless face, and headmistress attitude, endear her to no-one.

 

Let’s compare her for one moment to the very human, but sadly deceased Mo Molam, who’s personal charisma and straight talking brought the hardest of political ideologies together and produced the Good Friday Agreement.  Should add, she wasn’t opposed to a few drinks and a spliff either.  Iron Lady Mark II, is the opposite. She is so entrenched in the pockets of billionaires salivating at the fortunes to be made once we are free of the European Laws. Laws that forced them to treat their workers as human beings.  Trump simply signed Executive Orders deregulating workers’ protections and rights.  The tories are going for that kind of power, but they have got to get the higher Court that watch over them, out of the way.  

 

The one thing that is seldom mentioned when talking about Brexit, is the consequences of giving the tories absolute power to do whatever they wish. There will no longer be accountable to a 'higher power'.  Already they have been called to account by the UN for their inhumane treatment of the sick and disabled, how much crueler will they become when they can abandon Human Rights Laws entirely? The very wise Yanis Yaroufakis, when asked about Brexit before the Referendum, that leaving the EU could be good for the UK, but never under a Tory Government, and he has been proved right.

 

The Tories are always about what’s in it for them, not for the masses. That is, how can they make a fast buck. With no Employment Regulations and a crack down on those claiming benefits, they are creating a free (slave) labour force, another third world option for entrepreneurs like Ivanka Trump to outsource their manufacture of tat products.  It's lack of employment laws that make outsourcing to third world countries economically appealing. 

 

Trump is at least signing Executive Orders and sweeping away workers rights in a public setting, we here in the UK have no idea what rights TM is taking from the UK public, or what tariffs and trading deals will survive for British business. We are clueless as to the deals she is making or the effects they will have on the British economy. That the future of Britain rests on the shoulders of the most inept Prime Minister we have ever had is terrifying.  

 

By contrast, Jeremy Corbyn is instantly likeable.  He has done his homework and then some.  He fears no-one.  He doesn’t sit trembling in the wings, he doesn’t croke and lose his voice.  He cares for all citizens of the world, those in Europe as well as here in the UK. He is the opposite of isolationist, his warm, open approach will be welcomed by the more enlightened leaders of Europe.  

 

Britain is hurtling towards a major disaster. The implications of TM’s sole decisions will directly affect our lives and those of generations to come. Whatever she is up to, she doesn’t even have the support of her own advisers, though bizarrely, she does have the support of Tom Watson and Jess Phillips, who really should just go join them.  

 

We all know politics shouldn’t just be based on the ‘likeability’ factor, but it is as it is.  TM is not likeable.  Ditto, DD and BJ, though they are at least less automaton than TM. She won the leadership of the tories by default (no other credible contenders) and she got a massive vote of no confidence when she called the General Election. She now depends on the odious DUP to pass legislation.  She is far too weak to get any kind of Brexit that will be acceptable to the many, nor even the few.  Rats DD and BJ have now jumped ship. Sadly, for her, the other EU leaders, are not quite so cold, callous and money grabbing as TM and her puppet masters, they are not going to just hand over the money and step away.  We don’t know what TM is up to, but they do. Which is perhaps why she is so isolated and left out when she attends world leader summits.  

 

There needs to be a General Election.  The future of the UK cannot be left in such chaotic hands.  Both parties’ Brexit plans should be put before the people, with the facts and consequences of each party’s proposals presented to the electorate.  Whilst we may take comfort in the fact that future generations will burn effigies of Theresa May in what remains of England, now is our one, and possibly only, chance to alter that dystopian future.  

 

People power works. OK, it hasn’t in the past, but now we have the technology and means to get our voices heard.  We couldn’t stop Tony Blair’s war against Iraq, but we can stop a hardline, right wing government from making a deal with Europe that will only benefit the top 1%.  

 

The result of the Brexit Referendum is unstable.  In the same way as Trump’s election to President.  That is, there is evidence that Russia interfered.  Someone, probably a Russian, has discovered a way in which to influence/distort democratic elections. Their method is not rocket science.  The activist group Momentum, use it quite openly.  They target and invite people to become politically active.  It isn’t illegal.  Their method can unseat virtually any MP they choose. That’s why they are so feared by the tories and Blairites.  It is a different story altogether if a foreign power has distorted election results for their own gain.  

