To think the Met spending £5 million on Maddie McCann is unfair on others who have missing children

[Ilovemyself]

I know how retched I would feel if I were in the McCanns position, and would want no expense to be spared in the hunt for answers.

But I can't help but think that this case has been so high profile that other cases must have funding cut or not even be followed up as the budget is limited.

I honestly don't know what the answer is, but it does seem this case has benefitted in ways others wouldn't.

I feel bad for thinking its unfair on others, but just can't help wondering how other victims of serious crime feel.

Pinebarrens. What is really horrible are the missing people who don't get the resources on their case that this one has.

It's not about the amount of money, it's about how this case for some reason seems to get the attention and others don't.

Tigoldbitties. That is my thought. It was more the Met can gain from this as either those that found her or her abducter or ( hopefully not) killer, or that at least they tried.

Someone mentioned the Katrice Lee case. No inquiry for them, unfortunately: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2147077/Katrice-Lee-Cameron-rules-new-inquiry-girls-disappearance.html

ilove really, there is no justification for starting this thread.

Goshanne. This is exactly the sort of thing I am talking about. I am sure her father would not behrudge the money being spent on the McCann case if the same was given to his case.

Pinebarrens. There is. I do not believe that the system is fair where one case gets all of the media attention and resource whilst others get nothing. It is not about what the McCanns case gets - its what all the others don't.

Oh for heavens sake!

Of course this thread is about who deserves what. When you ask 'why this case' you are saying this case, this family, doesn't deserve this investigation and by implication you therefore cast a gloom on the parents. These threads are always the same. A truck load of sanctimony about why these parents failed their kids and that's why their baby was taken. No. Their child is gone because of a crime. The criminal is responsible. It's as simple as that.

Some posters need to spend less time bitching about the flaws they see in other people's parenting and more time concentrating on the flaws in their own character's capacity for empathy and generosity of spirit.

ilove there isn't.

There isn't endless money, if you give to one you take from another. And the fact is that millions are spent on one child with a billion to one chance of every being seen again, while children are trafficked, lost, missing and dead, and nobody knows their names, nobody is throwing millions at them.

This case resonates with people here and everywhere because this child could have been yours, or mine. But throwing millions at a hopeless case to make you feel better is not the best use of resources. Someone has to count the cost. Instead of bleating about how this one family deserves whatever it takes, spare a thought for those whose names aren't a phenomenon.

Northernlurker. This is NOT about the McCanns not deserving anything or playing the blame game ( well for me anyway) It's about the others like Katrice Lees family or Elsa Buttons family who are in a similar situation but seem to get nothing.

And Pinebarrens, that it why this thread is justified. If you can only answer it isn't, don't bother as you have already said that.

DH and I were discussing this tonight. We both agreed if it was our DC then of course we would fight bitterly for every last penny of resources to be spent on finding our DC. However: I live in London, and see pitiful tweets and posters every day about children going missing and know how few resources are spent on most missing children's cases. That's not to say we shouldn't pursue each and every one to try and find out what happened but I don't think the OP is unreasonable to suggest that resources should be spread more fairly.

Just to really get flamed - what about v rare diseases which NIACE doesn't agree drugs for? I helped (a while ago) pay for a woman to go to Texas for experimental brain surgery and treatment for a rare tumour unavailable on the NHS (mainly as the treatment was unproven). She is alive long after she would have died. There's no public dissention - or rare dissent - in public about social resources spent on outlier conditions, the vast majority of which are picked up by either campaigning families or who don't get treated.

I'm just suggesting that the McCanns have, from their perspective rightly, fought for a full investigation. Whether that's in the wider interests of society is a different question. The fact that the cost of the bank bailout is still 4 times - 4 times! - what UKGP spends on welfare funding for all those in need in this country whilst bankers in state-owned banks cream off significant amounts in bonuses, for me, outlines the real problem.

There's not a big enough amount of cake to go around - to pay for McCann family investigation, or rare brain tumours. If we had more public money to spend (i.e. if corporations paid their fair share) then we wouldn't be having this conversation. However, we are: there isn't enough public money swishing around for outliers like this not to be questioned. Harsh but true?

