Madeleine McCann tragedy could devolve into symbol of ongoing class war in Britain

By now anyone who has been following the media has heard something about the McCann case. On the eve of May 3^rd 2007, a three year old British girl named Madeleine McCann disappeared from her family’s vacation resort in Portugal. Allegedly this occurred around the same time her parents Gerry and Kate McCann were dining at a restaurant a hundred yards away. Kate McCann immediately reacted with the assertion that Madeleine had been abducted. Both parents have steadfastly maintained this assertion . The Portuguese police on the other hand, after following misguided leads early on in the investigation are now convinced from evidence collected by a British forensics team that the parents are in someway responsible for Madeleine’s death and disappearance. The case of Madeleine McCann may have been overlooked by the media as one of many child disappearance cases that occur each year but the McCann family engaged in an ambitious crusade to bring their plight to the attention of the world’s media and British elite. For the McCann parents, supporting local, national or international police efforts to find Madeleine was not so much a priority as focusing on the sympathy from world media figures, politicians and celebrities. In fact their crusade was so important to them that they left their two younger children in the care of other family members while they campaigned around the world. It was only after they were named suspects by Portuguese police, did they return to Britain. A poll conducted of British citizens asked whether or not the parents were guilty. Only twenty percent of respondents believed the McCann’s were innocent, yet the British media has maintained an uncanny support for the McCann parents. Even celebrities and wealthy elites have sided with the McCann’s in their claim of innocence. In fact the billionaire Sir Richard Branson of Virgin Enterprises recently donated a hundred thousand pounds to the McCann’s to defend themselves in court and multi-millionaire Brian Kennedy is paying Britain's top lawyers to win the case for the McCanns. It seems the McCann’s may have wittingly or unwittingly sided with a powerful force. It is clear that the British elite need to demonstrate divine righteousness in order to maintain power. If the wealthy supported the McCann’s kidnapping assertion from the beginning, they would certainly need to protect any association ever linking them to a guilty party. Has certain wealthy elites also projected a belief that they see themselves as the McCanns and sympathize with their idealized struggle against a mob of affluenent hating lower class commoners? Could this be the real reason for their support? And is this also a symbolic gesture for the wealthy to win overt the middle class in Britain. If they can prove that their wealth and power can turn the tide against a public justice system, they can also prove to the middle class that it is in their best interests to side with them against their lower class foes.