Today, funding for the Madeleine McCann case runs out (again!) but the Metropolitan Police have applied for an extra £300,000 in order to continue searching for poor little Maddie.
The investigation has already cost £12 million: I'm not sure how much is spent on the average missing child in Britain but I believe it's the equivalent of about thirty bob in old money. To be fair, however, Madeleine was an exceptionally attractive three-year-old and her parents were both doctors so I can understand why she had to be given special treatment.
And, of course, it's not as if we don't have police officers to spare in the London area.
On the other hand, it's now 12 years since she went missing and I can't help wondering how Maddie will feel if she's discovered alive and well after all this time and compulsorily returned to the parents who left her home alone in bed with two other tiny tots while they fecked off down the boozer in 2002.
If she's alive and well in 2019, it wouldn't surprise me if she wants to stay exactly where she is.