Jack the Sipper

Sounds like something an Evertonian would know all about.

Just watched the first five episodes. Up till now I've never had more than a laymans interest in the case, but I do love a good Netflix doc so I thought I'd give this a go. My knowledge of events is obviously lacking, even now, but I just don't see the parents as being guilty of anything more than child neglect - for which they've already suffered more punishment than any slap on the wrist from a social worker could ever hope to impose. As I see it, to accept the prominent theory, that the McCanns accidentally killed Madeleine then, in a panic, hid her body and staged her abduction, you'd also have to accept that her parents are stone-cold sociopaths. Otherwise how could they keep up such a front over the weeks, months and years that followed, and the intense pressure that's been put on them, not least by their own determination to keep the investigation and the story alive? You'd also have to accept that the witnesses at the meal that night were somehow complicit in the cover-up, lying, as has been claimed, to make the McCanns version of events that evening plausible. Why would they lie to protect people who they may have believed were responsible for the death of their child? Because they felt sorry for them? Because they were part of a peadophile ring (a theory I remember circulating at the time)? A lot of focus has been put on the apparent inconsistencies of both the witnesses statements and those of the McCanns. Likewise their apparently 'unusual', 'not normal' behaviour following Madeleine's disappearance. As any detective would acknowledge, however, even the most truthful witnesses give inconsistent statements, either from one statement to the next, or from one witness to the next. As for what is 'normal' behaviour when you've just found your child's been taken, then find yourself at the centre of an international news event, and then find yourself under investigation for your child's death, I'm fucked if I know and I hope to God I never find out. People on this thread, for example, have argued that Kate leaving the twins alone to get help having found Madeleine missing 'isn't credible', and that her trying to get some sleep after the 'abduction' was suspect and 'screamed of guilt'. I mean fucking really? Can anyone here honestly say how they would react in that split second when you've just realised your daughter's been taken? Or that they would sleep any better had they just killed their three year-old by accident and then covered it up? More generally, there seems to be an inconsistency in the staged abduction theory, which portrays the McCanns as both panicky emotional parents, and ruthless calculating cunts. What is it? I say this as a proud working-class man, but I do believe a lot of the absolute hatred shown towards the McCanns is class-based. Ever other negative comment I've heard or read about them since day one has been about how nobody points out about them leaving the children alone that night because they're middle-class. Yeah, apart from the thousands of people who flag it up at every opportunity, along with large sections of the tabloid press. It's interesting to note too, that April Jones (who I understand had a learning disability) was only five and out playing with a friend when she was abducted and killed, but I don't remember any resentment towards her working-class parents, or any action from the authorities. And rightly so. Anyway, As I said at the start, I'm not a learned authority here, but these are my musings as things stand.

I don't post much these days, but when i do I make them count.

5

You might try reading back my posts before responding as you did. I only wish I'd read through all your posts on is before I bothered trying to engage in debate with someone who hasn't the first clue about/ regard for the concept of trust and reputation.

I never suggested it was. But you must be a special kind of stupid if you think that us welshing on agreed payments with one body (the EU) on the basis that no-one can make us pay up isn't going to impact on any other body considering dealing with us. Trust might not count for much in your little world, but it would to people who are negotiating deals involving billions of pounds and the stability of their nations or corporations. And why would they trust us if we do as you think we should?

Any nation that we're looking to sign new trade deals with will give a shit that we pulled out of our trade deal with the EU and didn't pay up what we owed because, well, no court could enforce payment (even if that were true). I'd imagine most big business looking to invest here would also baulk at our second-hand car dealer fuck you attitude to legally binding deals, as would the banks that we still borrow billions from every year. Look at it on a personal level - would you be happy to enter into a financial partnership with an organisation that you knew had just pulled out of a previous financial partnership with another party and left that party to pay the bills that the organisation you were looking to deal with had previously agreed to pay? How could you be sure that they wouldn't tell you to fuck off and pay their bills once they decided they could get a better deal elsewhere? And if you couldn't be sure, why would you enter into a deal with them?

I've recently taken up learning the guitar, and been browsing Youtube for amateur covers, buskers, tutorials etc of favourite songs. Here's a few that stuck with me:

I don't want Klopp sacked, not least because I can't see us getting anyone better right now, but to ignore his flaws thus far and to claim that anyone who points them out wants him gone is evading the point. If money's tight then why did he spend 50m plus wages on AOC who barely makes the team and Robertson who barely makes the squad? Money right there that could've gone on getting in a defender or two that can actually shore us up at the back. It's fucking negligent that, four transfer windows in and with money to spend, we've arguably a worse defence than the shambles Rodgers left us with. That has to be on Klopp.

TBF, most of them on GoT are giving it to Wiliams (no doubt encouraged by the fact he's also a shit defender) although I see some of them are invoking the 'Big Dunc' clause to defend Williams, which states that, if you venerate a violent cunt as a club hero, then no Everton fan has the right to condemn anyone else* who behaves in a similarly thuggish manner. *Obviously that only applies to other Everton players. Laughably, one of their mods, a AndyC, is suggesting that Williams seemingly insane behaviour was actually 'calculated'; that by 'taking one for the team' he was hoping to spur his team-mates and the crowd on while he watched from the dressing room with a hand-rub that Rafa would've been proud of. And that it would've worked if that pesky Cornet hadn't gone and scored. Fucking hell.

of course not, I was being facetious. That cough (and the sympathy vote it garnered) was her saving grace. It completely overshadowed the substance of the speech - which would've have right-wing pundits up in arms in normal circumstances. There's no getting away from the point I made though, that the Tories under May are all over the place ideologically (as well as politically). compare her rhetoric in interviews with her polices and practices: Free market! But let's intervene in the energy and housing markets. Free market! But let's cap the number of immigrants to restrict employers choice to recruit employees. Privatised industries are more efficient than publicly run ones! Even when our privatised services are owned or subsidised by states overseas. I'm not in favour of the free market like May and most Tories claim they are, but if I were I'd be wondering how the fuck I square my support for that with my support for the Tories right now. And, once those Strepsils kick in and the pity her vote wears off, they might be wondering that for themselves.

That'll be the Tories state-interventionist announcements on the housing and energy markets bearing fruit. It's funny to see people supporting a party that announces measures that they decried as Marxist when Miliband proposed them only two years ago. What do we take from that? Have Tories gone Marxist, or are they tribalists that have no principles beyond staying in power for powers sake? Or were they knowingly talking bollocks when they called Miliband a Marxist for proposing them in the first place?