Sometimes the substance is not only hard to fathom but downright incorrect. The fact is that three children were left unsupervised in a holiday apartment whilst their parents wined and dined. The fact is that a one-year-old boy was left unsupervised in an area with a mechanical digger one hundred yards away.
I think any discussion with you is like a Möbius strip of endless non-points. For you, forums are a platform to cast aspersions on anybody in sight when you put your periscope up and espy a moral deviant in need of correction.
How terrible of the McCanns to wine and dine on holiday! They may have had sex too. It's disgusting I tell you!
They left the children in an apartment within the same holiday complex, very nearby. They did this because they were on holiday and like parents of young children, they wanted to enjoy themselves in the evenings after a day looking after the kids. That's what lots of normal people do. I personally wouldn't have done the same, but that's just me; I expect lots of perfectly normal people do like the McCanns did, even today, without any problems. Indeed, the McCanns were part of a group of respectable people who did exactly this.
Now, I realise that you and the other Roundheads are strongly disapproving of such behaviour. If it's any help to you and your Cromwellian friends, I think the McCanns admit themselves that, with the benefit of hindsight, it was a little foolish, but they also say they did periodically check on the children. It doesn't, for me, amount to neglect. I also maintain that the abduction scenario is plausible and it seems to me they've just been unlucky - tragically so.
Beyond that, I don't have much interest in the case because they strike me as a fairly bland couple and a bit boring. I think if I had to listen to Gerry McCann for more than 30 seconds, I'd probably die of boredom, or go to sleep.
I think one reason the case excites so much feeling is because of a latent resentment towards an aspirational couple from a working class background who became doctors and live in a nice house in Leicestershire. Personally I'm pleased for them and I would like to thank them for their service to the NHS. Other people want to brand them as murderers or similar - on the basis of little or no evidence, it seems to me. It's mostly just spite and meanness. Believe it or not, Steve - you may want to sit down before you read this - judging people is not the same as having evidence. I know that will come as a shock, as it was a shock to Abigail and Reverend Parris, but you may have to just accept that your views, opinions and beliefs are not necessarily facts, and certainly not evidence.
The former solicitor, Tony Bennett, has done a lot of research on the case. Now, personally I see nothing wrong with this, but there is one observation I would make about him. I think physiognomy can sometimes give away clues about a person. This makes sense for all sorts of empirical and scientific reasons, which I won't labour here.
In the case of Mr Bennett, and without in any way wishing to be offensive towards him, he does look a lot like my idea of an early modern Puritan. All that's missing is the broad-brimmed hat, a King James Bible and a wooden cabin somewhere in New England and we could cast him in The Crucible. He'd be perfect!
I wonder if Mr Bennett is a little too over-strenuous in his judgementalism about other people and I also wonder why this might be? I imply nothing, though.
As for the Needhams, now that's an interesting case. It's interesting partly because I suspect the Needhams, or one of the Needhams, is/are responsible for Ben Needham's disappearance and I suspect, tragically, he died in or near the house.
Of course, I could be completely wrong. However, my view does seem to have official support. I pointed out to you earlier, and you clearly weren't paying attention (which is no surprise) that even the head of the South Yorkshire Police investigation implied this. Whether that was a Freudian slip or he couldn't resist giving the game away, I'm not sure, but I think the answer to the mystery is known by the Needhams themselves - sadly.
You don't pay attention to evidence, Steve. If you did, you would know that the suspicion about the mechanical digger is completely without any basis.
However, unlike Mr Bennett, I'm not putting my Puritan hat on. It's a terrible tragedy, and if my suspicions are correct, then I think it was an accident, and my sympathies are with the family.
