A letter to the parents of Madeleine McCann...

[Ewe]

From Esther Rantzen.

What do you think?

Whilst I do see the point she is raising I think this type of journalism (if you can call it that?) is unnecessary, like much of the Daily Mail I suppose.

none of her business IMO

i think it is the height of audacity to tell them to move on because she thinks it is time for them to

interesting that she then refers to keith bennett's mum who has not given up trying to find her son's body and that is decades ago

Wow, what a selfish self-seeking publicist! If she really felt like that she had to write a letter, why not do it in private? Or express her opinion, but not address it to the parents directly? That really sucks!

I think she's totally out of line. If she wanted to write a letter to them then do it, post it to their agent or whatever (I assume they're not hard to find via their websites).

But publish it in a paper and take money for that?

It's a bit sick, tbh.

patronising crap

What an incredibly inappropriate and self-aggrandising ("Look how I 'healed' Denise Fergus" ) piece of twaddle.

If this is a letter she wanted to write then it should have been sent to Mr & Mrs McCann, not published in a national newspaper.

Really quite revolting.

Out of order. Is there some guideline somewhere that says to parents 'three years is long enough' now move on? I don't think so, and if it were me, I think I'd keep raising it every anniversary in the hope of finding something new.

Bloody hypocritical as well to suggest it is ok for Winnie Bennett to keep looking for her son's body which she knows is out there somewhere after 46 years, but not ok to keep appealing for information about Madeleine after only 3 years, when they still don't know what happened.

Couldn't get past the first few para's , was patronising rubbish of the 'we know how you feel' variety. I very much doubt many people know exactly how the McCanns feel.

Despite my opinion on the McCann's, this is beyond disturbing. She has no right to tell them when to give up hope. What a sick sick woman.

she wasn't telling them to give up hope though, headline was misleading
I do agree publishing this in a newspaper was hearltess and the asdvice itself was patronising

That is horrible. On so many levels.

It had no point whatsoever, wtf should they change what their charity does? She is a vile woman.

"So I hope it doesn't sound too harsh to suggest that three years later, the world has moved on. Not because we have forgotten Maddie, nor because we have lost sympathy with you and your family, but because the pain we felt at the time has begun to numb and heal with time."

Yes, because she's not OUR child, and because any 'pain' the public felt was absolutely totally incompreshibly incomparable to the pain of the parents, I expect.

What a horrible, smug, patronising, self-congratulatory letter.

what a fucking leech.

Her arrogance is astounding. Although she uses phrases alongthe lines of 'of course we can't imagine how you feel' the whole tone is of someone who has infinite insight into tragedy - all because she was once an average tv presenter.

She reminds me of the twats that I sometimes encounter who have worked with disabled children so think that they know what it is like to mother one. It is insensitive and ignorant beyond measure

Stupid, self important arrogant twat.

She should be thoroughly ashamed of herself. She won't be though. She belives her own bullshit

Thing I hate about the McCann case is it takes away from other cases.

theres nothing special about it, kids go missing all the time, kids get killed all the time, if all the other cases got given even just a tiny amount of the publicity that case had at the time I'm sure it would help solve cases.

I detest sensationalism, the news should be far and give a few mins to tell us all the facts and any new leads on all murders. missing people etc, instead of giving hours upon hours and page upon page to a big headline case day after day when there is nothing new to report, that doesn't help anything.

Maybe she is trying to say that in a way in the letter without actually sounding like she is saying that, maybe it's because she thinks she is some kind of expert because she has spoken to so many as part of her charity work, maybe it's a publicity stunt (is she still running to be an MP?) what ever it is she should have read it after writing it.

Pyoko - That isn't the McCanns fault though, what parent wouldn't do the same if they could?

How on Earth can they ever move on?

What a patronising fucker.

Well it is publicity I suppose. But she may as well give out flyers

" Vote for me. I am a self important, arrogant, insensitive twat with no empathy but a misplaced delusion of caring insight"

I read about half of the article and thought: how dare she.

I wonder how much she got paid for it?

I don't think I could every give up hope on finding my child if I was in that situation.

Being generous I can sort of understand her motive for encouraging them to do something positive, may help them but it may not. Ultimately, if she had something to say she should have done so to them directly, not in the Daily Mail.

Also, some of the comments at the bottom, I really hope the McCann's don't see this article.

Well, my first thought was

"F**kwitted drivel, she's just trying to sell her column and newspaper by dredging it up all over again."

But my next thought is that the anniversary is coming up, and the McCann's will probably try to use that to re-energise their campaigns, and the media will lap it up and talk about little else like the mindless lemmings they are... so basically, would be nice if someone could stop the coming deluge of anniversary coverage. Because I am sick to the back teeth of the way this story dominated then and still has the power to dominate now.

What a dreadful letter
She should be ashamed of herself
3 years is no time at all
And I doubt you ever 'move on'
She has , luckily for her, no idea of what it must feel like to lose a child
She has plummeted in my estimation
idiot

I think that if I was in Kate's position, I would be utterly consumed with grief until the day I eventually died. IMO, there is no possibility of her "moving on". It just seems impossible to me. What happened is so terrible.

That said, she has 2 other children so I would have no idea how to carry on in her position.

It is very sad. I suppose to put a positive spin on it, Esther's newspaper article is actually giving the case some publicity which is what Kate wants and understandably so.

Dear Esther,

You are a patronising, interfering loon.

Best wishes,

Sawney.

isn't she standing as an independent in the election? Maybe she thought that would buy her some votes...