There's a sense in which laws are passed not only to have specific effects that are very measurable and tangible but also in the sense that they send a signal to the community about what its representatives regard as reasonable and acceptable in a civilised society. To the extent that the Parliament, in passing laws that will soften the official position on offending—the point I'm trying to make is that while one would never wish to condone vigilante action or self-defence beyond the reasonable and the proportionate, the reality is that many people in our communities feel under threat by violent offending. They're not confident that they will have the protection that the courts and the prisons and the justice system generally should afford it. That's the fault of Parliament rather than the courts and the prisons, I hasten to add. So it's important that we don't undermine that sense of justice, in that general sense, as well as the real feeling of protection and safety that citizens of this country—by which I include, obviously, those who are not technically citizens—should derive from the laws of the land. 