Between 1300 and 1348 homicide was the third most common offence prosecuted in England but there were frequent acquittals where householders had killed housebreakers.GARY SLAPPER Professor of Law The Open University Milton KeynesSir: Clearly Alan Bunting (letter, 3 January) failed to read what Stephen Pound had to say before citing a shit-covered house and lost treasures (however sentimentally or economically significant) as grounds for murder. Does he really want a law that says you can slaughter anyone who climbs in your window ? I don’t think most of the public does.No, I don’t think I can understand Alan Bunting’s feelings, even given his presumably having been burgled (though I can only claim to have had violence done to my beloved car, and had many precious and irreplaceable items damaged or removed from it). It is profoundly sad, though, that anyone would feel so violent towards another human being; Mr Bunting would simply descend to their level if he shot them on entry. Defending mere property by violence is inexcusable; any human life is worth more than any item of property.I hope Radio 4 will at last give up these dubious polls which are so routinely hijacked.ELSPETH CHRISTIE Kirkhaugh, NorthumberlandSir: Mr Pound has learnt as a result of the Radio 4 poll how tedious democracy can be when the electorate support views at odds to those of the ruling elite.MICHAEL CONSTABLE London N1 Spam wars Sir: I only wish I could share Mr Ratcliffe’s secret when filtering spam (letter, 3 January). Yes, certainly, you can filter out the telltale nuisance words, and this will block a large proportion of spam, but in my experience nowhere near 90 per cent.The spammers, though they must rank as one of the most useless and counter-productive breeds known to man, are unfortunately not stupid.

They employ the simple expedient of using the figure 1 or the exclamation mark instead of a capital I, or instead of the letter a, or * instead of almost any letter, or the figure 0 instead of a capital O. The permutations are endless, but the effect is the same: the filter does not recognise the word. To cover all the variations and instruct the filter accordingly would take a great deal of time. Another ploy of the spammers is to fill the subject line with a random collection of letters.Call me an old cynic if you like, but as practically all the spam that hits my PC obviously emanates from the US, I suppose this garbage counts as freedom of speech, so must not be interfered with.Mr Ratcliffe clearly knows something I don’t; will he share it with me, please?FRANK CARD Braintree, Essex Before his time   Sir: A real gem of BBC Parliament’s weekend rerun of the 1964 general election coverage was the discovery that it was the ever modern Harold Wilson (speaking to Robin Day) who first used the immortal phrase “I’m on the train” over the “radio telephone” – just south of Bletchley. Many survivors are left severely handicapped.Charities welcomed news of the vaccine, published in the Infection and Immunity Journal. A spokesman for the Meningitis Trust, which provided £250,000 of funding for the work, said: “The unique thing about this research is that it provides hope for a complete vaccine protecting people against all groups of meningococcal bacteria – the most common cause of meningitis worldwide.”Developing any vaccine is incredibly complex and meningitis is a very difficult bug to beat, but this research marks an important contribution to the development of a vaccine against this potentially fatal and devastating disease.”"We believe that vaccines are the only way of defeating this disease.”Meningitis A is seldom seen in the UK, but is a much bigger problem in other parts of the world.

A vaccine that could provide protection against every strain of meningitis is being developed by British scientists.
Although vaccines already exist for the A and C strains of meningitis, it is the first time researchers have successfully created a jab which can protect against meningitis B – the most dangerous form of the disease.Meningitis B is the most common strain of the disease in Britain, accounting for 60 per cent of cases.Around 3,000 people are infected every year, and 200 die as a result of the disease. I am in favour of a roof, especially after what has happened at Wimbledon before and what happened at the US Open last year It’s good to have that option.”. Personally I feel No 1 Court will have to be covered as well.”Andy Roddick, the 21-year-old American world number one, who reached the Wimbledon semi-final last year, said: “You know you are going to get tons of rain the next five years and then it’s not going to rain a lick in the next three. It had to happen some time and now is as good as any time though it is not a panacea for all Wimbledon’s rain problems. If it rains early in the fortnight only a select few are gong to be able to play while the rest are sitting around but it does mean spectators who pay for the Centre Court and the television people will get some tennis. As one club member said yesterday when pay parity was suggested: “Steady on, old boy.” WHAT THE PLAYERS SAYThree-times Wimbledon champion Boris Becker said: “I am a traditionalist But I cannot be blind to the future.