Gordon Brown

This snippet is from the Vanity Fair interview which was published in January 08, the February issue.
The interview with Gerry took place in September 07 but Judy Bachrach evidently worked further on the long article during the intervening months.
She contacted amongst others Murat and his family and met up with them, and from the quote below, must have spoken to Clarence Mitchell too - I would like to gather a lot of factual information on Gordon Browns' involvement.
It has always struck me that he didn't capitalise on the vote winning aspect by having personal contact, be photographed with the couple and the twins and so on.
It seems also from Kate's and Gerry's own comments, that they contacted Brown and he would phone back as they requested. Which is a strange way to deal with a PM imo. Even if they were acquainted with him, his high office would ensure direct calls to him would not be easy to achieve. Leaving a message asking him to call back personally - is very very strange.

So here is the quote from VF:

Lately, word has leaked out that the McCanns feel abandoned even by Gordon Brown, once their close ally. Their spokesman doesn’t quite deny this. “That was one of our backers who said it. We would never be that impolitic,” he says. “But it is true that we have requested a meeting with the prime minister to show him the strength of our case, to explain Kate and Gerry’s innocence—and yet all we’ve been offered is a medium-level-consular meeting, which we rejected.” unquote

The tone of this statement again is one of either equals or more - imo - one of annoyance of someone who owes you not coming up with the goods.

I like the bit about "explaining K & G's innocence". I can imagine Gerry with one of his flip charts doing his best to come up with a believable explanation.

I don't think that people who are genuinely innocent of any misdeeds need to explain themselves.

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17/10/07
quote:
Gordon Brown has raised concerns about the investigation into Madeleine McCann's disappearance with his Portuguese counterpart.

Mr Brown discussed the police inquiry with the premier Jose Socrates during private talks in Lisbon, where the pair are attending the EU summit.
Mr Brown said he wanted to be assured "that the police authorities are taking the actions that are necessary and there's proper cooperation between the British and Portuguese police".

[....] Gordon Brown met Portuguese premier Jose Socrates in private yesterday in Lisbon to discuss Madeleine McCann [....]
The pair previously discussed the case in July, when Mr Socrates assured Mr Brown "everything possible" was being done to find the missing four-year-old.
Mr Brown's involvement in the case has sparked resentment in Portugal in the past.
unquote

There was a trade deal with Britain going through at the time and I seem to remember that Socrates had received a large payment as a bribe to do with this deal. Which would make things easier for GB.

From Dr. Roberts: 'A Matter of Trust' 15/712
quote:
No sooner had the McCanns become associated with Mitchell (May 21/22), through the intervention of No.10, than they were in telephone contact with the man-next-door, Gordon Brown (May 23). And then someone turned the kaleidoscope. The pieces remained the same but shifted into different places. On June 27, a month after the introduction of the pink catalyst, the Blairs were suddenly obliged to leave Downing Street so that Gordon Brown could have their apartment, having just been given Tony's old job.

At the spearhead of 'New Labour' throughout their ultimately successful election campaign, Gordon Brown was a true 'conviction politician,' long on strength of belief and short on prudence. In his first speech to The Labour Party as Leader, on 24 September 2007, he declared, "I stand for a Britain that defends its citizens and both punishes crime and prevents it by dealing with the root cause." It's not at all difficult to see how the new Prime Minister's position would be somewhat compromised were he to be faced with a situation in which these very principles were found to be in conflict.

There is an arresting (pun intended) video on YouTube which poses a number of very germane questions regarding the McCanns' behaviour throughout the investigation into their daughter's disappearance. It concludes with the question of why, when a convincing sighting of Madeleine was reported from Belgium, the McCanns' reaction was to visit Huelva, in Spain. Strangely, this type of counter-intuitive behaviour is not unique to the McCanns.

Later in his party address as PM, Gordon Brown stated: "Two thirds of deaths from gun crime occur in just four cities. In the last few weeks Jacqui Smith and I have focussed on the specific areas in these cities..."

In the year 2006 - 2007 just over half of all firearm offences occurred in areas covered by just three major forces - the Metropolitan Police in London, Greater Manchester and West Midlands. The situation remained unchanged two years later, as noted by The Independent of 8 January, 2009 which reported, "Most of the 42 gun-related deaths last year took place in London, the West Midlands Manchester or Merseyside. There were six deaths in the West Midlands, four each in Manchester and Merseyside and two each in Kent, Shropshire and West Yorkshire. Other deaths were recorded in Cornwall, Derbyshire, Glasgow, Hertfordshire, Humberside, Northumberland and South Yorkshire."

This was 2008 don't forget. But 2007, the year in which the Brown possee visited areas in each of the four most fatal cities, must have seen the statistical ice-berg topple over, for on 12 September 2007, no doubt as a feature on their crime-prevention itinerary, Brown and Smith visited a police station in - Beaumont Leys, a suburb of Leicester.

This is the same Gordon Brown, who the following month was dutifully advised that Goncalo Amaral had been removed from his role as co-ordinator of the 'Maddie' investigation in Portugal, before even Amaral himself was notified.
There has to be some explanation as to why the then Prime Minister should have maintained a personal level of involvement in the McCann case once the parents' had returned home as suspects in their own daughter's disappearance. After all, the government had apparently ordained that Civil Servant Clarence Mitchell could no longer speak for them for that very reason, according to Kate McCann (Madeleine, p.255). Defence of the citizenry overseas is scarcely appropriate when the subjects are safely on British soil. And he needn't have entertained thoughts of pre-empting extradition. The McCanns took care of that aspect themselves with their 'appointment' of Michael Caplan Q.C. Or did they?
unquote