- 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.
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- But yesterday, 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.
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- 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 bastards."
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- 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?"
-
- Journalists on Today are thought to have been taken aback
by the choice of their listeners. Observers had assumed that the winning
suggestion might be a little more light-hearted - and a little less illiberal.
-
- Indeed, there were suspicions the vote may have been
hijacked by supporters of Tony Martin, the Norfolk farmer who was jailed
for shooting a burglar. The winning proposal enjoyed a late surge in support
in the final 24 hours of the poll, a jump attributed by the BBC to the
fact that telephone votes - which were more firmly in favour of the anti-burglar
proposal - were added at the last minute.
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- Today's long-running Personality of the Year poll was
scrapped in 1997, after persistent attempts by political parties to fix
it.
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- Mr Pound will go through the motions of presenting the
Bill to Parliament but hoped he would fail. He said it was "the sort
of idea somebody comes up with in a bar on a Saturday night between 'string
'em all up' and 'send 'em all all home'".
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- http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/media/story.jsp?story=477413
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