Then I'll throw another at you - a woman who has briefly stopped in a no-parking zone to check for directions, she's accosted by an elderly man who gets up in her face. After asking him to step back, she gently shoves him away - he stumbles and falls, subsequently dying of a heart attack. Still murder? Her self defence has been nulified by her minor parking violation - still illegal.

You may find that more people involved in conflict with the police are found to be carrying narcotics than would be suspected. No self-defence allowed when a law has been broken. It's a tricky one. I'm not sure what the answer is either.

We have an interesting case over here that's just brought in an automatic life sentence for anyone who kills a member of the emergency services whole committing a crime. It's called 'Harper's Law' and it makes me feel very uneasy about equality under prosecution, though the antecedents to this law are pretty horrible and the case it stems from was genuinely disturbing, this is knee jerk reactionism to a bad situation and won't lead to better laws.

I love engaging with readers and if you've read me for long enough you'll know I love a good debate too. I don't mind whether people agree or disagree with me, as long as they approach the subject matter with intelligence and good grace - you've done both. Don't worry, because my political position (left wing libertarian) is relatively unpopular, I'm sure we'll have plenty more chances to both agree and disagree on a whole host of things. :o)