Drunken Brits abroad are again in the headlines - and I fear things will get even worse in the future

Eamon and Antoinette McGuckin, the Northern Irish couple accused of neglecting their children while on a drinking spree in a Portuguese hotel, have denied having drunk an excessive amount and have claimed that their drinks must have been spiked.

"Friends" of the couple, quoted in yesterday's newspapers, said that "people could either choose to believe their version of events or not"; and, given that choice, I must confess that I don't find it very easy to believe.

Who would have wanted to tamper with the McGuckins' drinks? They don't point the finger at anyone in particular. But it would seem unlikely behaviour by members of the staff of a popular hotel in the Algarve, dependent for their livelihood on the goodwill of its British visitors. So could it have been another British guest? That would be odd, too.

Anything is possible, and the accounts of the incident a week ago are confusing. But it seems more than a little probable that, while the hotel staff may conceivably have overreacted in rushing their three young children off into care, the McGuckins had had rather a lot to drink.

They admit to having been drinking, but are vague about how much. All they say is that it was "insufficient to have rendered them incapable of being responsible parents". That is a matter of opinion. Nobody relishes the charge of being a neglectful or irresponsible parent. But if it is true, as the hotel claims, that Mr McGuckin passed out on a sofa in the hotel lobby and his wife vomited there in front of their children, then there might have been a case for doing something about the little ones.

The Portuguese may, however, have been so fed up with all the flak over the McCann affair that they were eager to pin a charge of irresponsible parenthood on any British couple that gave them the chance. They may also have grown weary of the spectacle of British bacchanalia on their shores.