Feeling Like a Tanner

Who can forget "the crying Tanner" from the Mockumentary?.

It was the purest, most formidable expression of betrayal sufferance that we’ve ever had the opportunity of setting our eyes on.

It was clear and precise. At once we all understood that we were before someone who has just been told mercilessly that “You’ve outlasted your use so you’re totally dispensable”.

It takes a total lack of conscience and of principles to tell that to someone who has significantly, under relevant risk, gone way out of his/her way to help you out of an enormously problematic situation that his/her, altruism and friendship are no longer of use in your favour but s/he should NEVER forget that their altruism has now become very useful to be used against them.

That is called to be made “feel like a Tanner”. Please, not to be confused with “doing a Tanner”.

To be made to "feel like a Tanner" is to have your friendship and trust bent by your trusted friends in such a way that it becomes a dagger pointed right at your heart.

We’ve lately been “blessed” with some “feeling like a Tanner” situations.

As you know, we’re not in the habit of running after each stick that is thrown out there for us to catch, nor do we intend of ever having it.

This is the reason why we basically stayed quiet during the “2012 McCann Silly Season”, which apparently diminishes in time as time passes by.

For example, last year it lasted for a little over six months, if memory doesn’t fail me. We started to hear about it from January onwards about Kate’s book. The show went on up until its publication, having quickly smothered down and away around a fortnight after, when McCann’s friends and “friends” read what the silly woman had indeed written.

This year, it started in April, I think, with the interview to a Swedish TV, and basically, lasted as much as a autumn leaf takes to be taken on a dry windy day. On May 4th, exactly 5 years to the day when the world was literally flooded with the news about Maddie’s disappearance, what did the  The Sun, have to say about it?

“THIRTY children have gone missing in Portugal since Madeleine McCann disappeared five years ago, official figures reveal.”

And that “And yesterday the Portuguese Attorney General Pinto Monteiro said British and Portuguese police weren’t even speaking.

He insisted there had been no formal request for Madeleine’s case to be reopened. When asked if he was having any talks with Brit cops he replied: “No.” “

That’s basically it. Such a disappointing little. 

Or maybe not, as you’ll see. Of the little, the sub-title is non-news because I don't think that only 5 children a year have gone missing in Portugal since 2007, and what matters in the rest of the piece is to confirm that someone, somewhere, in Portugal or/and UK, as usual, is lying. 

It’s clearly sad for the McCanns' objective of staying the longest possible in center stage that their "2012 Silly Season" only is to last a little over a month, as it's unlikely it will go much further. The May 4th when the interview with the disappointing Sandra Felgueiras was probably its final event. Now the issue will likely trickle back to its normal silence until next year.

There’s talk of an update of Kate’s book but we haven’t had much feedback on the issue. If there's one thing she should have learned from her first experience in writing is that she should never have picked up a pen again. But she did, didn’t she? Being her first experience the "diary", the disastrous book was a natural consequence and the proof that sometimes blondes are what blondes are said to be.

If was to advise this woman about this update I would tell her to not even think about it. She does have this amazing tendency of sticking her foot in her mouth faster than fast, so is unlikely to miss yet another opportunity to repeat the feat with her feet.

But, although short, the "2012 Silly Season", was full of surprises. So much so that it baffled me, which isn’t an easy thing to happen on this case as I think it and have said so many times, to be pretty simple and straightforward. 

It's complexity resides solely on the diversity, both in quality and quantity, of the people involved in the cover-up. Both the involved initially and those who were "sucked" into it afterwards.

But one thing we don’t do, ever, is to underestimate our opponents. In any situation, much less in this particular case, in which we're perfectly aware that we're up against the best of the best, and are now finding out just how ruthless and unprincipled they also are.

Bring expertise and intelligence together with lack of principles and conscience, and there isn’t a mightier foe. And that is exactly what we’re up against.

So baffled as I am, let me first state the facts, and only then try to reach some tentative conclusions about them.

