Have you seen her? No. STOP IT!

This Madeleine story has been going on my nerves for a while now. Basically since it started. Don't get me wrong. I feel sorry for this family and wish them that they find her soon. But the whole country is getting crazy about this thing. Well, at least the media is. Leave it to the tabloids! Please! I cannot stand it anymore! If you don't bother carry on reading, my point is simply this. Why should this girl and her family deserve more attention than any other abducted person?

There were 846 offences in 2002/03 in England and Wales alone. Also has anyone ever questioned that the media hype may do the girl more harm than good? I mean decreasing her chances to be found alive?

It was predictable that The Sun would exploit the story. But live coverage from the BBC? Eleven minutes prime time with anchor Hugh Edwards live from the Algarve (10 o'clock news 15th May BBC1)? And what was the news? Well, that there was no news. The couple had been seen walking on the beach. But there was an agreement that media would not bother them with interviews. Nice, they are so respectful.

Earlier this week it was reported that the parents feel guilty because they hadn't been with her when she was abducted. Jesus, of course! What did you think? That they are happy about it.

There is more. Today the Prime Minister in waiting demanded that the Portuguese police should release more details of the case. Can someone please tell him to stay out of this.

And when you think it can't get any worse... BBC online has justed annouced that the parents are to see the Pope.

To sum it up there are 4,270,000 hits for "Maddie" on google and the entry on wikipedia has about the length of the WW2 article. Appeals from David Beckham and Christiano Ronaldo, yellow ribbons at a football match, uncounted campaigns. The rewards total £2.6m - and counting.

And has anyone ever dared questioning this madness? Well, I have. Anyone out there joining me? Yes, found them!

And while I'm moaning 128m are still searching...

We love David M.

If there was ever polictician to praise, it must be Environment Secretary David Miliband. No, I'm not in the Labour party, they didn't bribe me or anything. I just think that he takes his job seriously and tackles a serious problem. One that has been left unnoticed, indeed ignored for far too long. I'm talking rubbish, I mean about waste and avoiding waste in particular. I am aware that after announcing the Government's plans everybody feared that the wheelie bin chips will trigger a spy rather than an environment programme.

The most important part for me, however, was that someone mentions the enourmous waste in this country. The Independent ran a brilliant campaign against waste - i.e. waste as in unnecessary items such as packagin or most interestingly carrier bags. I was shocked when I heard that Teso alone gave out four billion - this is 4,000,000,000 - carrier bags to customers last year.

The mere fact that Miliband mentioned carrier bags seems remarkable to me. He talked not only about recycling quotas the UK needs to meet, he actually talked about avoiding waste. That's the point, you don't need to recycle somehting that has never been produced and used in the first place.

So, take your carrier bag to the shop and refuse new ones. I have to tell the assisstants over and over again as they already have the new bag in their hands when I arrive at the till. But they'll learn if more people refuse it.

Of course it remains to be seen if the Government really acts though on this problem. And if Miliband will still be in his job after 27th June.

Sorry, Bryan, but that's it

Marks and Spencer drop Bryan Ferry over the Nazi gaffe. Oh no, sorry it wasn't because of that. We wouldn't have used him for the campaign anyway, or least it was "highly unlikely". Ferry apologised for his remarks earlier. But, between us, how likely is it that this just M+S PR? A pretty bad one btw...

Just as you like it

The German government wants to reintroduce border controls for the G8 summit in Heiligendamm from 6th to 8th June. Germany signed the Schengen Agreement and introduced it in 1995. So how is it possible to simply opt out for a couple of days as it suits you? It seems the government is afraid of (radical) left wing protestors and attacks.

To be fair there were attacks in the past, just remember Genoa in 2001. But I doubt very strongly that one can put so called suspects under "Vorbeugehaft" (which I guess can be translated as a preventive arrest) and indeed reintrodce border controls for a week or so - then abandon them again and say, well, principally Schengen is a good idea, but sometimes we just need the Cold War back.