Telegraph | News | MPs to get fresh vote on right to fight off burglars Anne McIntosh, Tory, will reintroduce legislation that will give British householders the right to fight back if confronted by an intruder in their house.
Previous legislation was killed by the Labour governement. The Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, insisted that burglars have rights too. (You have the right to remain silent, you have the right to have an attorney... oh, sorry, wrong country.) So the Brits - thanks in large part to their Labour government, enjoy the highest crime rate in the industrialized world.
The proposed law isn't quite up to the level of self-defense afforded to homeowners in the good ol' US of A. The telegraph also feels that the UK government needs to get tough on crime, with something like a "three strikes law."
Crime in California has fallen by 30 per cent in the decade since third-time burglars were liable to be sentenced to life imprisonment.I think they should also pass a measure similar to what we call the Castle Doctrine - the idea for that came from British Comon Law, after all.
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