 

The big question is, should an election that has been manipulated stand?  Given that the manipulation most likely came from a hostile foreign power. What is Trump’s interest in Brexit? What was Nigel Farage negotiating with the Russians he met? Why are all the creepiest, slimiest, and most greedy attention seekers sucking up to Donald Trump?  Given that the answer to every question is money, just how much do they owe to the ‘rich beyond your wildest dreams’ Vladimir Putin?

 

The next few days should be interesting. Trump is once again intent on turning US allies into enemies. The grown ups look on bemused by the antics of the brat at the table, each face intrigued by the bizarre anti social social behaviour of the President of the United States, and probably secretly wondering how the fuck did he ever get elected.  Angela Merkel, I suspect, can see Trump’s world collapsing around him and what his future holds, it’s all in that knowing smile and he hates her for it.  He is jealous of her success as a leader and irked that she is a strong woman who is comfortable in her own skin. He is too weak and cowardly to degrade her by marking her out of 10 on looks, sex appeal, etc, as he does with every other woman he encounters.  In her presence he becomes a surly and belligerent school boy, he is terrified of her.    

 

If the Russians or a conglomerate of billionaires tampered with the UK Referendum, more than half the population I think, would say, let’s do it again via a General Election.  Meanwhile, the US, probably sooner than we, will have to face up to the consequences of the Russian attack on their electoral system. What they decide may even set a precedent.  Do they reverse the 2016 election that put Trump in power and hand the presidency to Hilary?  Like the US, we will have to decide if the EU Referendum result was legitimate.  There is much to suggest it wasn’t.     

MADELEINE - KARMA HAS THE LAST WORD

Apologies for my long absence, I am afraid I am again undergoing a dramatic metamorphosis I would say another watershed, but I’ve had too many of them already, and besides I am still in free fall and have no idea where I am going to land.  That’s the thing with manic depression, whilst the lows can be suicidely crippling, the highs can be terrifyingly dangerous.  These are the times when you think you can actually fly, or write a bestseller.

 

You would think the huge flurry of brain activity brought on by the mania would be productive, but sadly, that’s rarely the case. Mostly because we set unattainable goals, our dreams of what we would be doing if we weren’t mental. At the moment, my own plans are to a)write a bestseller b)revitalise my blog - opening up new areas of discussion, and c)build a museum. With b) I want to discuss topical issues, host a forum with a wide diversity of opinion.  I have enjoyed writing my blog over the years, and I have been fortunate in having so many readers who have contributed such interesting and informative posts. Readers’ views are the most interesting part of my blog I think, well they are for me, and I am sure my enemies will agree, lol.

 

The more unattainable the goals we set, the more guilt we have to beat ourselves up with. It’s like knobbling a horse before a race, except you are that horse.  Unlikely, I know, but if your list of things to torture yourself with at 4.00am runs low, you can always call on your failures, the things you didn’t do and the people (and properties) you lost. Then there are the memories of your inappropriate behaviour, those times when you really should have kept your opinion to yourself or checked when leaving the bathroom, that you hadn’t tucked the back of your skirt into your knickers.  

 

But hey, ho, this isn’t all about depression, though Lord knows, with the cruel turn this world has taken and Donald Trump, for me, the temptation to stick my head in the oven is never far away. The only thing that stops me is not wanting to be found with the yorkshire pudding debris on the bottom of the oven stuck to my cheek.  But I jest, when I go, I’m going like Elsie (fans of Cabaret will recognise), if only I could stop sitting alone in my room.  

 

I have now, I think, shaken the McCanns right out of my hair, deliberately so. For me it was an intricate puzzle to solve (to my own satisfaction), it was never about hate.  Mostly I think it was astonishment that such a heinous crime enriched so many (it’s always about the money) and astonished at the number of otherwise sane people, admiring the cloth on the Emperor’s new clothes.  And those ‘sane’ people include Chiefs of police, journalists, politicians (a given), ‘criminologists’ and several large Charities.

