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Original Source:
Express 12 May 2007 [Now removed from internet] |
Saturday
May 12,2007
By Richard and Judy |
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JUDY WRITES...I know Praia da
Luz very well; from the time our
youngest child was two we had an Easter
holiday there every year until she was
in her teens. Why wouldn’t you? It’s
just a short flight to Faro Airport, the
weather is almost always fabulous and
the little resort itself is just about
perfect for a family holiday.
An enormous, beautiful, sandy beach,
lots of family-friendly restaurants,
apartments and villas to rent at very
reasonable prices and usually splendidly
built and equipped. And full of children
– usually British – so lots of friends
for your kids to make around the pool.
Above all, it felt safe. Everyone on
holiday there seemed of a type – young,
middle-class parents with well-behaved
children. No yobs, no groups of teenage
girls intent on getting drunk and
getting laid, no frightening gangs of
youths behaving raucously outside the
bars. There was nothing for teenagers to
do anyway. Just one, very sedate club.
Anyone over 14 would have been bored to
death. Which is precisely why we stopped
going there when our own offspring hit
adolescence.
I don’t blame Maddy’s parents one tiny
bit.
But until then, a family holiday in
pretty Praia da Luz was the absolute
ticket; a sure-fire success and always a
good time had by all.
So to see little Madeleine McCann’s
anguished mother pleading for her
daughter’s safe return outside the
picturesque village church with its
dazzling golden altar filled our family
with disbelief. Sure, you don’t leave
small children alone but if there was
one place in the world where you could
imagine nothing but friendliness and
benevolence towards all children, Luz
was it.
So Praia da Luz has retained a huge
amount of affection in our own family
memories. The Portuguese love children.
I cannot remember a hint of anxiety
about paedophilia soiling the white
bougainvillaea-covered walls. Small
children played alone on the beach while
their parents ate lunch at one of the
beach restaurants. It never occurred to
either of us to worry about little Jack
and Chloe as they joyously ran along the
soft sandy shore. The only potential
anxiety was that they would get out of
their depth in the sea.
I don’t blame Maddy’s parents one tiny
bit for leaving her in their apartment
while eating at a tapas bar a mere 40
yards away.
We never stayed in an apartment complex;
our large brood meant we rented villas,
often outside the town, so there was no
question of eating out without the kids.
But I know the holiday complex where the
McCanns were staying and it really does
feel spectacularly safe, with mums and
dads and children everywhere.
The “checking” routine is one we have
often used in hotels, you have dinner
downstairs while the children sleep in
their room and every half hour one of
you goes to check on them. Until this
terrible case I would have thought any
parent unwilling to do that was being a
bit paranoid.
No longer. I’m incredibly sad that a
little piece of family paradise will
now, for ever, be tarnished with fear.
RICHARD writes...
SO THAT'S that then. The last big gun
with the calibre to take on Gordon Brown
decommissioned himself on Sunday. John
Reid’s intended resignation and Tony
Blair’s graceful exit speech four days
later seals the deal; Gordon’s got that
job he always wanted.
Future historians may scratch their
heads about it all. Blair had to bow out
earlier than necessary because of Iraq;
everyone agrees on that. But hang on…
didn’t Gordon think that toppling Saddam
was the right policy, too? And didn’t
Blair win a third term – comfortably –
despite what he himself described as the
“blowback” from the post-invasion
meltdown?
Iraq didn’t cook the Prime Minister’s
goose. The bird was plucked, stuffed and
roasted by his next door neighbour in
one of the messiest, most protracted
coups in British political history.
It is only when you hear the private
views on Brown held by some top Labour
figures that you realise how much they
loathe him. This bodes ill for the
party’s future.
For all Blair’s urbanity and style at
Sedgefield on Thursday, this was a
Premier defenestrated in an untimely
fashion. A very bad mistake has been
made. And we all know by who. |
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