Burglars have a right to life, too

The Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Grayling, launches a new policy document today that is widely interpreted as a householder's licence to kill burglars.

He wants to replace the rule that allows the use of "reasonable force" to protect our homes to one whereby any means other than the "grossly disproportionate" would be allowed.

This initiative is populist and probably popular - in response, Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary, is initiating a review of the law.

Many people had little sympathy with the 30-month custodial sentence given to Munir Hussain, a man who battered a burglar with a cricket bat; the criminal had tied up and threatened him and his family. In such circumstances, many people would react violently. That is not to say they would be right to do so.

The law as it stands should have been capable of taking all the circumstances of the case into account. In a trial such as this, the judge is able to consider the provocation to which a householder is subjected; in the circumstances he would normally opt for a suspended sentence.

The principle that we should be allowed to use reasonable force in self-defence is still sufficient. It does not allow us to chase a burglar in order to kill him or exact violent retribution: burglars have a right to life, too.

Using disproportionate force should remain an offence. What we should be able to expect is that the judges who preside over such trials use compassion when sentencing.

When it comes to dealing with burglary, it is plainly better that offenders should be caught by the police and punished appropriately. The latest figures suggest that only half of burglars who are caught are actually charged.

The Metropolitan Police has now come up a new tactic: issuing households that are especially vulnerable to burglars with tracking devices for valuable items, which should make it easier to catch the people who steal them. We hope so: better policing will make it less likely that people feel obliged to take the law into their own hands.

As if the nightmarish debacle at Eurostar and the continuing threat of BA strikes were not enough, the Tube unions may yet add to the sum of travellers' misery over the festive season.

A ballot by RMT members today will determine whether to take strike action, starting on 28 December.

The union rejects London Underground's pay offer of 1.5 per cent this year and 0.5 per cent over the rate of inflation next year. Other unions have agreed to it.

The RMT has already initiated a Christmas strike by staff who maintain power on the Tube system but the new strike would be far more damaging, involving drivers and signalmen.

Bob Crow, the RMT leader, risks playing Scrooge to the Christmas season of many Londoners by disrupting their travel over the holidays. His members should have more regard for the travelling public.

It looks unlikely that Lord Mandelson will ever achieve his ambition of emulating his grandfather, Herbert Morrison, by becoming Foreign Secretary.

But there are growing rumours that he may try to follow Morrison, a Leader of London County Council, by running for Mayor. In 2012 London needs a heavyweight opponent for Mayor Boris Johnson, who still hints that he may abandon us for Parliament.

Lord Mandelson's political skill and mastery of the dark arts of spin are uncontested; his dry sense of humour and newly avuncular image would surely be electoral assets. Mandelson vs Johnson would be a battle worthy of a great city: bring it on.