Thank,you lessons. A voice of reason.

ilove please don't presume because you started this distasteful thread you can dictate who can and cannot comment.

the reason i repeated myself was because the statement you proceeded "it is" with (as opposed to a justifiable reason) doesn't make this thread any more palatable.

Just because you find it unpalatable doesn't make it unjustifiable. Those that are not getting the backing they want in finding their missing children, along with those that have no voice as they have been trafficked from foreign countries or have no families are the ones that are being done a disservice.

I think it is unpalatable that in a so called civilised society these people are brushed under the carpet and then people bleat when someone questions why they are not getting help when others are.

That, IMHO is why this thread is totally justifiable.

Northernlurker - the point is that we don't know for sure that she is gone due to a crime. No one knows what happened. And for those saying the Portugese police did nothing, they are very wrong the area WAS searched.When April Jones disappeared we didn't close all the airports so I'm uncertain as to why the tabloids & others on here seem to be jumping on that bandwaggon!

I still don't understand why the events & times they happened have never been put out there for the public - it is crucial in jogging peoples memories.

I

maybe because Gerry McCann is a freemason

Redhelen. That's a ridiculous statement I can only assume you were tired. So just to be clear, if the police or just some people on the Internet really, think maybe a child is missing but it's not due to crime, them we don't investigate? Hmm.

Interestingly, this very topic was being discussed on local BBC radio this morning and people were ringing/texting in saying "what about Ben Needham?" and what about X, Y and Z missing child?

Pinebarrens - like it or not, this is very definitely news, it is being discussed in the wider world and therefore seems perfectly justifiable as a thread, whatever ones personal views.

there are missing young people out there that we have not even heard of they are not newsworthy - perhaps just a bit too old, not pretty, not white, perhaps in care or working in the sex industry, not a girl, whatever.

RedHelen You are the one who is wrong. The Portugese police failed the McCanns. You have already said you don't believe the whole truth has been told about what happened that night, and you wonder if she was actually taken. What do you think happened then?

landofsoap - you must know there are assorted theories other than abduction? That one of the McCanns accidentally killed Maddie or that Maddie got out of the apartment by herself, perhaps drowned or died, and the McCanns covered it up. Those are just two that circulated right at the start. There are probably others. Doesn't mean they are right.

The likelihood is of course abduction. But there was very little evidence of this. Just because the likelihood is X doesn't mean it necessarily was, so strictly speaking, RedHelen is quite right. We DON'T know that she is gone due to a crime.

i didn't say it wasn't news.

i just don't understand why anyone would start this thread. what was the aim? to raise awareness of other missing children or to have a pop at a high profile missing child and her family? OP you probably knew which it would be and that's what's unjustifiable.

funds are being divvied up, that is being done disproportionately. we get it. its not hard to understand.

If there was a chance of her being found i could understand it, if they started this many years ago i could understand it, but she went missing in 2007 so the search costing 5million could be better spent on more recent cases that have more probability on the child being found.

I'm not against the money being spent on finding Madeline, but it should have been done in 2007 when everything was fresh and new in people's minds.

But now there are children out there that are more likely to be found that could use some of this 5million that is being soley spent on one missing child, that is bound to be fruitless.

Some of the 38 'persons of interest' might turn out to be involved in other cases of missing children. I find it hard to believe poor little Madeleine will be found after all this time, but some good could come out of this investigation for other children.

I'd be interested to know in what percentage of cases a missing child is found alive and well by a police investigation and in what timescales? I may be wrong, but in these cases where people have been found years later having been imprisoned by bastards (such as the three women in America recently) most were never found via police investigation but by someone either escaping or some other chance event. And very often the police HAD a chance to find them and didn't.

It is normal for missing persons (of ALL ages) to be scaled back after a certain period of time. The case remains open, but things are scaled back because as time passes, evidence is harder to find etc.

Pinenarrens. That is why this thread is perfectly justifiable. Should we just sit back and let those that d