The McCann family made a mistake that night. A lot of families would do this on holiday and I have seen kids when I have been in hotels in resorts on their own with the parents not around. I have two kids of my own but we would not have done this when they were this age. I am from N. Ireland so it may be that our experiences during the last 35 years with the troubles here makes us be that way. No-one knows yet why they thought it was safe to do that - they may have thought there was enough security around this complex or they may not have been able to get a baby sitter - I am sure that will come out. Do you think the McCanns would have left their kids in the apartment had they known there were kidnappers out the - I don't think so? But, you cannot take away from what the real crime was here. This is a monstrous act for anyone to commit . As a family group, they are an example to us all in how they are conducting this and I hope they get charitable status and their child returned.

Joe McBride, Antrim, N. Ireland

Investigate the telephone records of the prime suspect and all witnesses in the case and a connection will be found. In this day and age it is possible to pin-point the location of people through their mobile telephones - that is if the Police had the brains to impond the telephones and records. I wonder if they did !!

John Papi, Richmond, Surrey, England

This is a terrible situation and my heart goes out to the child and the police involved in this case.BUT everybody is ignoring the fact that this abduction was totally avoidable, had the parents used their common sense and protected the child with proper care this would never have happened.It does not matter which country you are in YOU DO NOT ABANDON YOUR CHILD no matter how much you think it's going to be Ok.In this country the police would automatically have brought a charge of abandonment to the parents and it horrifies me that the authorities in the algarve are being critisied so much for their tireless efforts to find this child.I,like everyone else, hope that this beautiful child is found safe and unharmed and wish the media would learn restraint and let the authorities in question get on with their job.

Ryan, cromer, england

At last a breath of sanity in this ridiculous saga. The Charities Commission is absolutely right. This money has been given to benefit a particular small set of named individuals - the family - and the expenditure should be subject to VAT as usual. In other words, the criteria for being a charity are not fulfilled. Full stop.

Thomas Goodey, Cuxton-upon-Medway, UK

I am absolutely tired of this story! This is the effect that all this media coverage is having on me and I believe, on many... British media went on a rampant racist criticism of the work of the Portuguese police and it transformed the MaCann's family into some sort of royal family. On the other hand, I find it interesting how British people who never get together for collective causes, who barely vote on local and national elections, get so collectively emotional over individuals - pricess Diana and no Maddie. As much as I am sad for the parents, and wish them all the luck in their search, I cannot but think the the fund could be used for other collective causes that would have much more impact on the lives of all of those who live in this country...

Maria, Manchester, UK

"portugal seceded some 350 years ago from Spain. "

Sorry Mark, Castela wasn't Spain!! You have your History wrong!

Carlos, London, UK

Whilst in sympathy for the McGanns I think the treasurey is is the right, this fund is not for the good of the public, but a charity for the parents to be able to afford to travel the world searching for their daughter, whilst sympathetic, this would not happen for the parents of other children who have also vanished. Ben needham;s mother, whose son vanished in Greece did not have this out pouring of sympathy, but then again she wasn't a church going middle class professional.

V.Wilson, Lichfield, Staffs, U.K

Today's lunchtime news on RTP carried the welcome report that the British journalists were starting to leave the Algarve and their coverage of the Maddie McCain investigation. Polite and professional, even in the face of extreme ingratitude, criticism, and capriciousness on the part of British news staff, the Portuguese police have worked tirelessly and discretely to try to find this lovely, innocent child.

Some British "journalists", it seems, not only don't know how to be professional and obviously lack basic knowledge of proof, but feel free to inform the public of dubious "facts". One news staff brands a guy a paedophile and kidnapper on the scant "evidence" that he lived near the Ocean Club, was hovering around the investigation, too eager to help, "acted funny" and was "creepy", to use her own explanation. Another guy was branded similarly, because he was a computer technologist and an associate of the first guy. The pattern of these "journalists" was to report defamat

Gunderson, Vila do Bispo, Portugal

Sorry I mixed up Spain and Portugal. I know they are separate. Also, here in Canada we have police who go by the book.
I think if we had MBAs and Phd criminologists running police forces, an global panoramic investigation in a kidnapping would be automatic and "the book" would be in the trash.

