So a robber breaks into a home at night. Living there is an old couple. The husband is threatened with a screwdriver by one burglar while the other goes upstairs, where lies disabled wife, to find the ‘swag’. A melee ensues in the kitchen and the 78-year-old home owner stabs the burglar once resulting in the scumbag’s death. I make no judgments or preconceptions. Innocent until proven whatever, even if you’re a serial burgling low-life preying on the elderly. As was, errr, coincidentally, the case here.

The police arrested the old man for murder.

And the entire country went: WTF???

Murder. Which involves its own implicit level of preconception, otherwise its manslaughter. So this 78-year-old went to bed and what? Phoned a few burglars up to get one round so he could stab him? He went to the kitchen with the express purpose in mind of committing a deadly sin?

He has since been released to face ‘no further charges’. But really. I mean, REALLY!

The man should have instantly been proclaimed a hero, presented with a medal for valour and given a peerage for ‘helping the community’ by getting rid of at least one totally parasitical, nasty criminal shit-head.

If you stab a man on the street, or a woman (must remember not to discriminate next time I’m looking for a stab-victim), that’s generally a bad thing. On the grounds of ‘why were you carrying a knife?’ But when someone comes into your home with bad intentions and weapons, then I’m afraid all bets are off. You can gun the fucker down. But probably don’t have a gun. Unless you’re Tony Martin and he ended up in prison. Which was the most unpopular move ever perpetrated by police except the repeated shooting of black men in their backs. But that was American police and they have different rules.

So the law, as I understood it (10% information gleaned from the Daily Mail, 90% guesswork), changed after that case so that if intruders are in your home, the force you use may indeed be ‘disproportionate’. Which to me says ‘you can kill who you like in your own house’. So be careful next time you pop in for a cuppa tea. Not that I’m inviting you.

Everyone’s excited about the game tonight. If Manchester City beat Manchester United at Old Trafford they not only win the league but do it at the home of their neighbours/rivals. The final insult. Like when Arsenal won it at Spurs. Like a kick in the teeth. Like stabbing a burglar. Whereas I’m more concerned with the truly massive game at Stoke this afternoon. Every game Spurs play is now a 6-pointer, if not more. And we don’t want Stoke having some kind of ‘resurgence’ at this point in their sad and doomed lives.

Happy Saturday

A xxxx