Did you choose Shannon or Maddy?

Madeleine McCann disappeared and in about 3 weeks there was a fund of £2.5m that had been donated by well-meaning supporters of the search for her.

Shannon Matthews' appeal has raised £50,000 in nthe same time.

The McCanns are, outwardly at least (because do we truly know what goes on behind closed doors?), a respectable middle class family, married, tax paying and aspirational for many.

The Matthews live on a council estate, Shannon's mum is unmarried, Shannon has a different dad to her mum's current partner... you get the picture.

It is to the eternal discredit to us as a nation that we differentiate so much between the two cases, yet money talks, and we have placed our bets.

Neither child were anything other than the victims of (as yet unknown) circumstances. Neither family can categorically prove that the microscope should not rightfully fall upon them, and neither child deserved whatever fate befell them.

But does Shannon deserve to be judged so much more harshly by society simply because of her ancestry?

You have a 9 year old child, who is, probably, streetwise to a degree, has been out before (we have all seen kids that age out at 7pm - I do every night of the week) and you have a 3 year old, left alone with her 2 infant siblings in a hotel apartment whilst her parents dine with friends, having left them all day in the creche. Who's more culpable?

My prayers are with both families, but my faith in society is somewhat eroded once more, because we chose the shiny brochure and wrote off another family.