LAST week we witnessed two sickening attacks by terrorists on civilians. More than 70 people died in Nairobi’s Westgate shopping centre and over 80 worshippers were murdered while at church in Peshawar.

Here, the first public reaction has been reaction has been one of horror, with some of the most vehement denunciations of the terrorists coming from my Muslim constituents. Not only do they share the natural sense of human outrage at these crimes but are also deeply upset that their faith and the name of their Prophet have been wickedly abused by people who claim some perverted justification for murdering children.

Later, as we all saw the TV pictures of families mown down as they sat in a café or prayed in church, I began to pick up a second reaction in the constituency: a sense of unease. If a shopping mall or a church can be treated as targets; if terrorists are prepared to shoot children in cold blood, is there anywhere where can we feel safe?

I think that we have to be honest with ourselves. If we are to remain a free and open society, we have to accept that there can never be 100 per cent security. Of course our police and intelligence agencies need to review constantly the way in which they identify and disrupt terrorist organisations. (Incidentally, last week’s horrors ought to remind us that there are good reasons why our agencies have powers, defined and limited in law, to intercept communications and interfere with property. I want those powers available in the battle against terrorism).

We as a country have had to put up with hassle and inconvenience in the name of security. Children today can’t stroll down Downing Street as I was able to when a boy.

I hate the fact that we have armed police on duty in Parliament. Airport checks are a pain for holidaymakers and business travellers alike. But for the most part we accept these things as necessary. But there are limits to what can or indeed should be done.

MPs of all parties strongly opposed the suggestion, made seriously after 9/11 and the tube bombings, that the public should be kept out of the Palace of Westminster altogether. The idea of security checks at tube and railway stations was discussed but ruled out because it would have made normal travel almost impossible.

Now, even after Nairobi, would we really tolerate airport-style checks at shopping centres like Eden or Aylesbury’s Friars’ Square? Perhaps one day scanners will be designed that could screen shoppers instantly as they entered the mall, but that’s not where we are today.

In any case, in a free society there will always be ‘soft targets’. If not shopping malls, then car parks, sports grounds, markets and so on.

My view is that we need to be vigilant, both as individuals and as a society. We need to be willing to review our law and our practical security arrangements where necessary. But we should not hand terrorism the victory of forcing us to change our entire way of life.

David.lidington.mp@parliament.uk