Mr Grub: Did you try to hijack a local event?

I am somewhat puzzled about a few recent statements made by you and your family, so I am offering you the opportunity to confirm, clarify or deny these statements.

The latest entry on your blog includes the following statement written either by yourself, or a representative of your family and/or fund raising/awareness campaign.

"A small event took place in Porto, in the north of Portugal, today to remember missing children. It was at a large schools end of year musical and the children and staff released balloons. It is good that local communities are staging events like this and we thank them for remembering Madeleine."

Would I be correct in thinking this is not the complete story? It's not that I don't believe you and I would never call you a liar. Let me try and explain my reluctance to take the above entry at face value?

Ah yes.

You don't exactly have a demonstrated and proven track record in presenting information in a manner that stands up to close scrutiny, is not open to interpretation, is not later contradicted either by yourself, family or other parties directly or indirectly involved with this issue, can be verified by independent sources or be considered totally reliable.

Yep, that's it.

I understand the event referred to was an end of term event held on the eighth of this month, at a nursery school called Pinga Amor in Gondomar Social Centre (Vila Nova de Gaia) - approximately 10 minutes drive from Praia da Luz.

Organised by the mother of a boy who disappeared nine years ago, www.ruipedro.net/ the event featured the release of 9 white balloons.

You and Kate were invited but did not attend. Instead, you told organisers to release 60 green and 2 yellow balloons, for Madeleine.

If this report is true - it means you and your family wanted to hijack a simple and dignified event meant to help the mother of a little local lad who vanished nine years ago, as a promotional tool for your own aims.

Would you like to confirm or deny this report?

Despite what your Aunt Phil appears to think, this blog is not moderated and there is no reason why you can not respond or accept an earlier invitation to be interviewed on this blog.

Good ole Phil, who gives every impression of being a left over cast member from, "Shameless" doesn't appear to like me for some reason. Buggered if I know why - but there ya go - you can't please all the people all the time, in much the same way you can't fool all of the people all of the time, (though there are some who try their hardest, as you well know).

Quote from Phil:

"I cant stand this man, I think he's a show off with a big mouth and and even bigger ego, he's also a coward as far as I can see, everything he wrtes is covered by "alledgedly" or "I assume" it's all suposition and rumour, as I have said before, anyone who needs to use a mixture of derision, ridicule & mockery of someone who cant even respond to his comments has lost whatever point he was trying to make."

Derision, ridicule & mockery - Gawd that sounds erotic. Just out of interest, is there anyone in your educated family of eminent university graduates, who can spell? Reading your family's postings is like reading something from Fenn Street School's, Class 4C, Creative Writing Class. Hey - is that you Sharon!

There are quite a few things in that statement that can be torn apart, but I don't like to have all the fun myself, so I will leave it to others.

I must send Phil the, "For Immediate Release" alerts I receive from The New South Wales Police Media Unit. Because of my line of work, I receive the same releases as every newspaper, radio and TV station in New South Wales. Every alert is littered with "alleged" or "allegedly" because we are trained to far higher standards of professional communication skills than Phil appears accustomed to.

Maybe she should listen to Attorney General Phil Ruddock. Granted, if you were stuck in a lift with only Philip for company, you would climb out and cut the damn cable to end your suffering, but every sentence is locked tighter than Fort Knox.

Phil gives the impression that you can not respond to my comments. Why not?

All you have to do is click the "Post Comment" option and wallah, wallah, cats meat - you have the right of reply. I do not delete comments except in your interests. I do not allow direct allegations for example. So unless you directly accuse yourself or any other party of any offence, you are most welcome to exercise right of reply.

Or perhaps the reason you can not respond is because you have been advised not to.

Scaredy cat.

Please note: This post has been amended to remove an error in the original post. The original post incorrectly stated that "Pinga Amor in Gondomar Social Centre (Vila Nova de Gaia) is approximately 10 minutes drive from Praia da Luz." In fact it is several hours away. See also "Correction"