Madeleine: DNA Evidence is no Smoking Gun

The hysteria surrounding the Madeleine Mcann case is growing all the time. The latest twist is that the couple are to have there own independent DNA test done to compare with the results in the possession of the Portuguese police (Svd, Dn). Sir Alec Jeffreys, the man who invented DNA fingerprinting has even offered his help.

We don't know the evidence that the police in Portugal have collected, but the 'smoking gun' appears to be the DNA found in the hire car. But as Sir Alec says, the same DNA match could be found in at least one family member. Since the car was used by Madeleine's parents and siblings, it will be almost impossible to prove that the blood belongs to Madeleine and not to another family member.

Also, let’s say for one second that they are guilty and found Madeleine dead in the flat and decided that rather than risk splitting up the family if they came clean, they decided to hide the body and invent the abduction story. Is it really likely that they could have put on such a convincing show to the world and never once broken down under the weight of all that guilt? They met the Pope for God's sake and being Catholics, lying to the Pope is a pretty big no-no. Also should we then believe that in the shadow of all this media attention, they then moved the body, using the hired car some 30 days later?

Occam's Razor states that 'All things being equal, the simplest solution tends to be the right one'. Unfortunately in this case, the simplest solution is that Madeleine was taken by persons unknown as is now quite probably dead. Going after the parents on the basic of very unsafe evidence will not help uncover the truth.

Life Goes On After Svennis

After England's 3-0 win over Israel and Russia, finally the England football team is playing like the kind of team they need to be in order to win competitions. The last two matches have shown that the great players in the squad can work together as a coherent team.

I hope now that people will give Steve McClaren some room to do his job and stop comparing him to Svennis. Svennis was the right man at the time, but that time has passed and now it's time to move on. Under Svennis's time as manager, England never quite managed to gell and look like force to be recond with. I hope that McClaren has found the key to unlock this potenetial.

For one thing I want to see an England-Sweden match that does not end in a draw and before I die I'd love to see England raise a major trophy and bring footbal home.

Shakespeare: To Be Believed or Not to Be

Three hundred actors in Britain have sighed a 'Declaration of Reasonable Doubt' regarding whether Shakespeare really did pen all those plays. The thrust of their argument is that William Shakepseare was a commoner who was raised in an illiterate household, so where did he get his background information on historical figures, high society and geography of far off cities in Italy for example.

They want to see more research done to look into who might actually have written the plays. Of course for some this is the literary equivalent of denying the holocaust, so it is not without it's critics (not least from the people of Stratford on Avon who make a tidy living selling the Shakespeare brand to US tourists).

Still, there are some heavy weight actors behind this including Sir Derek Jacobi, whom I saw performing as Macbeth at the Royal Shakespeare Theater in Stratford.

Ultimately the authorship will do nothing to take away the brilliance of the plays, but it would be great to know the truth and if Shakespeare was not the author, who was and why were they so happy for Shakespeare to take all the credit?

Bodyshop Founder Dies

Farewell to Anita Roddick, the founder of Bodyshop, who has died suddenly at the age of 64.

She was an inspirational business women, philanthropist and environmental campaigner, who showed the world that it is possible to be both successful and ethical in business. In Britain shed led her support to a campaign to end animal testing in the cosmetics industry, which led to a change in the law.

After stepping down as director of Bodyshop she turned her attention to the human rights issues especially the treatment of women and the treatment of workers in developing countries and was major supporter of Amnesty International.

She never lost sight of her desire to make the world safer and fairer and it is a sad loss to loose somebody who had such drive, such passion and such principals

Suspected but not Charged

You have to remember that Madeleine Mcann's parents are only being made suspects so that the police can follow a particular line of questioning. Nobody has been charged yet and they are not the first suspects in this case. Reading between the lines one might conclude that the police have some forensic evidence which has made them suspicious enough to question the Mcann's but not so much as to actually charge them.

I imagine this is why the police are offering the mother a deal whereby if she confesses it was an accident she might only spend two years in prison. This is because they don't have enough conclusive evidence and so they need a confession to secure a conviction.

You can understand why the police do this as they have a first responsibility to Madaleine and not her parents. But if the parents are innocent, then this must be living hell on top of the hell of loosing their daughter.

The Lab working on the blood spots has been doing so for a month now and so far they have only released preliminary results. It's not like on TV where a few blood spots would have been enough for the CSI team to have wrapped the case up in a few days....

Ten years after Diana can we please move on

It's been ten years since Diana died so can everyone please just get over it...

This cult of personality which has been built up around her is just because people love the drama of her life and the fact she died young in a very public way. The same people who were so horrified that she was killed being chased by the paparazzi are the same ones who bought the newspapers who printed the endless pictures of her. Now they have elevated her up into some kind of saint when in fact she was just a another flawed human being who made plenty of mistakes herself. I wonder how peoples opinon of her would have developed if she had lived on.

Reading the comments left on the BBCs website I can't believe peoples reactions though; one person called her the 'world princess????'.

The most touching an honest comment came from somebody who just wrote this

No, she wasn't.
My Mum was better.
She's dead too.