Shannon Matthews case

[smurfboy]

How you form an opinion is very important.

I'm sure there are people who think 'well it said so in The Sun so it must be true', which I agree isn't the best way to form an opinion. But unless a person happened to be there at the time of either of the incidents we've been discussing in this thread, and was subsequently given full access to the police investigation, the information released through the press is invariably going to have an effect on their opinion. People are entitled to speculate and form their own theories and unless some pretty compelling evidence to the contrary comes to light, you can't tell them they're wrong.

[loulou]

I know some people like to only think nice thoughts and cannot face up to reality but I am telling you Kate McCann will be involved in that little girls disappearance.

 
But unless a person happened to be there at the time of either of the incidents we've been discussing in this thread, and was subsequently given full access to the police investigation.... People are entitled to speculate and form their own theories and unless some pretty compelling evidence to the contrary comes to light, you can't tell them they're wrong.

There in lies the nub of the problem for me. Everyone loves to speculate and I think that you have to be sure of your facts before committing to a statement such as Lou's.

If you tend to think the worse of everyone then what is it saying about you? (Not you, personally,  NAC )

[loulou]

I don't think the worst of everyone just women who when they think their child has been snatched go around shedding no tears with their make up immaculate and all their jewellery on.  Please be honest here, how many women do you know who would have the interest or energy to put a full face of makeup on , do their hair and don jewellery when their child has just gone missing?

She may well be callous and cold hearted, as it appears to some, but does that make her responsible for the abduction?

[oldspice]

I don't think the worst of everyone just women who when they think their child has been snatched go around shedding no tears with their make up immaculate and all their jewellery on.  Please be honest here, how many women do you know who would have the interest or energy to put a full face of makeup on , do their hair and don jewellery when their child has just gone missing?

 

Yes, but then again lou, Shannon Matthew's mother appeared on TV blubbing, apparently heart-broken, with a un-made-up-face and unkempt hair - and it seems that it was all an act. So, you never can tell.

[naxos]

Looking at her, I think if anyone gave the mother a lipstick she'd try to deep fry it with chips.

[loulou]

That's too funny. She looks the type who only bathes once in a blue moon.

[smurfboy]

She may well be callous and cold hearted, as it appears to some, but does that make her responsible for the abduction?

 

No, it's leaving the child alone that makes her responsible.

[loulou]

Very true.

No it does not.

The person who took her is repsonsible for that.

Neglect is a charge that could be levelled at the parents.

paulham2008-04-20 14:40:04

[loulou]

Let's take a vote. Who thinks it is ok leave their children alone in a foreign country?

[naxos]

Definitely not okay.

[oldspice]

It's never Ok to leave your children alone.

 

I don't think it's helpful to compare these cases at all. The only link is that the McCann case may have inspired the Shannon Matthews hoax.

 

My take is that the McCanns should never have left their children alone and now they are paying the ultimate price - which in my view is punishment enough (but not much consolation to poor Maddie)

 

The Matthews crew seem to be a bunch of hopelessly sad and irresponsible individuals who on the face of it seem to be the architects of their own misfortune but in reality are probably the inevitable fall-out of Thatcher's policies in the north of England nearly thirty years on.

[smurfboy]

To be sung to the tune of The Addams Family:

'Your sister is your mother, your father is your brother, they all sh*g one another, it's Shannon's fam-ily...'