Did Tony Blair's Irish connections influence the Madeleine McCann enquiry?

[pathfinder73]

Gemma O'Doherty
‏
@gemmaod1
 56m56 minutes ago

Tony Blair went out of his way to help the McCanns. Why them, when 380 children go missing in the UK every day? Like Gerry, Blair had strong Donegal links and spent summer holidays in Ballyshannon, his mother’s hometown. McCann’s parents were also from Donegal #MadeleineMcCann

"Which leads me on to the question of why they received such exceptional treatment from British authorities, directed straight from No. 10, to the extent that Blair and Brown eventually gave them a PR representative? I used at one stage to be Resident Clerk in the FCO, a now abolished post effectively of night duty officer. I can tell you from horrible personal experience that the FCO deals with gut-wrenching cases of lost or dead children abroad frequently. I spent one of the most terrible three hours of my life, through to a cold dawn, on the phone with a hysterical bereaved mother desperate to explore any avenue that might give a possibility that the boy who had just drowned in Brazil was misidentified as her son. On average, I am afraid such tragedies get substantially less than 1% of the public resources that were devoted to the McCanns.

I am going to come straight out with this. British diplomatic staff were under direct instruction to support the McCanns far beyond the usual and to put pressure on the Portuguese authorities over the case." Craig Murray

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2016/04/the-strange-case-of-gordon-brown-and-the-mccanns/

It was Tony Blair and Gordon Brown who were behind the instructions given to the UK ambassador, John Buck, and to the British consul, Bill Henderson (the two senior UK diplomats in Portugal at the time she disappeared), to make sure Gerry and Kate McCann were given all possible assistance.

John Buck - British Ambassador in Portugal in May 2006 - resigns his post on 10/09/07 - shortly after the McCanns are made suspects. John is replaced by Alexander Ellis. Leaves the Diplomatic Services entirely.



https://joana-morais.blogspot.com/2009/03/mccann-case-freedom-of-information-act.html

Madeleine McCann in Donegal a month before she disappeared.





Kate and Gerry missing from the family photo?

[John]

The above is a recovered post but makes an interesting observation.

[John]

Warning to all posters:

As we approach the Easter weekend I want to make it very clear that continued disruptive behaviour will NOT be tolerated, sanctions will be applied where necessary. As a sign of goodwill however ahead of the holidays, I am revoking all warning points.

Moderators are expected to lead by example but should those moderating skills fall short of what is expected, permissions will be revoked.

Have a great Easter everyone but please keep the above in mind before commenting.

[Carana]

As an authoritative source, is she referring to the same Craig Murray who insisted that the DNC hack was an inside job by a disgruntled worker?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craig_Murray

[Alice Purjorick]

As an authoritative source, is she referring to the same Craig Murray who insisted that the DNC hack was an inside job by a disgruntled worker?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craig_Murray

Being a nasty suspicious old s*d my first question would be "did the establishment really give more help for nefarious reasons" and can we have a comparison of what the FCO actually did vs what their protocols say they should have done.
The Rt Hon Tony Blair would have done anything for a good soundbite but surely by May 2007 he was pretty much on gardening leave running down to the dinner and speeches gravy train?

[Carana]

Being a nasty suspicious old s*d my first question would be "did the establishment really give more help for nefarious reasons" and can we have a comparison of what the FCO actually did vs what their protocols say they should have done.
The Rt Hon Tony Blair would have done anything for a good soundbite but surely by May 2007 he was pretty much on gardening leave running down to the dinner and speeches gravy train?

I've already mentioned numerous potential reasons why different entities bent over backwards in this case.

One being gaining brownie points over a high profile human interest story. The occasional contact with the family of a missing child isn't that different from the PR brownie points of calling the family of someone taken hostage. Premature or not, it happened.

Offering assistance to the PT authorities both with handling the media onslaught (the FCO has done this before) and police providing support has somehow morphed in some quarters into preventing the PJ from getting to the "truth".

There are other angles that I find worth bearing in mind as well.

The UK police needed (still does) cooperation with PT over numerous other types of crime, from drug smuggling to potential terrorist cells and everything in between.

There was also the issue that the apparent head of the investigation was himself made an arguido the very next morning regarding a torture allegation of the mother of his only other missing child case. Is it feasible that the British consulate in the Algarve wasn't aware of it?

[Alice Purjorick]

I've already mentioned numerous potential reasons why different entities bent over backwards in this case.

One being gaining brownie points over a high profile human interest story. The occasional contact with the family of a missing child isn't that different from the PR brownie points of calling the family of someone taken hostage. Premature or not, it happened.

Offering assistance to the PT authorities both with handling the media onslaught (the FCO has done this before) and police providing support has somehow morphed in some quarters into preventing the PJ from getting to the "truth".

There are other angles that I find worth bearing in mind as well.

The UK police needed (still does) cooperation with PT over numerous other types of crime, from drug smuggling to potential terrorist cells and everything in between.

There was also the issue that the apparent head of the investigation was himself made an arguido the very next morning regarding a torture allegation of the mother of his only other missing child case. Is it feasible that the British consulate in the Algarve wasn't aware of it?

You may have misunderstood what I was driving at.
In case you hadn't noticed I dont "do" conspiracy theories, Nostradamus or Old Mother Shipton. They only work after the event because then you can make anything fit.
What happened here was chaos on a staggering scale with the Brits contributing more than their fair share. Possibly by not having a single person in control. What we used to laughingly call "management by contraceptive". Think about it 
I doubt the British Consulate gave much of a damn about Sr Amaral being the SIO. Why would they? Beating confessions out of folk was de rigeur over here at one time in the not too distant past.
I think it far more likely Sr Amaral's boss used the furore as a reason to shove him sideways because down the track, if a conviction were on the stocks, he would have become a liability possibly resulting in the whole job being bollicksed. Bosses at that level tend to think like that.

[Carana]

You may have misunderstood what I was driving at.
In case you hadn't noticed I dont "do" conspiracy theories, Nostradamus or Old Mother Shipton. They only work after the event because then you can make anything fit.
What happened here was chaos on a staggering scale with the Brits contributing more than their fair share. Possibly by not having a single person in control. What we used to laughingly call "management by contraceptive". Think about it 
I doubt the British Consulate gave much of a damn about Sr Amaral being the SIO. Why would they? Beating confessions out of folk was de rigeur over here at one time in the not too distant past.
I think it far more likely Sr Amaral's boss used the furore as a reason to shove him sideways because down the track, if a conviction were on the stocks, he would have become a liability possibly resulting in the whole job being bollicksed. Bosses at that level tend to think like that.

Hmmm. I'd almost agree with that except that Amaral had been "promoted" to Portimão prior to this disappearance.


ETA: It might have been in the normal course of promotions (getting to be the head honcho of a district)... or it might have been getting him away from Faro. No way of knowing.