I’m afraid it was always a case of “when” and not “if” a major terrorist atrocity would occur on ffice:smarttags" />UK soil.fficeffice" />

It has only been through the diligence and bravery of our police and security services that we haven’t suffered bomb attacks before now.

As the old IRA adage goes – the security services have to be lucky every day, the terrorists only have to be lucky once.

But not everyone has been alert to the danger threatening our lives and livelihoods – and some have deliberately attempted to undermine any moves to bolster our security.

For example, there’s been a bizarre conspiracy theory doing the rounds, championed not least by the BBC, which suggests that the threat of Islamic terrorism is not only exaggerated but entirely invented – part of a sinister “neo-con” plot to undermine our civil liberties.

This preposterous and positively dangerous idea reached its apogee in the BBC programme, The Power of Nightmares, which was quickly accepted as gospel among the chattering classes.

Such ideas have bred a culture of complacency and weakness which has encouraged our enemies.

It explains why credible warnings of terrorist attacks are invariably dismissed as ‘scaremongering’, regardless of whether they are made by Tony Blair, Home Secretary Charles Clarke, MI5 chief Eliza Manningham-Buller or former Met police chief Sir John Stephens.

It also explains the successful, but frankly mad, campaign to free known jihadis from Guantanamo Bay and Belmarsh jail.

It explains why government attempts to curb the activities of such hugely dangerous people through “control orders” have been frustrated at every turn by an alliance of weak-willed politicians, activist judges and legally-aided lawyers.

It also explains why individuals such as Omar Bakri Mohammed, who has called for terrorist attacks against British civilians, is able to continue spewing his evil message while living on benefits in our country. Removing him would, of course, “infringe his human rights”.

Well some of us care more for the human rights of innocent civilians sitting on buses and tube trains - and it’s about time we started making our voices heard.

We should demand, for example, the repeal of the Human Rights Act, which has done little more than line the pockets of greedy lawyers while fatally undermining our security.

We should also demand that those released from Belmarsh be rounded up immediately. The foreign nationals should be deported without delay to their country of origin – regardless of its human rights record – and the others incarcerated indefinitely until it can be proved they are no longer a danger to the public.

And Omar Bakri Mohammed should be put on a plane to the Middle Eastern hellhole of his choice before the day is out.

In other words, the balance between security and liberty, as the Home Secretary put it, needs to be weighted decisively in favour of security in the wake of the London bombings.

Of course the appeasers and defeatists won’t go away. They’ll tell you the attacks on London were all are own fault; that we haven’t made sufficient attempts to sympathise with our enemies, to understand their pain. We haven’t apologised enough.

If we only pull out of Iraq, abandon Israel, elect another government, convert to Islam – whatever it takes – then the jihadis might let us live a little bit longer.

Such people are beneath contempt. They’ll never get up off their knees. But I suspect they are in a minority that, after the events of yesterday, will grow ever smaller.

For the rest of us July 7, 2005, marks a defining moment in our history. A day when the choice facing us became crystal clear – either start defending ourselves with vigour and determination or accept inevitable annihilation.

Make no mistake about it – this is war. On one side is freedom, democracy and civilised values and on the other barbarism, nihilism and fascism.

There is only going to be one winner.

7/7 is our 9/11. It is high time the gloves came off.