 

The Madeleine case is so much more than a child going missing, people who ‘were’ in high places may well have perverted the course of justice.  Looking beyond the headlines takes you to a quagmire of theories, wild accusations, and unintentionally funny, pious and sanctimonious headcases who’s vivid imaginations have conjured up all sorts of bizarre allegations that make no sense and are deliberately malicious and salacious.  I doubt even Debbie who ‘did’ Dallas, would indulge in the kind of sexual squalor they dream up.  

 

But I digress, with the Madeleine case, once you take the blue pill (or is it the red one?) there is no turning back. Before you know it, you are asking why?, who?, OMG and ‘is it possible the ‘Authorities’ could be so corrupt?  Every unanswered question will torment you, wake you in the wee small hours, and take you to a place where only the right answer will set you free. And when you get to the bottom of that little maze, you will begin to question everything around you, life as you knew it, will never be the same again.  It’s like binge watching the box set of Armand Ianucci’s ‘Thick of It’, in one hit.  More than a glimpse into the inner workings of Whitehall, the Media, and the casual use of lying and cheating to deceive the nation.  

 

Unfortunately for the powers that be and indeed for the McCanns, in this new age of enlightenment, the public didn’t swallow the lame ‘abduction’ story, most understood that this tragedy was of the parents’ own making - they left children of a tender age on their own. Period.  Time has ended the reign of all those trying to capitalise on the abduction myth, no other child has disappeared in similar circumstances, there is no epidemic, children are not regularly stolen from their beds at night. The availability of the internet has not produced active gangs of pedophiles. All the scaremongering was just that, scaremongering.  Karma, I think, is having the last word.  

 

 The McCanns are users.  That they have been used is arguably, their just desserts.  They are in a position that I would find stifling and intolerable. They are dependent on all those who assisted them, keeping to their original statements.  It appears they have thus far, which may account for the length of time the investigations are taking. But the police haven’t given up - all these years later, the case is still live. Those responsible for Madeleine’s disappearance are still on the hook.  No-one has been officially cleared, no evidence of an abductor has been produced.  

 

Meanwhile, the McCanns have paid, or still owe an enormous amount of money to several firms of Portuguese lawyers. They have nothing new to support a claim in the ECHR, no solid evidence of their innocence from the PJ or Operation Grange. I doubt very much they will go ahead with it. Given their illogical hatred of Goncalo Amaral, their losses to him in the Civil Courts must sting twice as much.  Perhaps that is their karma.   

 

I am indifferent to the fates of those involved in Madeleine’s disappearance, their fates are in the hands of the police, both English and Portuguese.  And of course themselves, should their nagging consciences or constant fear get the better of them.     

 

To be honest, I curse myself for allowing the Madeleine case to take over my life quite as much as it did. I don’t know what came over me, lol. I needed to know everything, as if I were a research scientist. I don’t know what made it quite so intriguing, but clearly I wasn’t the only one!  In retrospect, I tend to think, it was probably our inner outrage at being lied to, and frustration that others couldn’t see it.   

 

I still think it is a huge miscarriage of justice, but it has been swamped by the huge changes in the dominant ideology, the terrifying move further and further to the Right.  This doesn’t feel like ‘England’ anymore, there is a sinister cruel edge that has crept through our society, a move back to the 80’s ideology of ‘Greed is Good’, but with nastier, more sinister undertones.  

 

Theresa May will never challenge Donald Trump, she believes in the same things he does, and probably secretly admires the way in which he freely appeals to his supporters’ basest instincts. Headmistress May thinks it, but dare not say it. Hard to tell who is the more evil, Trump who puts kids in cages and calls human beings ‘illegals’ (wtf!) or May who steals from the poor to give to the super rich. Oh, and who also sells weapons of mass destruction to inhumane regimes to kill thousands of poor people.  

 

But onto a lighter note.  The football.  I surrender, it’s unavoidable.  Have to say though, as a female, I am baffled by the sheer ecstasy of grown men as the ball hits the back of the net.  And being able to discuss said ball hitting back of net for hours on end, and for decades thereafter, mystifies me.  However, that collective happiness is somehow endearing, and a good time for wives/partners to mention the dent in the car or the kitchen they always dreamed of.  Bear in mind this period of tranquillity is precariously balanced on the tip of a football boot and the referee not being a wanker.  Book television timeslots in advance, this gives you great leverage should England reaching the finals clash with Despicable Me.  In that event you can ask for diamonds! ;)