Emma H., Ottawa, Can

Gordon Brown waived the VAT bill for Live 8, setting a precedent for political interference in tax matters, so why blame the HMR&C now? Someone should have the courage to admit that this tax will be paid because certain politicians have been sitting on their own "grubby little hands" rather than interceding on the families behalf.

Jon, Yaiza, Spain

How dare you to criticise the portuguese police while you face exactly the same kind of unsolveld problems all over Britain?!!! Just that all English media don't highlight it when it happens here,innit ??? Remember the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes... hum interesting the way it went, innit? Mind you.... if this had happened in any other country, the police who shot to kill would be behind bars right now and in UK what happened??? guess what... they got away with that... cause poor policemen... didn't know if he was a terrorist or not... anyway he was slightly tanned... so they couldn't recognise if he was northern african, asian, south american and so on... so ... shoot to kill... and all these teens being killed every week... where's media pressure and global investigation about what's going wrong with all these killings? Guess what ... is easier to go abroad and start blaming and getting escape goats than focus on the main issue... Shame on you english media

Mike, Reading, UK

It did not take long to see how valuable are Gordon Brown's promises, did it?

Howard, Milton Keynes , UK

It seemst to me that the clear critics and subtle prejudices expressed in your article concerning the work done by the portuguese police authorities actually respond to a deep superiority complex which take the author to make readers think, that undoubtefuly the british police would have handled the case in a much more proffesional and cleverer way. Sorry not to agree. The way some british press is trying to put the portuguese investigators under pressure with a lot of gossip is ridiculous and inacceptable.

Alberto Navarro, Madrid, Spain

I truly regret so much xenophobia and ignorance towards the portuguese Polícia Judiciária (PJ). PJ has been responsable for the catch of terrorists, pedophiles, murderers and othe high profile criminals that other police and inteligence agencies around the world failed. That is true. For several occasions it has been awarded as one of the best investigation polices in europe...
However, Portugal does not have tradition in these kind of crimes. But we now know that there are 150 british pedophiles in the Algarve that your beloved police has taken one week to reference...

Ana S., Oporto, Portugal

'Journalists and the wider media should be required to attend to their jobs! Listening and accurately reporting'

David, since when has this been the 'job' of the English tabloid press?

Most of the 'usual targets' are present in this case, including foreigners (who, of course, are incompetent) and paedophiles (presumably foreign paedophiles are even worse than ours). The Portuguese police are, of course, useless, compared to our own police who can shoot dead an unarmed civilian on the London Underground without any significant recriminations whatsoever.

The suggestion that the English press are hampering the enquiry by their offers of money is wholly credible. After all, this is precisely how they behave over high-profile trials at home.

Stephen Jones, Bristol,

Outrageous. Of course it fulfils the public benefit test. The McCanns have explicitly said than any monies which are not needed for their search will be used to help other families whose children go missing abroad. Someone should tell the idiots at HM Revenue and Customs to get their filthy money-grubbing mitts off. They are a load of jobsworths and someone in higher authority needs to slap them down.

Martin , Hereford, England

Can we pause for one moment and be pleased with one of the bureaucratic processes that has been slaughtered by the media ?.......in the UK every child needs a passport with photograph, even babies. In the light of this case it just might have stopped a border crossing along the way.

SHAME on the Charities Comission, can they not see finding this child and the profle of this case will help every child ?

Mike, London, UK

The English think they are better than everyone else but really they can be a bunch of incompetents themelves when it suits them (Charles Menezes, India, South Africa etc...).

To the English,
You have no right to criticise how things are done in other parts of the world. Your days of wondering the planet and forcing people from soveriegn countries to accept your will is long over. Let the Portuguese do it their way and if they don't find her then please accept it. and stop playing the blame game which it appears is all you good at. It happens all over the world that crimes go unsolved.
Oh, And please give back the Crown Jewels to those it was stolen from.

