We've deleted the Madeleine McCann thread

Well, being a bit sad, I name-searched the most prolific person on there, and she (he? I don't think so) had never posted under that name before. Yet she didn't seem new to MN. She's gone quiet since, too.

aitchtwooh - not rot. Perhaps you missed those particular comments, there were a lot of threads at the time.

name-change..a bit drastic don't you think?...i can't remember who was on it....and i was on it.

feline MORE cats please.......and some wine

Very glad to see it's been deleted. If some of those posters have any sense they will have name-changed by now. But it had got to nearly 900 posts the last time I saw it....

I don't think that's patronizing. You just don't like my assessment of what is going on.

I don't have any interest in preventing free speech, but when that aspiration (it is not a right) conflicts with the rights of others then it must be questioned.

These are not, for example, public figures.

Yep and until that point the Mccanns should be considered innocent unless they are proven guilty by a court of law.

the stop it please followed by your interpretation of what we are doing here.i am absolutely not reducing the life of a child to a soap opera and do think it is stopping free speech tbh.But am leaving thread well alone In all cases eventually the truth will out whatever it is.

you disagree with it I'm sure, noddy, but why is it patronizing?

Well done HQ, a victory for common humanity! those thread make me pray even more that nothing terrible happens to my family cos there's no doubt they'd be a group of mums out there who'd put the boot in, without a thought.

Greensneeze Mumcentre thinks she is ever so ironic and satirical with her singular icons and litle cryptic messages. Shame it makes no sense.

Mumcentreplus, what the dickens are you gibbering about?

OMGoodness!

Please can we all just stop now?

and so it continues...with High Horsers in the lead...

oh, sorry.....got wrong end of stick

it's true..you are very nice.

Extremely patronising onebat.

sorry!

I didn't call you a moron again, I was just sort of owning up that I did actually say something I shouldn't on that thread so was not all lily-white

yeah alright greensneeze, you don't have to call me a moron at every given opportunity.

the thing I don't understand is some peoples assertion that the McCanns got away lightly because they were middle class professionals. Hence the need to put the boot in at any possible occasion, because the person is really performing a public service and making sure they suffer enough

Really?!

My memory of the events were that they were publically pilloried and libelled in the national media and supermarket shopping queues and dinner parties across the country. And they were investigated by social services.

I don't see how anyone can interpret that as somehow getting off lightly.

Oh stop it, noddy, please.

While I personally agree with Rhubarb, I'm worried that this thread will now go the way of the last.

I was one of the lumpers-in and I absolutely stand by that. I think idle speculation about this subject - the reduction of the probable murder of a child to the level of a soap opera plot - is repulsive, whether or not a particular poster makes libelous accusations.

They are wiling away an hour or two, and using as their entertainment the (probably brutal, probably horific) death of a toddler. If you can't see that there is something troubling in that fact then..

This is over and above teh (no-brainer) 'no evidence for a trial, innocent until proven guilty' argument which various posters have tirelessly pointed out.

Rhubarb - so agree with you. I was eventually riled into commenting on this thread because of the insinuation that it was only "ghastly people" like the McCanns who would ever have left their children to sleep when they went to dinner. As I stated I and no doubt thousands of other ghastly people/holiday makers over the years have done exactly as they did without it ever entering their heads that they were doing anything wrong or taking a risk. If this hadn't happened, no doubt, thousands more families would be doing the same/taking the same risk as we speak. This case must have changed the policies of so many holiday firms and the behaviour of so many families. What I couldn't/can't understand is the personal vitriole against a family who must still be going through hell. Mumsnet right in shutting down thread.

But yes, this thread is in danger of becoming just another one of those threads where details are pored over and theories bandied about.

The wrong type of person will once again be attracted and the whole thread will once more ignite.

But I shall state again, that Kate McCann could well have been me. I've done very similar things that I would not do now. It's easy to look back with hindsight isn't it? Just remember that the little girl is still missing, they are a family still grieving and whatever you think of their decision that night, they are paying for it now. They are human beings who do not deserve to be pulled apart - they've already had their hearts ripped out. Let's leave them in peace.