This is the moment when Tony Blair administered to Michael Howard what one Observer political editor called "a thorough spanking" in Prime Minister's Questions yesterday.
Some enterprising Labour researcher has done his or her homework, digging out an old quote from Howard's days as Home Secretary saying, broadly, that there is no need to change the law on tackling burglars in the home. (Tediously hot-button issue in vigilante Britain at the moment.)
The BBC has kindly put up a pdf of the government's new guidelines on what you can and can't do when you find a villain in the hearth.
To summarise: It is staggeringly rare that anyone is prosecuted for tackling a burglar. You can defend yourself, chase someone off and recover your property as long as you don't go off the rails completely. Biffing a bad guy because he has his hands in your till is fine. Savagely kicking his already unconscious body to the appluase of a baying mob is not. (Likewise, shooting him in the back as he runs away.)
Quite simple really.
