In England the McCanns would be arrested

[LostPuppy]

Off the bat, I of course hope with all my heart that Madeleine is returned safely

But her "parents" are a disgrace. They left Madeleine and two-year-old twins Sean and Amelie sleeping in the apartment ON THEIR OWN. They had taken turns to return from the restaurant to check on their children.

Now hang on! In this country that is illegal, for very good reason.

Even if they 'checked on them' every five minutes that's plenty of time for one of the kids to wake up and try to go to the toilet and crack it's head open slipping on the bathroom floor, or something equally disastrous. They'd never hear the screaming from a bloody restaurant down the road!

Obviously it's unlikely, but I just cant comprehend the mentality of leaving three children under 3 alone on their own, ever, let alone at night in a foreign country!

Quattro...its been done to death in the papers and on sky news...in the early stages of the investigation.

Expat, oh, I see.

Quattro, don't know why you are throwing your toys out of the pram just because you aren't the only lawyer in the MN village. I know at least one person on this thread apart from you is a lawyer, while another is a magistrate. So your dogmatic 'I know the law and you are all merely peasants' act isn't impressing anyone.

Big deal, you are a solicitor or whatever, jolly well done you.

Edam...if she is lawyer I'll eat my hat..Just ignore..

why should she be ignored? Why can't she talk about the law?

What is wrong with you people?

Because she talks a load of rubbish...yet claims to a lawyer??...OK...whatever you say...Your just making a lauging stock of yourself now.

IMHO..of course.....but what would I know...

as expat said, 'full circle' and look over 980 post so it will all end soon!

She doesn't talk rubbish, she's just expressing her opinion. With a bit too much eloquence and clear-headedness for some people. She also refuses to get riled, which seems to wind a lot of people up.

Ladymuck

I am not in the business of trying to out those people who claim to be lawyers but aren't. Everyone is entitled to their own little, well, shall we call them pomposities? Such a good word for a lawyer, I think.

But I am snorting with laughter at the thought of someone pretending to be a lawyer. Why on earth would anyone do that? Why not pretend to be something well, s tsd more glamorous or interesting? What is so wrong with working at Kwik Save?

I do not personally believe some of the people claiming to be lawyers on this thread - some of the thought processes of the alleged lawyers are not especially logical - but there are bad lawyers and good. Like there are bad doctors and good. So maybe they are not fantasists. Who knows? That's the internet for you.

But it truly doesn't matter in the context of the awesome responsibility we all have as parents, and of looking after our children as best we can.

Has anyone other than you claimed to be a lawyer?

So I can conclude you are talking about yourself then?

Someone protesteth too much me thinks...

LOL dogs bollox...your right...give them enough rope...and they trip them selves up...Its quite pathetic.

QC, that wasn't my view of the article on the Alphamummy site. Some lawyer was just asked by the Times to give a few examples. They didn't even say leaving the children was illegal, did they? They said it could be or it was inadvisable but they certainly didn't say that common practice lots of us do on these types of holidays is a criminal offence and you've seen the quote from the 1933 Act haven't you - it refers to neglect. It's just a case by case assessed thing.

I even posted partly against my own intepretation because I'm fair and I'd found it the NSPCC view and their example was someone leaving children at home whilst they went to work every day which I think most of us would agree is neglect.

So I will carry on legally doing what I have always done (although actually my children are too old to be in this category anyway now) and you can view the law as meaning you'd better not leave yours alone in that sort of case but I still think I'm right and it doesn't breach English law. As someone else said below it's left deliberately to interpretation and in a sense that's probably right so on a case by case basis it can be assessed.

I think some parents might find it useful if the law would set out some rules like at what age can my daughter baby sit or how old must the babysitter be but even that isn'g legally clear and perhaps with good reason.

"No I don't do magistrates court work (of course). "

you do get barristers in the mag court.

90% of all cases et ecte ct

funny you seem to be int he 10 percent that are indicatable only.

hello dino, i know where you're coming from...

Dinosaur.

oh not its 95 %

oh not its 95 %

LOL - Dino!

I picked up your email from the soapbox email addy - will check my diary on Monday when in the office and get back to you then if that's okay?

family court maybe?

But Xenia...you must forget all the resarch you have done on this suject...forget the experts quoted and the NSPCC site...You must go with Qquattros view...She is of course corrct ...because she is a lAWYER ..you know..

family court is stil mag

nearly there....

almost