Anyone watching Madeleine McCann ten years on?

[spottysuperted]

They're framing it slightly differently now.. 😧 interesting from the bbc...

I think everyone - including the Mcanns - has accepted that Madeleine wouldn't have gone missing if her parents had been there. They've been upfront from the start about what they did - they could have pretended it was a one-off, but were open about the fact they did it all week. Whatever you think about that it doesn't alter the fact that the investigation was not great at the start and that precious time was lost. I think considering their daughter has been missing for ten years the Mcanns really don't need another a kicking over it. It helps no one - certainly not Madeleine who is still missing.

To spend so much time On One case seems bizarre and totally out of order when hundreds are missing every year do the others not matter ?without mentioning the suspicious and bizarre parents involved

"You know that moment when you lose sight of your child in a shopping mall? Imagine that feeling lasting for thirty years."
^ police officer to journalist Hadley Freeman re missing children.

Some really good points about people having no idea how they'd react in this situation. I said in the thread in the main forum that got deleted, if you'd like to use your lack of understanding as a weapon, show us your credentials. If you've not got any, stop holding the McCanns responsible for that.

So for example, if their behaviour makes no sense to you because they should've cried/not held hands/whatever, consider the possibility that this could be because you know nothing about people's reactions to extreme shock. If it doesn't make sense to you that they weren't arrested for neglect, consider the possibility that the reason it doesn't make sense to you could be because you're completely ignorant of Portguese law. And that you'd also not considered, as Mrs DV pointed out, that parents in these sort of scenarios never are. Rather than pontificating about how It Doesn't Make Sense To Me.

I mean, maybe there is a conspiracy, and certainly I think most of us can look to things in the investigation that are very hard to understand- the police not wanting the cuddle cat for months afterwards, for example. But if you don't know shit (and very few of us do) then is that not the most obvious reason for your incomprehension? I have no idea what happened or who was responsible. But what I do know for certain is that if your awareness of normal reactions to extreme trauma in humans could be written on the back of a postage stamp, then your opinion isn't worth anything at all, and you have to be either arrogant or thick to think it is.

The problem with this case is that it's turned into such a cottage industry in its own right that it's turned every nosey silly cunt with an internet connection into a top detective in their own heads. YY to the family of Ben Needham only being spared this because it was pre 24 hour news saturation and social media.

And none of this will be any less true if it turns out the parents were responsible, which for all I know they could be. Those of you bleating on about things being interesting and sheep and all the rest of it didn't 'know', you didn't have any particular insight. You just wanted someone to pitchfork, because you like it.

Alec - so they (not the McCanns) left their sick baby in an area that she didn't feel safe walking through?!

I can understand the justification for not prosecuting the McCanns for neglect (already suffered enough having lost a child), but I do wonder why the other parents weren't.

(I'm guessing 'baby' from the growbag comments)

I am quite puzzled by how well connected the McCanns are and were. Are they by any chance freemasons? As that would probably explain that.

Well seeing as how Gerry McCann is a Glaswegian Catholic, a practicing one, and with a name like that he might as well have I Am A Fenian written on his forehead, I'm going to go with probably not.

The McCanns are both from diaspora Irish communities. There's historically not been much love lost between those groups and the Freemasons, take it from someone else with a similar cultural background. They were both born into 60s cities, Glasgow and Liverpool, that still had pretty significant sectarian problems. Liverpool's persisted well into the 80s, Glasgow's still exist now. Joining the Freemasons for people like that, people who were born into what was very much then and still sometimes is now a separate subculture, is like going over to the other side.

It's not that Catholics joining the Freemasons never happens, particularly ones who are not/not any longer part of the culture I mentioned. But those two are not very likely contenders.

I dont know any Tim who would join the Masons! Especially in Scotland where its all nasty sectarian shit - in Glasgow we still have orange marches FFS. Run by the Lodge. AkA masons.

Which means the McCanns are even more cunning than anyone guessed!

Yup...

