Family and friends at the fund launch...

by missbeetle 03.08.15 8:37

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(dated 16th May, 2007. Snipped from gerrymccannsblogs.co.uk, with thanks)

The Madeleine's Fund was launched by friends and family at Walkers Stadium in Leicester.

From the left : Uncle John McCann, Uncle Brian Kennedy, rugbyist Martin Johnson...

...unknown man with grey curly hair and glasses...?

Then Dr Doug Skehan and two unknown blonde ladies -

- any ideas who they are?

by woodpecker 03.08.15 8:51

I suggest one of the blonde ladies may be Esther Mcvey She was one of the first directors of the Fund so very likely she would be at the top table as it were. She resigned after about 7 months. I believe she cited pressure of work for the resignation but I've always thought the reason was she developed suspicions about the McCanns and as an ambitious politician could not afford to be connected to them if she was right.

by **Jill Havern** 03.08.15 9:02

woodpecker wrote:I suggest one of the blonde ladies may be Esther Mcvey She was one of the first directors of the Fund so very likely she would be at the top table as it were. She resigned after about 7 months. I believe she cited pressure of work for the resignation but I've always thought the reason was she developed suspicions about the McCanns and as an ambitious politician could not afford to be connected to them if she was right.

Neither of them look like Esther Mcvey to me.

by missbeetle 03.08.15 9:07

Get'emGonçalo wrote:
woodpecker wrote:I suggest one of the blonde ladies may be Esther Mcvey She was one of the first directors of the Fund so very likely she would be at the top table as it were. She resigned after about 7 months. I believe she cited pressure of work for the resignation but I've always thought the reason was she developed suspicions about the McCanns and as an ambitious politician could not afford to be connected to them if she was right.
Neither of them look like Esther Mcvey to me.

Cheers for that, Get'emGoncalo - I didn't think so either -

- my reasoning was that our Esther McVey may be many, many things...

...but she's not a wearer of bright lipstick.

Who's the fellow, any ideas?

by **Jill Havern** 03.08.15 9:26

missbeetle wrote:
Get'emGonçalo wrote:
woodpecker wrote:I suggest one of the blonde ladies may be Esther Mcvey She was one of the first directors of the Fund so very likely she would be at the top table as it were. She resigned after about 7 months. I believe she cited pressure of work for the resignation but I've always thought the reason was she developed suspicions about the McCanns and as an ambitious politician could not afford to be connected to them if she was right.
Neither of them look like Esther Mcvey to me.

Cheers for that, Get'emGoncalo - I didn't think so either -

- my reasoning was that our Esther McVey may be many, many things...

...but she's not a wearer of bright lipstick.

Who's the fellow, any ideas?

Noooo.....could it be Michael Linnett or Peter Hubner?

by missbeetle 03.08.15 9:32

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(snipped from bbc.co.uk)

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I think grey haired man is this chap.

by **Jill Havern** 03.08.15 9:35

by skyrocket 03.08.15 17:06

I think 'red lipstick' is Rosamund McCarthy a lawyer partner with Bates Wells and Braithwaite. She specialises in advising charities on legal matters, and was involved with the setting up of the fund.

by skyrocket 03.08.15 17:10

The final blonde in the line up looks like Ann Thomas of the Family Law Group, who again was involved in the set up of the fund.

Not as certain on this one but I'm fairly sure it's her.

by Doug D 03.08.15 17:57

Off topic assuming it's not her, but:

Missbeetle:

‘my reasoning was that our Esther McVey may be many, many things...

...but she's not a wearer of bright lipstick’

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No?

by **Jill Havern** 03.08.15 18:05

That looks more like dark red lipstick rather than bright red lipstick.

by missbeetle 03.08.15 22:47

Thank you, Skyrocket - yes, that's Rosamund McCarthy and Ann Thomas.

Hello Doug D - almost, but not quite - that's more of a Barolo red lipstick...

(stinker of a jacket, though - looks like inflamed mucous membranes)

by lj 04.08.15 7:34

Doug D wrote:Off topic assuming it's not her, but:

Missbeetle:

‘my reasoning was that our Esther McVey may be many, many things...

...but she's not a wearer of bright lipstick’

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No?

Can't the fund give her a decent blouse?

Now I think of it she probably could deduct that from her taxes as expense

by **tigger** 13.08.15 12:51

Apparently this isn't what the Fund was for either - seems to me that things started to unravel rather earlier than I thought?

From 'madeleine'

Chapter 11:
At the beginning of June, Gerry had a call from the director of communications at the Foreign Office. There was concern in the
government, he said, that Clarence was ‘becoming the story’. I am not quite sure what he meant by this. Clarence was
certainly a visible presence and perhaps his open, affable style prevented him from being quite as anonymous as the Foreign
Office would have liked. Perhaps it had drawn attention to the fact that they were still providing us with a media spokesperson and questions were being asked. It had been a month since Madeleine’s disappearance, so maybe they were simply trying gently to prompt us into appointing somebody of our own to help us.
Whatever the case, it was suggested to Gerry that we should use Madeleine’s Fund to employ someone to replace Clarence once our campaign visits were complete. Reluctantly, Gerry agreed. We honestly hadn’t bargained for having to pay a salary
for media liaison out of the fund, which we’d envisaged being used primarily to meet costs related directly to the search for Madeleine. It hadn’t occurred to us that we’d still be needing this kind of help a month down the line. With no way of knowing how long this would continue, we had no idea how long the money would last.

errrmph.... spit coffee

by Guest 13.08.15 13:18

So the FO got cold feet and wanted to wash their hands of them.

And they wanted their interference thru CM to vanish from view & memory

Fat chance there!