Myleene Klass

Former-popstar-turned-crossover-pianist Myleene Klass is hardly an unlikely cause de celebre for the Daily Mail but rather than because of a minimal swimsuit, she is making headlines after waving a kitchen knife at a group of ne’er-do-wells who thought it was perfectly okay to go sneaking around her Hertfordshire garden.

They of course got away and even though the police probably know who they are, nothing will happen to them. By contrast, the face of Marks and Spencer got a visit from the local beat telling her that if she threatened people with a knife again, she’d be the one down the nick giving over her DNA and fingerprints to the national database and fending off the inquiries of the county’s finest.

Interestingly, Hertfordshire Police first categorically denied telling her off. It said:

“For clarification, at no point were any official warnings or words of advice given to the home owner in relation to the use of a knife or offensive weapon in their home.”

They then changed their story to:

“Words of advice were given to the owner of the property.”

The point is this – that if some thugs enter your home or trespass on your property, you ought to be able to let them know in the strongest possible terms that they are not welcome. I don’t necessarily think that waving a knife at them is the best idea – not least because they may be armed themselves. Nor do I agree with some right-wingers that people committing crime should not enjoy the protection of the law – it’s a poetic concept but we’re not animals, for goodness’ sake.

The law needs clarifying - what is “reasonable force” and where is your “home” and what counts as “self-defence” and where do the boundaries begin and end? At the moment the courts are left to decide everything on the basis that no one instance is like another – not true – and as a result many defendants are dragged unecessarily through the legal process in a way that undermines confidence in the law, respect for the police and leaves victims feeling as though they are no better off than criminals.

And the police appear to be every bit as confused as the public given their completely disproportionate and legally dubious reaction to Ms Klass.

PS Sorry about the dreadful tabloid headline, her name is a gift to sub-editors everywhere. And also apologies for the “pretty girl” picture – but come on, one in six months is allowed.

Come on Harriet, it's only £350

When Jonathan Aitken, a junior minister in the last Conservative government, fell foul of the criminal law you couldn’t escape the wall-to-wall coverage of it.

For those who missed, yesterday Harriet Harman – a cabinet minister and deputy leader of the Labour Party, pleaded guilty to bashing into someone else’s car through driving without due care and attention. Charges of doing so while on a mobile phone were dropped at the last minute. She was fined £350 – about what one might expect for a person of her means – and “accepted” the charge. We also learned that she now has a total of  nine points on her license and another three would see her banned.

Okay, there’s been no dishonesty on her part and she’s taken her punishment with the minimum of fuss – as one might expect with a huge amount of damaging PR perilously nearby. But I think she’s got away lightly – it’s not been in the news today, there’s only story on the BBC website and nothing on ITN at all. No doubt PM and Alistair Campbell have been at work trying to keep this out of the media spotlight.

So it is okay then for cabinet ministers in a government that sensibly banned the use of mobile phones while driving (despite never offering police forces the resources to enforce it) to go around on their mobiles smashing into other peoples’ cars.

But then after Baroness Scotland, who took the trouble to break her own law, nothing surprises me.