lil_em

Poor Shannon's a victim of class

KAREN Matthews has seven kids by five different fathers. She lives in a scruffy council house on an impoverished council estate near Leeds.

Her boyfriend, who is ten years younger than her, looks both simple and scruffy, not surprising as Karen herself looks a bit rough around the edges.

Karen and her 22-year-old boyfriend, Craig Meehan, live just 100 miles from Kate and Gerry McCann.

But it might as well be a million.

Karen's little girl Shannon has been missing for 19 days but you might not know that or even care, judging by the media coverage.

The problem is that Shannon Matthews isn't as pretty as Maddie McCann.

She's not blonde or cute or beautiful. You don't look at her and want to cry.

The other problem is that her parents weren't on a posh holiday in Portugal when she went missing.

And in the only photos we've seen of her, she doesn't look angelic or entrancing, more like a naughty tomboy.

All of which might explain why the media coverage of Shannon's disappearance has been what some might call lukewarm and others might call a bloody disgrace.

But I wonder if our media aren't just reacting to an unspoken mood in the country, a feeling that a woman who has seven kids by five different men and who isn't living with any of them, must be a pretty dire mother and so must bear SOME of the responsibility for her missing daughter?

Come on. Admit it. What did YOU think when you first looked at Karen Matthews? What did you feel when you read her story, looked at how she lived? Was there a part of you that sneered and looked down on her because she didn't fit the image of the perfect mum, all smiles, posh clothes, ordered house?

Wasn't there a part of you that looked at her and thought, "living on benefits" and "never heard of the word contraception"?

Shannon Matthews has been missing for nearly three weeks and, apart from her immediate neighbours, no one seems to give a toss. Not the right profile, you see. Not the right class. And the media aren't entirely to blame for that.

Trash

I was brought up in an area just like the one where Shannon lives. I've never been to the Dewsbury Moor estate but I know about the people who live there. I know their values, their lives, their circumstances.

And, yes, while, there's a hefty percentage of what we might slate as "trailer trash" on that estate, there are just as many good, decent, disadvantaged people who, because of a lack of education, money, opportunity and ambition, find themselves stuck there, people who love their kids every bit as much as Kate and Gerry McCann love Maddie but who can never show it in the way they do.

It's not often I'm ashamed of myself or the values of the country I live in. But this week I am. Because I'm one of those people who initially sneered at Karen Matthews, who thought Shannon's disappearance had to do with the way she lived.

But this is an innocent child, for God's sake a girl whose life is no more, no less valid than Maddie McCann's. A little girl who, if she is still alive, must be so terrified, so lost, so miserable, that it's unbearable to even contemplate.

But because she doesn't fit the template of The Angel Child of Professional Loving Parents, we've all but turned our backs on her.

Our reaction to her disappearance has been tepid. It's as if we're saying that disadvantaged Brits don't feel, don't hurt, don't "do" emotion in the same way the middle classes do. Which is tosh.

The harsh reality is that if we forget about Shannon Matthews, we're signing her death warrant. This mite needs our help even more than Maddie. It's not her fault but Karen Matthews just isn't capable of mounting sophisticated media campaigns. She doesn't have the wherewithal or the connections of the McCanns.

But she IS doing her damnedest to save her little girl and we have to help her. Because she's hurting every bit as much as the McCanns are. Her agony, her angst, her guilt, eat into her soul just like they eat into Kate and Gerry's.

The fact is that evil is no respecter of class. It's everywhere on the streets of rundown council estates AND on the white sandy beaches of Portugal.

Shannon Matthews' class and where she lives are irrelevant. She's a lost, frightened little girl and it is this nation's shame that we've not only judged her, we've abandoned her as well.

The rough seas, kinda:


A lovely place to take some time:


My lovely shiny, healthy girl:


I don't know who this beast belongs to but it's always sat outside the cafe/ice cream parlour, and is as good as gold with all the kids. If I was that doggy, I wouldn't be so patient, particularly being the size of a bloody lion:


How bloody irritating, I can't seem to be able to upload any more photos to this blog. I guess it's long enough. I'll add the rest of the photos to my next blog in that case.

Gotta go get in the shower now, I've got 40 mins to get ready before Jim's here to pick me up. Lovely veggie roast dinner coming up, lush!

Love you all

xx