I'd suggest he would have more of a connection to the players, than Diana. I'd also suggest that most people (outisde their imediate family) wouldn't react the way people did when she died, or during the funeral etc.

Happens all over the world to other parents but you don't hear a thing for it. Suppose when you have money to back up a massive campaign like the McCanns and Lawrence family did when Claudia disappeared you can have the story running for years though and even make yourself a "celebrity" out of it too!

Quite. Though i'd feel shock, and i'd feel bad for their families etc, i wouldn't ''care'' on a personal level. When Briers' brother died i felt bad for Lee but not on a personal level, unlike the wailers at Diana's funeral. BUT, i suppose it's each to their own.

So because of this they should now give up?

I wonder if Phil the Greek was ever questioned over Madeleines disappearance?

After all, he did have previous.

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Heath and safety legislation brought in the mindset.

Even by your standards, linking parental paranoia about child abuse and abduction to health and safety is going some.

Parental paranoia comes from a "its not safe" mindset. Where does that come from?

When we were on holiday in Turkey a few years ago we went of a chaotic "Jeep safari". At first I could see all the dangers (due to sub-conscious health and safety nannying). It took a few minutes to say "f**k it", let's take a chance and have a laugh! It was like going back 40+ years when you could do as you pleased. Utterly liberating.

From many directions ... one of which would be the very same redtop newspapers that talk about Health and Safety as some kind of a joke or onerous imposition from the EU.


Now you're describing yourself not society in general.
For example, were you the only people on the Jeep Safari? And were the others suffering from your Health and Safety mindset ? .... doesn't sound like it.

Thought's on the £500,000+ raised in just over 24 hours in memory of Claire Squires? Whilst it is a fantastic amount for the Samaritan's and the circumstances are indeed tragic, the cynic in me can't help feeling that the amount raised was more to do with the fact that she was young and attractive. Would the death of a "plain Jane, middle aged woman/man" have raised anywhere near as much?

I 'joked' at work today that i bet all the charities hope their runner dies next year...lead balloon that was.

Indeed.

Difficult to know, but it's massively preferable to piles of flowers etc and thus a much more fitting memorial.

Seconded. Also, people have died in previous years but I don't recall this much coverage.

Being young ad attractive seems to have its benefits, even in death.

My first thought was that it was obviously the crowds fault for not praying hard enough for her on the roadside, or indeed the BBC for not giving it live coverage and encouraging more praying.

On the issue of the massive amount of money donated, its a very strange reaction and as you say if it had been a 50 year old man (and it often is) then there would possibly be a single line in a newspaper somewhere, then nothing more.

So there you have it - vacancies next year for young attractive females who are prepared to die for a charity, it works.

The amount of Muamba-based front pages on the red-tops over the past week has been large

I'm just curious as to why, after another pointless death, there isn't a concerted campaign to get this cruel race banned....If we can fight to save the horses by trying to ban the Grand National, then why not a similar fight for our fellow human beings?

What? How do we get from that to the Grand National? And FWIW it's neither a cruel race nor does it need banning, nor is it sensible for the population of a country that slaughters a few million animals a day to "fight" to stop the annual death of between 0 - 2 horses. In fact it's plainly mad. But we've surely done the pro-anti Grand National thread enough times now?

Both have willing participants taking part in an extreme race, which, unfortunately, can lead to tragic deaths??

The London Marathon had horses running in it.

And cows.

Didn't the name of the Marathon come from a guy who ran the said distance and die
in ancient Greece delivering a message, you'd have thought they'd have learned lesson from that.

Given the number of participants in the London Marathon and factoring in the duration of the race, when compared to the daily UK death rate, I reckon that there is a high staatistical probability that one of the participants will die.

A tragedy for some I admit but statistically no big deal

No, the guy ran , delivered a peanut, caramel, nougat and chocolate confection and lived happily ever after.

I'm actually surprised that in the current commercialise everything climate, it hasn't been renamed London Snickers