The Metropolitan Police's 'hunt' for Madeleine McCann is making 'progress' proclaims the front page of the Daily Express, 14 August 2013. About time, many will say. Waiting for the Met, unlike Godot, is already deep into its third act and the curtain still shows no sign of drawing anytime soon.

And that must be good news for all the swarthy 'gypsies', ex-pat paedophiles and 'persons of dubious intent' who, if we believe the UK press, endure a daily jostle for space in the shadows cast by the Beach of Light.

The truth is that any such floating resident - who may also have travelled within the Iberian Peninsula, anytime in 2007 - will be long gone by now. If not, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe has helpfully announced that there are still a few more "weeks" available in which to make the appropriate arrangements.

In 2011, the Met stated the following: 'High profile reviews, such as this one, are highly emotive and the manner in which they are conducted are usually kept in strict secrecy so that the tactics and lines of enquiry that are followed do not become public knowledge thereby rendering them useless.'

Given the public nature of recent statements and Andy Redwood's press conference, it would appear the celebrated 38 'persons of interest' are not to be found languishing on any police registers. If they are, then, by the Met's own definition, they have rendered their investigation useless through the prolonged announcement of their impending arrival. Not so much the storming of the British Armada, more like Carry On Up The Algarve.

It seems fair to assume that the interesting people identified by the Met are settled members of the community, who will not already have fled the country or sought sanctuary in the hellish lairs and lawless villages around Praia da Luz, of which Dave Edgar spoke so liltingly. Their important contribution to the investigation may well be in providing crucial evidence in order to build a case against the perpetrator/s of this "evil crime".

In other words, after more than two years of reading, reviewing and travelling, the Met may, at last, have a clear understanding of what happened to Madeleine and a clear understanding of what needs to be achieved in order to convince the Portuguese authorities to reopen the case. This is supported by a legal source, quoted in the Express, who states: "We are on track."

It was Gonçalo Amaral, the original co-ordinator of the Portuguese investigation, who first revealed, in March 2012, that Scotland Yard had been working closely with an investigative Judiciary Police team from Oporto. He went on to add: "What is known is that the "affair" is not going well for the McCanns."

One wonders if anything has changed.

 Nigel Moore is based in Leicester, England, United Kingdom, and is a Stringer for Allvoices.