British [email protected] Who Want To Defend Their Homes

02 Jan, 2004 by John Hawkins

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“It was trailed as a “unique chance to rewrite the law of the land”. Listeners to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme were asked to suggest a piece of legislation to improve life in Britain, with the promise that an MP would then attempt to get it onto the statute books….”

That’s certainly an interesting concept, although I’m not sure why you need to have a contest to get a representative to propose legislation that the people want. Isn’t that the essence of what their job is; to serve their constituents? It’s like having a contest to decide who’s going to get their order filled at McDonald’s.

But in any case, things went horribly awry when ***gasp*** the “little people” actually asked to be able to legally defend their homes against burglars. Who do these peons think they are?

“…26,000 votes later, the winning proposal was denounced as a “ludicrous, brutal, unworkable blood-stained piece of legislation” – by Stephen Pound, the very MP whose job it is to try to push it through Parliament.

Mr Pound’s reaction was provoked by the news that the winner of Today’s “Listeners’ Law” poll was a plan to allow homeowners “to use any means to defend their home from intruders” – a prospect that could see householders free to kill burglars, without question.

“The people have spoken,” the Labour MP replied to the programme, “… the [email protected]”

Having recovered his composure, Mr Pound told The Independent: “We are going to have to re-evaluate the listenership of Radio 4. I would have expected this result if there had been a poll in The Sun. Do we really want a law that says you can slaughter anyone who climbs in your window?”

I can’t speak for our British brethren, but here in America we feel it’s our right to, “slaughter anyone who climbs in (our) window” and I guarantee you that our crime rate would be MUCH higher if that wasn’t our attitude.

It’s preposterous that this MP believes it’s “ludicrous, brutal, unworkable” to protect your home, your life, and your family from some burglar/rapist/serial killer coming in your window at 2 AM in the morning. My advice to any Brit who has someone breaking into their house would be to incapacitate or kill them in any way possible and then hope that a lawyer can keep you from going to jail. Like the old saying goes, “it’s better to be judged by 12, than carried by 6”.