The people speak

By way of an update to an earlier 'blog, some details in a morning newspaper have emerged that could well cause Home Secretary Mr. Charles Clarke some problems. And so they should, because he has now to prove why he feels that the people are wrong and he is right.

Apparently, 3 in 4 people, or to put it another way, 75% of householders feel the law should protect them if they attack or kill an intruder in their home. The overwhelming consensus is that the public should have an ‘unqualified’ right to protect themselves, their family and their home.

Another 83% felt that the current law favoured the intruder and another 93% felt that the intruder should have no legal right to sue. These figures were derived from a poll of 2,000 people conducted by the ITV1 current affairs program, Tonight with Trevor McDonald.

Clearly, this demonstrates the feeling and the sentiment of the people, but I’m in no doubt that this will fall on deaf ears. The government would rather ignore the people than be seen to be doing something that would otherwise alienate the politically correct sentiment that seems to overwhelm anything and everything, regardless of whether it is meritorious or not...