My dad is a few years older than Gerry, but he won't even step on Masons owned property. That's a relatively extreme example, but otoh we're from a much less sectarian city than Glasgow. And those two are Catholic as fuck, let's be honest. Bet they even send Mass cards. That's a description that might not mean much if you don't know the subculture, but if you're from it and you're reading, I guarantee it will strike a chord!

The continued popularity of the Masons suggestion really surprises me. I'm not saying it's impossible or that it's never happened, but if you were born in Glasgow in the 60s that would be a big thing to do. Being a freemason and a mantilla wearing left footer do not usually go together.

Where did I watch a programme about the masons recently? Maybe it was bbc, it was interesting anyhow. My granny sold mass cards miss

Exactly, MissShitty. I've in fact wondered whether part of the vicious dislike expressed towards the McCanns might stem from their evident Catholicism -- the audience with the Pope, the rosary beads, their churchgoing in the aftermath of Madeleine's disappearance. I forget the extent to which Catholicism is still often seen as suspicious, atavistic and 'other' in England.

Lol maudlin. Well you'll know what I mean when I say the McCanns are prime Mass card giving and receiving territory! If people were saying Gerry was a Catenian, that I could understand.

Bet they even send Mass cards.

My mother must have paid the equivalent of a small mortgage in mass cards down the years.

I'm a second generation Irish Catholic and I can't stand the McCanns or the way in which they behaved prior to, or after, the disappearance of their daughter.

My grannys mass box tin was really inviting when I was small. She used to let me count the money with her, I built some serious pound coin towers and yes the house was full of people coming in and out to purchase. You could get mass cards for people who where ill or mass cards for people who died. Unbelievable really. I don't think I've ever bought or sent one, but then religion just went over my head.

I'm a second generation Irish Catholic and I can't stand the McCanns or the way in which they behaved prior to, or after, the disappearance of their daughter.

How very Christian of you. Which teaching of the Bible would you be guiding you in that attitude?

Love thy neighbour?
He who is without sin shalt cast the first stone?

Do you think Jesus would have exhibited the same lack of empathy and tolerance for the parents of a missing child who made a massive mistake but have committed no crime? That you 'can't stand' them or 'the way in which they behaved'?

How does your 'second generation Irish Catholicism' guide you in this matter?

I'm a second generation Irish Catholic and I can't stand the McCanns or the way in which they behaved prior to, or after, the disappearance of their daughter.

Right, but that has nothing to do with whether people from their background make likely Freemasons (no) or whether sodding off to Mass in times of difficulty is common for a particular sort of practicing Catholic (yes). You can abhor the people and/or practices whilst still understanding that they exist.

In terms of the McCann's Catholicism, it's not something I'd particularly considered before except insofaras it's odd that the Mason thing still keeps being put out there. This thread is not the first time I've seen it suggested, and I don't make a habit of looking for McCann stuff.

Nope - I tend to avoid anything to do with MM, I don't want to give them anymore publicity than they already have had!

I don't understand why the friend would talk about not liking going through in the dark, when she wasn't asked about that.

I still buy mass cards! It would we very strange to go to a funeral without one (Ireland)..

The McCanns faith has obviously given them comfort in a very dark time, that's normal. If I went through something similar I may turn to faith again, if it gives them any sense of hope or comfort then that can only be a good thing.

Which teaching of the Bible would you be guiding you in that attitude?

Alec strikes me as someone who is much keener on the Old Testament approach.

whether sodding off to Mass in times of difficulty is common for a particular sort of practicing Catholic (yes)

Yes, that's what I mean. Entirely normal for a practicing Catholic,but I think it was regarded in some quarters as an 'odd' thing to do, and indicative of 'not the right kind of response' to your child's disappearance.

There's even a particularly horrifying 'theory' which I won't repeat here, though I came upon it as a result of reading this thread, which involves the McCann's 'sinister' access to the local church in Praia de Luz being key to what happened.

Maudlin, I now want to know about your granny and the mass cards - was she the sacristan or something, or running a private racket? We used to get sent down to the sacristy after morning mass, or into town to the Franciscans.