WITH it coming fast behind his pledge to hold asylum seekers in detention centres, Tory leader William Hague was today accused of "vote-seeking populism" as he promised to change the laws on self defence in the wake of the case of farmer Tony Martin who was jailed for life for shooting dead a teenage burglar.

And in seizing on two issues that are ablaze just as the local election campaigns start to climax, there is no doubt that he is out to make political capital out of them and that he is responding to the more visceral sentiments of many voters.

But why should populism be a dirty word -- even if, as is the indictment in this case, it is combined with arrant opportunism?

At least it shows that the politicians who employ it are listening to the people they are supposed to represent.

And, as Mr Hague says, if they don't listen, they are not doing their job.

In fact, the government would have to be completely insensate not to have heard the public outcry over the conviction of the Norfolk farmer who was defending his repeatedly-raided home from burglars.

For, as Mr Hague states today, the case has led to an explosion of anger among millions of law-abiding people who feel the state is no longer of their side.

There, he hits a nail on the head. People do feel more concern is shown for the criminals than their victims.

That is a sentiment Mr Hague encapsulated in asking what was the point of having a police service and prisons when, as the Martin case demonstrated, three criminals with 114 convictions between them could wander about free to terrorise rural communities.

And, again, he addresses real public concerns when he asks what has happened to the courts system when career burglars and muggers get a few dozen hours' community service or a couple of months in prison when people who defend their homes against them risk long prison sentences.

But this system -- against which the Martin case has triggered such outrage -- is the one that voters feel has been imposed on them by the elitist politicians who have failed to respond to the fears and worries of ordinary people on crime and punishment, despite having promised to be tough on crime and the causes of crime.

It may be that, despite his condemnation of vigilante methods, Mr Hague is encouraging people to take the law into their own hands.

But in promising a law that creates a "strong presumption" in favour of people who protect their homes and families from criminals, he is rightly responding to the public demand for laws that deliver real and natural justice.

It will get him votes by the bundle.

And Labour will be unwise to ignore it.