First we have SY calling the PJ an incompetent lot of idiots, because having read about a quarter of what they still have to read they've apparently found nothing less than 195 reasons for the case not to have been archived. Only pure malignant negligence can justify for the PJ having "overlooked" so many precious and valid leads... By the way, this says little about Leics Police who having cooperated (and we know how much...) closely with the PJ, also didn't see them or have remained strangely silent all this time.

Then we have The Sun, a 1st Division player in the “Brit Tabloid League” unlike the "the-rag-within-rags which is the Daily Star, taking the McCanns' side again after having, practically for one year, dropped the couple and literally kicked them out of their pages. If you recall, between Kate’s book and up to quite recently, the McCanns were simply non-existing in this Tabloid's pages.

Lastly we have the McCanns coming out, full of confidence, saying that they now want to re-open the process and they want to cooperate in the reconstruction. Two things we know would put them away behind bars for a long time if they were ever to happen.

Three amazing facts in such short time.

And it has put many a head swirling around without knowing what to make head or tail out of it, hasn’t it?

Yes, I did say that I was baffled, but in the astounded sense of the word and not as in being confused.

Let me say what I think is happening.

I think the UK Government is making Murdoch “feel like a Tanner”.

I think Murdoch is making the UK Government “feel like a Tanner”.

I think the UK, namely through the SY, is making Portugal, namely the PGR, “feel like a Tanner”.

Three “feelings like a Tanner”.

The most important one for us is the third one.

For the world the most important are the first two but those are above not only my comprehension as well as above my want to comprehend.

Through the Leveson Inquiry, the UK Government basically told News International that their use was outlasted, thus the UK Government making Murdoch “feel like a Tanner”.

But Murdoch is not a Jane Tanner when it comes to comparisons. Tanner had, and has, nothing to throw back at those who stabbed her back to the point of public tears, but Murdoch does.

So by picking up the McCanns from their anguished ashes, and going to the extent of  using both an former SY (not just any former SY) and an ex-Home Secretary in the process (not just any former Home Secretary), Murdoch has clearly reacted.  

Labour's Alan Johnson's intervention at the end of the article in The Sun appears to be clearly a "return" of favours:

"myView

By ALAN JOHNSON, Former Home Secretary

I AM not surprised there is some resentment in Portugal. But we have to use all diplomatic channels now — including the Home Secretary ringing her opposite number.

The Portuguese police must put all that behind them and concentrate on one thing, and that is a little English girl who went missing.

I’m sure the Portuguese have the compassion and understanding to put away their enmities so we can pursue these leads together." 

This coming from someone who, within the UK, was supposed to be the one responsible to have done something on the issue when something should have had been done and wasn't but instead concentrated all his efforts in assuring that nothing got really done.  His words are very clear about that, otherwise why speak of "resentment" and "enmities"?

To say he's being shameless, hardly qualifies the gesture. 

News International is making it perfectly clear to the UK Government that their toes are not ones to be stepped on. The line was drawn at the NOTW closure and is not to go an inch further.

Now, why do I say that I think that Murdoch is making the UK Government “feel like a Tanner”?

From what I could understand, as of June/July last year, it seemed that the initial plan for the Maddie Review was to contain the damages within the T9 (thus the worrisome faces of both Kate and Gerry during the past year), to have News International (NI) take the blame for an exaggerated but comprehensible hype around this case, and all would go home, happy and smiling.

And so did the Leveson Inquiry come to life. To take care of the NI part of the question. A gentle slap on the wrist was the expected.

The McCann part, was to be taken care of by the SY.

But the McCanns, as we’ve said, hold, at least an ace up their sleeve. One impossible to go round, it seems.

So if the McCanns' heads can't be had, as apparently it can't, what is the Leveson Inquiry then to conclude? Oh, you’ve already forgotten its existence, its purpose and that it was supposed to reach a conclusion? So did we, don’t worry...

News International has clearly shown that it's not available to occupy the "vacant" scapegoat position left open by the McCanns. By not taking it lying down, NI is making the UK Government “feel like a Tanner”, because it has left on their lap the now cumbersome Leveson Inquiry, which most likely will come to an embarrassing non-conclusion and reveal to be yet another load of tax-payers' money thrown out with the window with the bath water...

