Justice Secretary Jack Straw says that

Yes, it should. And he is right to say that
But why then didn't he do anything about it in the four years [1997-2001] in which he was Home Secretary? After all, it was during his tenure as Home Secretary than Tony Martin, the man on whom much of this is based, was convicted of murder [reduced to manslaughter on appeal].

It is during the last decade that people have become increasingly shy of becoming a "have-a-go hero" because of the way in which Labour have consistently undermined them. Criminals have been given rights under the law way beyond that which belong to the standard law-abiding person. It is under Labour that it has been possible for a burglar to sue a house owner for injuries sustained whilst robbing them. It is under Labour that the police force has been reduced to form-filling all day, and not preventing or even properly investigating crime. It is because of Labour that people are wary of enforcing the law because they are as likely, or at least feel that they are as likely, to be charged as the criminal they apprehend.

Jack Straw can apprehend criminals like he has said to have done three times because he isn't going to get dragged up before court for doing so. But for anyone else, it doesn't hold true. He claims that he was "always uneasy" about the government not doing anything about protecting those citizens who try to uphold the law, but why then didn't he do anything about it? He was Home Secretary for four years, during the period when this all began. He is to blame for it.

They have consistently done nothing about it, and rejected Conservative calls to do so. It is all well and good for Straw to try and fix it - but he has to acknowledge his, and the last decade of Labour government's, huge role in causing the problem in the first place. Until they accept that it is them who caused it, it is all just meaningless rhetoric.

Source: BBC, The Telegraph, The Guardian, The Times, The Independent