The Grubs: A good set of lungs

Gerry, may I ask you a direct question about Madeleine?

Is Madeleine a "cryer."

I mean no disrespect to Madeleine by using that word - apart from the twins, Madeleine is the only one in the Grub clan I have any respect for.

I have been taking a look at your profile on Friends Reunited - the profile you accessed just sixteen days after Madeleine went missing in order to remove a remark about babysitting.

"June 2003- Still in Leicester but now family of 3 after birth of Madeleine Beth on 12/05/03. Thankfully she takes after her mother although definitely has my lungs even without a dew drinks." Never have been very good at typing or spelling have you Gerry?

Like a few drinks now and then do you old chap? Get a bit loud perhaps if your own words are anything to go by. Then again you tend to be a bit of a miserable, bad tempered old sod don't you? That's why you reportedly snapped "***k" off when one of your friends told you to cheer up, "this is a holiday". Funny how that video disappeared. It also appears you snapped at a Portuguese journalist.

Perhaps you should do something about your temper. Maybe you should see a doctor.

It would have been nice if you had thrown in, "beautiful baby girl" or something similar, after all most new parents make such statements when announcing a birth on Friends Reunited. I guess that's just not your style. You do have style don't you Gerry? - or did you lose that as well?

But I digress.

To my mind, the reference to Madeleine's "lungs" gives the perception that Maddy, at that stage at least - was a cryer. Did Madeleine grow out of it?

Perhaps not.

A BBC article dated May 29, reports, "Madeleine can be seen clutching her Barbie rucksack and holding hands with another girl as she boards the aircraft. (to Portugal) At one point, she loses her footing and slips, grazing her shin"

Not surprising as she was only three years old at the time with not an adult in sight - but there you go - kids grow up so quickly these days don't they? Quick enough to look after two year old twins. But again I digress.

Commenting on her reaction, you were quoted as saying, "She was really brave. She started crying but stopped almost immediately...It was something that usually would have caused 10 minutes of crying rather than 10 seconds."

I bet she would have cried like an Oscar winner if a stranger had carried her out of an apartment. But of course, Kate was confident she couldn't have woken up. Just as well. It would have been awful if she had woken up for any reason and started crying with no one around to calm her fears.

You certainly notice her crying don't you Gerry. After all, you have twice made specific reference to it - a few years apart. Hope her crying doesn't bother you too much.

Do you know what this BBC article tells me Gerry? It tells me - and any responsible parent - that even before Madeleine was on the damn plane, you had complete disregard for your daughter's welfare. If someone had suggested she was too small and too young to board a plane without an adult close by, I bet you would have said, "No worries - she'll be right mate," or maybe "our kids are fine," the excuse you gave staff at the resort when refusing offers of child supervision.

But she wasn't all right was she Gerry? She lost her footing. It was a foreseeable issue that you failed to address - as you have failed to address so many foreseeable issues both before and after Madeleine's alleged abduction. Sure, you said, "are you OK" or something similar, but you should have made sure of that before hand and not after.

Have you ever been to Sydney? When you board a train in Sydney, there is a step from the platform to the train. There are signs and PA announcements warning parents to hold their children's hands when boarding a train. Most mums and dads hearing that for the first time mutter, "Wouldn't think you would have to tell anyone that would you?".

Obviously they do - at least that is one thing you have managed to prove.