People are spending far more time sabotaging McCann threads than the McCann enthusiasts are spending on tittle tattle. Pot and kettle.

[Spidermama]

These are developments. They're leading news bulletins the world over because so many people are following the story.

You don't have to, but don't spent so much time and energy ruining it for those who do please. Just look at other threads instead.

I used to be a nork clasper when the threads were devoid of real developments, but today I've had to move because I find the nork clasping camp (keepbumping and friends) is the loonier of the two now.

Hmm I don't know

I think people can post what they like really

So if a bunch of people choose to speculate like wierdos and loons they can do (we can report libellous/ offensive posts) and if a bunch of other people decide to talk about handbags on the thread, they can do that.

Was that too non-committal?

I think I mean I don't care

oh don't be silly bobbysmum

I think there are a lot of weirdos and loons on this site. All that talk about bleach and cleaning yesterday, and then all this 'bumping' to the end post ... it's not exactly normal, is it?

And I don't think I've every come across a group of people as smug and sanctimonious in one place.

The fact is, some people here convinced themselves that this news story affected them personally. They wept and wailed and handed out posters and even lit candles with their own children. And now they are facing a situation in which they might have to explain to their children that all was not as it appeared to be. And they daren't contemplate that possibility. Therefore no one must discuss it.

Actually Bobbysmum from memory I recall that lot of MNers were concerned about the way the lose of this little girl was personalised by some people, including the press. Wasn't that partly the point of the whole shrek debate?

I am not a member of any camps - don't 'know' many people here but I think the MM threads get so difficult so quickly because it is a hugely emotional issue and I have to say that in my view some posts cross the line of what is decent and what is honourable to 'say'.
I don't think many people refuse to accept the McCanns may be guilty. I think it is just that for many the idea that a parent could loose a child and then be accused is so horrendous. The Sally Clarke case was so tragic and still resonates. If charges were brought and accusations proven then I think the discussions would be much more measured. But the McCanns are not in the same boat as Murat for example - this is their child. The cases where a parent is responsible are so awful - to be accused of it must be equally unbearable. The police should ( and I'm sure will ) investigate every possibility and everyone knows you check outthe family pretty quickly. But there were posts on other threads about McCann's putting their dead daughter in a suitcase. Really? Does that,taking a step back, seem OK?
I'm not sure it is.
I confess that whilst I am content in waiting to see how this case progresses and hope ( somewhat forlornly) that there will be some positive outcome I have read several of these threads because I find the posting extraordinary. MOre than any other this subject keeps illustrating in the most vivid ways that we may all look and sound much the same but the way we think and interpret ....amazing and fascinating although for me a little sad.
can I ask what you are most interested in here because , if you don't mind me saying so, this subjest seems to make you very angry and your postings seem quite upset and aggressive? Does this case resonate with you for some particular reason.
Please feel free not to answer - I am aware I am sounding nosey

I do feel you've misunderstood some of the anger on here bobbysmum.

I feel very angry that people are so quick to jump to the worst possible conclusion about the McCanns and to lambast them when they are suffering so terribly.

It's not because I identify myself with them, or because I'm going to have to talk to my children about this - I have tried to minimise the mention of Madeleine to my children, inevitably I've had to talk to them because they've come across it in school, in my mother's tabloid papers, etc., but I don't see any value in spending hours frightening my children aobut the possibility of bad men taking them from their beds.

I just feel that there is something truly indecent about the sheer ghoulishness of pointless, hurtful and sometimes cruel speculation. It is so, so base. And also I find it frightening that people don't think analytically; if I'm ever accused of a crime I didn't commit, it would appear from these threads, that I shouldn't put my trust in a British jury to be able to weigh evidence soberly and intelligently. I think some people can't ever imagine being accused, but I can.

I don't think any of the posts on here have been ghoulish. That's just something screamed by people who don't want the case discussed for the reasons listed below.

And just because you haven't involved your children in this ... spectacle ... doesn't mean that others haven't, LB.

I've read plenty of posts on here talking about what people have said to their children, how they've lit candles, said prayers with them, etc. All of them convinced that they owned part of this tragedy.

It's sick.

