Brian Reade  10/05/2007

A BIG-UP to the majority of Middle England commentators showing compassion towards Kate McCann, whose daughter Madeleine was snatched in Portugal.

How easy it would have been for them to berate her for leaving the three-year-old girl and her two younger siblings alone in an apartment while she enjoyed a meal with her hubby 100 yards away.

Easy, but very harsh and cruel, seeing as nobody but the McCanns knew the specific circumstances.

So well done for holding back.

I hope this is a trend. And the next time a working-class mum on benefits leaves her children “Home Alone” while she nips out to the shops/pub/bingo for half an hour, we don’t see the usual bile spewed at her about being a scrounging, pleasure-seeking disgrace to motherhood who deserves to have her kids taken away from her and be sterilised.

Mind you, as there’s one law for middleclass professionals eating tapas in a nice restaurant and another for the feckless working-class, I don’t hold out much hope.