I completely disagree with Matthew Parris, When a four year old child can not sleep safely in his/her bed at night we ought to be doing something about it. It should not be possible to sell innocent toddlers. Surely we can pressurise political parties to make it their business to stop such trafficking. The McCanns have shown great courage in bringing enormous public pressure to bear on the plight of their daughter and, in so doing, may be saving the lives of other children as well as, hopefully, their own. I am a 71 year old woman and would personally prefer to wait an extra year for my hip replacement and have money directed towards this cause than see the face of another innocent child stolen from his/her parent's care The party who puts it into their manifesto, not just wears yellow ribbons, will get my vote.

Janette Brown, Altrincham, Cheshire

Matthew Parris is influential, much as most politicians would not like to admit it, and (until now) I have been a big fan. However, I think he is seriously misguided in his comments on the Maddy McCann case. For once why can't he leave his cynicism at the door? a friend of mine went missing in Thailand in 1995 and the only way that she was found and returned to her parents was to keep the story at the forefront of the public's minds and fully in the media. If it takes skin-deep politicians wearing yellow ribbons in the chamber then that is what it takes. He said on the news the other night that he is not a parent and therefore perhaps not able to appreciate the situation and may not be qualified to comment...so don't comment! people listen to you Matthew Parris. Take your influence seriously.

Jane Nunn, London,

Look a little harder Matthew! The McCann's want the search for Maddy to get as much publicity as possible. Who cares why the politicians are wearing yellow ribbons? The fact is they are, and that's good because in some small way it is a reminder that she's missing and those little reminders are what helps to keep the spotlight on her.

K., London,

I fully agree with Matthew Parris, we are overdoing this very unfortunate event - whilst I have every sympathy with Madeline's parents, I also have sympathy with other parents whose children have disappeared but who have not had the benefit of huge media interference in the due course of the legal process of a country.
Are MPs going to show some symbol every time a child disappears or is shot or knifed or ...... ?

John Morrish, Derby, England

Regarding Matthew's uncalled for comments - my husband is the master of this - I tell people he only opens his mouth to change feet.

S. Lewin, Northwood, Middlesex

You were spot on today Matthew. I agreed with everything you wrote but nothing struck a chord more loudly than your admission that you think unpleasant, but harmless, thoughts. I feared I was the only one who did this and have come to believe that I suffer from a latent form of Tourettes. Thank goodness that people can't read minds though I am sure that NL will be working on ways of doing it.

Tam Earl-Aine, Cheltenham,

Advantages of Creation of Bangladesh to Pakistan.
Usually smaller Parts of a country having extraordinary resources tries to break away from the mainland to take the maximum advantage of their resources for their advantage, and to protect themselves from the drain of their resources to majority or dominant section of the country, but in case of Pakistan Majority Part on the basis of population, which was also having scare resources, separated from the other part,Generally,it is regarded as an unfortunate event for Pakistan by people of Pakistan, but no Pakistani tries to see other side of the coin, of that event, for analysis of the benefits achieved to them by this event
The reason of this is that all literature about that event has been written by those who were living in East Pakistan and they suffered personally by this event, due to which they always indicate their miseries and losses and forget to explain the advantages of that event to whole Pakistan

M.AKRAM kHAN, Baldia Town,Karachi., Pakistan

No, Mr Parris, please don't make the inner voice go away.

You are one of those rare men who has the balls and brains to bring a voice of sanity into the media circus enveloping events in Portugal. I was pleased to see that the BBC Ten O'Clock news has started to see the light and had invited you to give an opinion. One can but hope that your voice of reason is heard by the editors of the 24 hour news operations - though I'm not holding my breath.

Bedd Gelert, Wales,

I agree with Matthew's view on the MPs/yellow ribbons/maddy bandwagon thing. Problem is he's directing his plea at the wrong people. It's the relatives of Maddy who are pushing and powering the bandwagon. Leave them alone? I wish they'd leave us alone.

Tim, London,

Parris in Spring. What better place to be.
Aloof, and sane, in a world gone mad
If only I wrote like he.

geoff mather, withnell chorley, lancashire

I find the exhortation 'have a nice day' frequently gives rise to such thoughts. I find the reply 'I don't want a nice day, thank you' seems to do the trick.

Roddy Campbell, Christchurch,

You are so right about the yellow ribbons. I never felt such contempt for MPs as I did when I heard about them.
On the question of leaving the family alone. It is police practice to keep such a case in the public eye as much as possible in the hope that someone will read it and offer a clue. It is just another dimension of horror that such a tragdey visits on the parents involved.

ian skidmore, March, cambs