Is sifting just procrastinating?

If Clarence Mitchell and GM can be believed, KM is apparently spending the rest of her life sifting through the case files. Meanwhile a team of 37 Scotland Yard detectives are also sifting through the case files; in fact they are reported to have spent more than two million pounds to date just to sift through 25% of them. Over in Portugal a crack team of PJ detectives are reported to have been sifting through the same files for more than a year. In fact all hell has broken loose over there, because apparently their sifting operation has not been authorized by the powers that be. This means, as I understand it, that they are actually engaged in an unauthorized sifting operation.
I wonder what this multiple outbreak of sifting is all about?
In KMs case, it's quite clear and although it would be madness of course to believe anything that Clarence Mitchell or GM came out with, KM does actually seem to have done a teeny bit of sifting and come up with a few possible weak points in their story, as demonstrated by her attempt to neutralize them in the new edition of her literary pièce de résistance. As far as the McCanns are concerned then, a little bit of sifting does make a lot of sense, especially if it helps them to cover their backs and generate some more cash at the same time.
As far as the Portuguese are concerned, I have absolutely no idea why they are sifting at all and I understand that their own attorney general has no idea either and sees no point in it. After all, from the interim conclusion of their shelved investigation, it is quite clear that outside the circle of the parents and their friends, there is absolutely nothing to find.
Just why Scotland Yard should be spending millions of pounds of public money and wasting the valuable time of more than 30 top detectives on their sifting exercise though, is utterly beyond my comprehension. May I therefore respectfully suggest that they take a couple of weeks to peruse the excellent archives of material on this forum and other well-known sites, put together a case and proceed to pull in the parents and their Tapas friends for a serious round of questioning - they could save the public purse literally millions of pounds and wrap this farce up within a matter of weeks rather than years. Admittedly, it's not so much fun as being on the breakfast TV interview couch reading from a script written by Clarence Mitchell and talking about sifting, but behaving like real police and not like Team McCann's private eyes is what we expect from Scotland Yard. So the nitty gritty is Mr. Redwood, sifting through hundreds of useless and fake leads is a waste of police time and public money. Please stop procrastinating and get on with the job you're paid to do.

some excellent advice there, lets hope they take it!

T4T

Tend to agree with all your points.

Thing is what was SY's real remit - was it, in fact, to do just what you suggest - behaving as though they are acting on behalf of TM. Thus spending time and money "sifting" is not such a bad occupation in the autumn of one's working life.

To 'plod' slowly to the end of one's career perusing the meticulous investigation carried out by serving Officers in Portugal and their counterparts from England into a unsolved case must be better than 'mowing the lawn' etc. which could have been their fate.