that little Maddie McCann has gone missing and no one seems to know where she is.
I’m sure her family – and especially her mother – are drowning in grief. Few of us can even imagine how hideous things are for them at the moment.
Well actually – there are quite a lot of people who probably have some idea.
The national mission persons charity revealed that since Maddie was taken some 450 people have also vanished.
It doesn’t matter that these people might not be so beautiful and unblemished as Maddie, nor does it matter that they are older. What matters is that up and down the country there are hundreds of families suffering the agony of not knowing where their folk are or if they are safe and well.
And that’s a tiny heap of misery measured against all the awful rape, murder and abuse around the world.
It’s probably a good thing that so many people – millions apparently – want to help get Maddie back. But let’s not forget about the others – can we find a way of using that powerful emotion to help them too?