And what's even more sick is the lengths that those same people will now go to to deny reality. It's already happening.

I'm not saying that these people killed their child. I'm saying that you can't wish away or deny evidence against them because it suits your own agenda.

At the end of the day, justice has to be sought for the child and the truth. And that's all that matters.

but that's what we're saying bobbysmum

Tht there is no evidence as yet. Not reliable, credible, believable evidence.

If there were, the Portuguese would have charged them with a crime, rather than just declaring them suspects.

You and other posters with your view don't seem to have read and digested any of the posts pointing this out with any care.

You talk of justice, but you don't appear to want justice. You appear to want the McCann's to be charged with and found guilty of - what? Murder, manslaughter, aiding and abetting kidnap? You are not approaching this subject with an open mind. Which tbh, if you are representative of the great british public, I find deeply frightening. Hence my level of irritation.

Meant to say Portuguese police

Yes but what if the slug ends up in my bath?

'I do feel you've misunderstood some of the anger on here bobbysmum.

I feel very angry that people are so quick to jump to the worst possible conclusion about the McCanns and to lambast them when they are suffering so terribly.

It's not because I identify myself with them, or because I'm going to have to talk to my children about this - I have tried to minimise the mention of Madeleine to my children, inevitably I've had to talk to them because they've come across it in school, in my mother's tabloid papers, etc., but I don't see any value in spending hours frightening my children aobut the possibility of bad men taking them from their beds.

I just feel that there is something truly indecent about the sheer ghoulishness of pointless, hurtful and sometimes cruel speculation. It is so, so base. And also I find it frightening that people don't think analytically; if I'm ever accused of a crime I didn't commit, it would appear from these threads, that I shouldn't put my trust in a British jury to be able to weigh evidence soberly and intelligently. I think some people can't ever imagine being accused, but I can. '

Ditto.

it's already slimed my sponge

If anything's going to bring Mumsnet into disrepute it's the fact that off-topic trolling is being allowed to close down discussion of a news topic in a news forum.

I've never seen such sanctimonious trolling in all my years online. Frankly, it's embarrassing.

Unless you are a moderator or owner of the board the only posts you need to worry about are your own. It's great to find a board that is lightly moderated in the main, but when that is supplemented by self-appointed morality monitors it makes a mockery of the whole site.

That should solve the problems of MN's national profile and being quoted in the Guardian [although seriously, FFS how naive do you have to be to think that means ANYTHING other than that some journalists are lazy] - nobody will touch quoting the site when it's know for being a site full of in-groups, in-fighting, and people who aren't very clever patronising everybody else.

good god! Don't tell me the trolls have landed!

The ruiners will be here soon to ruin your discussion. They find out you know, they know everything. scary.

Go on, discuss the case all you like. I'm only spouting about slugs. 'Tis important to me you see.

some cute little slugs for you

Awww! Now if it looked like that it wouldn't be so bad!

"The fact is, some people here convinced themselves that this news story affected them personally. They wept and wailed and handed out posters and even lit candles with their own children. And now they are facing a situation in which they might have to explain to their children that all was not as it appeared to be. And they daren't contemplate that possibility. Therefore no one must discuss it."
I quite agree Bobbysmum. It's the Princess Diana effect - where people feel they own a part of a story, but at the same time slate the media - forgetting that without the media they wouldn't know anything about the story in the first place.
It's a big news story, it resonates with mums everywhere, the investigation has just taken a shocking turn - it's hardly surprising that MNetters want to discuss it.

and they can act too

psml!

Somehow dd1 hasn't heard about this at school and as she doesn't have access to a newspaper or news on tv this isn't an issue for her. I haven't read much on here myself. Tbh I find the public candle-lighting, 'look at me grieving' stuff just as uncomfortable as the gruesome speculation. I really don't get how people refer to 'Gerry and Kate', as though either they knew them or they are some celebrity couple. But surely a little empathy would have stopped the enjoyment some people seem to be getting out of this, whatever their opinions.

Theyre here! Told you they would come, unavoidable

Evening all. We have posted on this subject here.

"Tht there is no evidence as yet. Not reliable, credible, believable evidence."

For someone who doesn't like speculating, you are very good at it.