Marco, new york, USA

Alex, Tallinn, Estonia

Sorry Alex, but I have to tell you that it was reported here in the UK that the Portuguese Police HAD NOT asked for any of the Motorway CCTV records, even up until a couple of days ago. The Motorway operators were asked by the press "if ANY requests had been made?" and the answer was "surprisingly NO"

I won't go into the DNA debacle other than to ask, why was the suspect allowed to go in and search the bedrooms, and look under the beds, in more than one property?? If Madeleine's DNA was found there. the suspect could then say "Oh that's from when I helped the police in their searches"

Keith Baigrie, Dartmouth, England

How about investigating the timewasting implications of the gossip absorbed interference into the police work ,produced as a direct result of the 'jounalist' from the Sunday/Daily Mirror expressing her 'creepy feelings'?

This was shameful gossip and innuendo which very clearly has distracted what limited resources appear to be available to the Portuguese authorities. Journalists and the wider media should be required to attend to their jobs! Listening and accurately reporting, Please allow the public to make its own mind up, which it can very easily manage, -given true and accurate information........

David Reavell, Hitchin, Herts

with techological advances linking investigation squads globally, forensic science at its peek and the unsurpassed media attention the case has received, how could this little girl just disappear? no clues, no sightings, no evidence. does this mean that the underworld organisation of child abduction is more sophisticated than the teams entrusted to put to an end to it? if so the taxation of funds to help find Madeleine McCaan becomes even more ridiculous.

gabrielle, london, uk

I noted in several newspapers the other day the headline along the lines "Russian Sex Offender arrested" ,and yet according to the Russian man concerned he has no such convictions. How on earth can the newspapers be allowed to conduct themselves in such a way as to simply add fuel to the fire and in actuality seriously detract from and interfere in the hunt for the little girl Madeleine ?.
The newspapers should pay for what they have said that is not true.

Sergei, London, UK

It is clear that the Police in Portugal did not move quickly enough at the start of this investigation. Those behind this have had ample opportunity to cover their tracks. Even now there are reports that they have still not checked the CC TV cameras along the main highway out of the Algarve to the Spanish border. The McCann Family should and probably are now getting Private Detectives on to this case. If this was UK Police they would be getting slated in the Press although I am sure that UK Police would be doing a better job if they had control of this investigation.

Joe McBride, Antrim, N. Ireland

Its incredible how many instant experts on the Portuguese Police have sprung up overnight. It all stinks of old fashioned xenophobia to me.

Mark, Newcastle,

To the readers from accross the Antlantic that know ZERO about world geography, Portugal IS NOT part of Spain. So much for those...
On the other theme, Portuguese Police is actually well trained and experienced. Maybe in other times news media were not expedite to notice, but PJ (Policia Judiciaria) was responsable to catch terrorists, pedophiles, murderers and othe high profile criminals that other police and inteligence agencies around the world failed to.
Unfortunately there are hundreds (or thousands) of cases where the trails "got cold", and there is nowhere to look.
We all hope this is not the case, and that somehow, somewhere, this girl will be found safe and well.
Just because they dont tell you what they are doing, it doesnt mean its not being done. It obvious for anyone with a biot of brain that Police DID look at all CCTV cameras in every location possible. And that they have searched everywhere too.
If that makes them incompetent, so are all other Police in the world.

Alex, Tallinn, Estonia

High circles in Police in Portugal might have reasons for such slow and inefficient investigation. Can a Belgium events repeat elswere?

nana, TWICKENHAM, uk

Why didn't the Portuguese Police request the intervention of the FBI to locate Madeleine? Why didn't Portuguese authorities lock all airports and frontier immigration offices?
Many mistakes from the very first beginning...

Alejandro, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Tax monies, freely given to help find Madeleine!!!

Outrageous, skinflint, insensitive and plain wrong!

- this from a PM elect who promises to listen?

