Our media are suddenly crowded-out by a new raft of consultants, all cashing in on the state of emergency.  New fees to be earned, new media reputations to be made, new anxieties to promote and to analyse.  As our tabloids well understand, anxiety - like horror films - is a saleable commodity. 

But the bogy of "terrorism" is a false enemy, conjured up by the political and military authorities, and their commercial counterparts, to keep their business at the forefront of the political agenda.  And it endows its messengers with a gruesome self-importance which they do not deserve.  For example, the dispatch of tanks to Heathrow was an absurd gesture, designed only to generate submissiveness in the general public.  The re-transmission by the Government of vague "threats" to public order (which have often been issued by the Authorities, Police and military) are forms of terror in themselves.  Our own authorities are thus complicit in the generation of a ambiance of fear. 

These are, I accept, serious allegations.  The pompous Labour Party Chairman John Reid declared that "he would not even engage" with those making such allegations. But we must discuss them.  I say that, as with other matters of high security, Ministers must keep threats to themselves unless either -

• The closure of a building or other facility is justified and is actually undertaken - I was in Kings Cross Station last week when the entire Station was suddenly evacuated, against an unstated "emergency" - nobody complained, nor was there panic or distress; similarly, I was in Belfast several years ago when a specific threat was received of a bomb in a street near to the Europa Hotel, where I was staying, and the road was cleared in time to avoid loss of life; these are all credible and responsible announcements, based on a firm foundation; or
• Specific, authoritative guidance can be given, to a level of detail which enables members of the public sensibly to change their plans to avoid the risk; this was true of many IRA bomb-warnings - on the other hand, this Government has terrified its people on several recent occasions (the Channel Ferry incident, poison on the Tube) without having any such rationale.

If neither of these circumstances arises, the Authorities should remain silent. Ministers must bear the anxiety themselves, as one of the personal burdens of high office - off-setting its undoubted pleasures and rewards.  The burden comes with the territory: these anxieties cannot, and should not be shared.  To pass on terrorist intelligence in any other circumstance is only to deepen the anxiety of the public, destroying their peace of mind and therefore their lives. Both the UK and US Governments have in recent months been guilty of doing the work of the terrorists for them, by making ill-considered announcements.

My approach is founded on two underlying perceptions, which I ask you to consider and appraise. 

• First, that the overwhelming majority of the population will never be the subject of terrorist violence at all, and it is therefore both wrong and wicked to spread alarm and apprehension unnecessarily.
• Second, that the present obsession with undifferentiated terrorism, post 9/11, is likely to pass, as a spasm of the world order which has been massively exaggerated already by the governmental incompetence and illegitimacy of George Bush, tragically reinforced by the poor judgment of Tony Blair.  Governments peddling these mischievous theories will, I believe, be removed, in the cycle of politics. Although the military authorities and pundits would love to think so, I insist that we are not embarked upon a new era of perpetual war - this time "against" undifferentiated terrorism.  That is what the militarist Right would have us believe, but it is not true.  There is no doubt that targetted terrorism will continue - Chechnya, Israel and Palestine, South America, perhaps again in Northern Ireland - but that is a wholly different phenomenon, closely akin to guerilla and conventional warfare.

We must keep our heads, even when all those around us are losing theirs.  We must not, as socialists, allow the prevailing madness to deflect us from our task of building a better world, built upon a vision of human dignity and equality.