But whatever is happening between NI and the UK is much too “conspirational” for us and it involves power struggles at a level which we don’t wish to be acquainted with. They are like cats fighting in a bag. A grim business for democracy and the rule of law.

Let’s put our feet back on the ground and focus on what we think is important for us: the UK, namely through the SY, making Portugal, namely the PGR, “feel like a Tanner”.

The reasoning is simple, the logic easy to follow: the PGR, like Tanner with the Black Hats, helped the UK out a very problematic situation. That done and overcome, it outlasted its use to the helped party and, just like Tanner, was quickly transformed from partner into the doormat role, to be trampled upon like the obedient underdog it always was.

Now, to make someone “feel like a Tanner” you have to hold the significant cards in your hand. In Tanner’s case, they’re all in one blue bag.

So there must be some sort of “blue bag” which allows the UK to humiliate the PGR as it's doing.

I imagine that it consists of documentation that would prove the PGR’s involvement and commitment in the cover-up.

Something so compromising that makes it impossible for the process from ever being reopened. Knowing that, isn't so easy, as we've seen to ask for something that you know beforehand it can't be provided and with the added bonus of humiliating the other side?

Remember us saying that we’d given up on the Maddie Affair? We hope you finally understand why we said it.

So what’s new?

Well, basically the utter lack of principles. UK has dropped the mask and has shown its true face, and it's not pretty one.

We’ve become accustomed to UK’s arrogance in relation to Portugal, but to come out publicly demanding that the process be reopened when they well know that it can’t be is like a rerun of  hearing Edgar tell Tanner that the width of a road was just a “natural discrepancy”.

The PGR, like Tanner, did what was told, and now, also like Tanner, is being told what to do again, or else...

Thinking about review, SY have done a more cynical job than we thought they would. We thought they would come up with a more believable scenario, but they know they can get away with anything and this is what they are letting us know. 

With the "195-Episode", the SY did one very important thing and that was to publicly and shamelessly commit itself to the BH side: whitewashing the cover-up. 

The "establishment" has unquestionably clarified its position. 

And like the hyenas they are, the McCanns arrive at the party late and laughing. That’s why they now sound again so confident and brag about wanting what they can’t afford to have happen, even going back to the good old days of playing with words "We NEVER wanted the case to JUST be reopened, straight off, we wanted a REVIEW to be conducted, and that's why we campaigned for it for 3 years, because there's no point reopening it if there's nothing to act on."....

I would like to remind the McCanns and the UK that they can't forget one thing: to taunt a chained dog, you must make sure that the chain will hold, otherwise you best leave the animal alone.  

Bullies seldom, if ever, claim victory. They may win skirmishes and even battles, but never the war. The bullied tend to be resilient, and the Portuguese have proved in these last 5 years that they're far from giving up on the issue, independent of what their representatives and institutions may be forced to submit to.

And the PGR's attitude of denying publicly any request from Britain to reopen the process kind of leaves you with a "195-Baby" on your lap and not knowing exactly what to do with it.

And what will happen to British public opinion about the review when M is never found?

What use is democracy without Justice? Both countries are expending young men’s and women's lives in other countries in the name of principles we now see ruthlessly abused and that submissively accepted.

So the blog's main job continues to be continuing heading for the truth. Undaunted and uninterrupted.

We have to make it very difficult for SY to do a cover-up. No matter how many new leads they claim to have found, they will have to be able to account for all the discrepancies we keep throwing up in a constant stream.

True White Hats are already convinced by what they know already and we are past the stage where we need to please the crowd. We have enough readers coming back, so they must either like what we write, be afraid of what we write, or believe themselves to be as crazy as us! If we genuinely get it wrong, we apologise as we always do.

If you think we can be a bit crabby at times, they can attribute it to our hormonal imbalances.


Post Scriptum: 

From Mail Online:

"Critics said the decision to include information from ‘supernatural’ sources was a waste of resources."

Now we have a new synonym for "reasonable": CRITIC.