Alan Harvey, Fleet, UK

Emma from Ottowa - are you mixing up spain with portugal? portugal seceded some 350 years ago from Spain.
crime rate in Portugal is lower than in the UK, give the portugese a bit of credit. of course, everything is better including the NHS, the investigations etc. in the UK ...

mark, alicante, spain

We, meaning the British have the cheek to critise the Portugal Police. Er hang on a minute, two girls in Soham were killed by because of police bungling over Ian Huntley, and one of the in officers was arrested for sex offences, the family liason officer!

How many young children have gone missing in this country never to be found?
It trial by television in this country, and your guilty to you can prove your innocent, fair trial, forget it.

Graham Hughes, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire

So much energy has been invested in the search so far. From my point of view the only sensible thing to be done is to hire team of private detectives to find her. The high profile media attention i s a good thing on one hand - it makes people aware and on the watch, but it also makes the people who perfomered this evil deed more cautions and on guard, thus more difficult to be traced. I'd say that media storm distracts the family from the true objective which is to bring Maddy back. As one of the millions of people who track Maddy's story I feel great sympathy for the family, but the only right thing is to focus on professional search, not to make splashes all over the world. The general public is well-meaning, but that's it. They need professionals to step in and handle the case, since police proves anything, but helpful.

Pam, St.Petersburg, Russia

Taxing this appeal is just plain 'wrong', simple as that.

After all this time has passed, it's hard to understand how no real clues or leads seem to have materialised. Was it a planned abduction, or an opportunists crime? How can a little girl simply vanish and exist somewhere with no (at least publicly known) clues. My heart is with the parents and family, how frustrating and agonising can this be...

I agree with Keith Bairgrie, it's time a British or proper international investigation was instigated. I can't feel confident in the inexperinced local Portuguese Police, how ever hard they try.

Paul Quince, Bristol, England

Let’s hope Portuguese police do a better job in this case than British authorities in finding who is responsible for the murder of Jean Charles de Menezes.

Johny, Lisbon,

Either get the British Police involved (we're all European now after all) or get Pinkerton's to do it. I'm sure they would accept the reward money for solving the case.

mike cameron, Shenzhen, China

Five probelms with the Spanish police are 1) their wish to protect the tourism industry by focusing on foreigners, and 2) old fashioned police methods of searching a neighborhood and only then expanding, when in child abductions, all searches must happen at once, along with airport screenings and roadchecks. I am assuming 2.
3) Other factors are that kidnapping is so rare in Portugal according to newspolice have almost no experience, and 4) that these still male-dominated forces tend to be territotial than good at accessing resources and help from the get go. 5) Finally by failing to use the media to track suspects and disseminate info and pictures, they wasted time. On the plus side, the McCann family has mobilized an army of help that likely far outweighs anything police could have done. I hope Scotland Yard is on this case.

Emma H., Ottawa, Can.

This sounds like an opportunity for HM to overrule this idiotic rule

Meg, Washington, USA

May I just say I'm very sorry for all the other law enforcement agencies that will be trying to work with the Portuguese Police Service, who's failure to harness the public's help or demonstrate it seems, even basic joined up investigative work, (as currently being demonstrated,with their failure to utilize readily available motorway CCTV!). They all must be feeling almost intolerable frustration.
Isn't it now time a British investigation was started, to shed some clearer light on just what is going on, particularly with the DNA searches. I do hope so before it is all too late.

Keith Baigrie, Dartmouth, England

for gods sake lets find this little girl and end this perfect families anguish. you people who have her, you need help, give her back to her mummy and daddy and her family she needs them not you. if you dont want to be caught just leave her somewhere safe and run, she needs her family, the world is against you, you cant hide. give her back whilst you can. our thoughts are with you mccanns.... love always darren, sarah, chanel, luke and katie Giles x x x x x x

Darren Giles, Peterborough, United Kingdom

Portugal is a small country - resources are being stretched to the limit to help solve this case - please do not criticise the police and authorities - when we take ourselves and families abroad - be it for a family holiday or a new life (re-location) we have to accept the ways that the local authorities deal with any crisis we may encounter - we can all sling mud - as a mother of four I could sling mud - but I just hope this child is found safe and alive.

susan cake, Lostanlen, France