Hot on the heels of Mrs Blair’s insistence that the British, in dealing with a murderous, home-grown terrorism threat should following the foreign laws of the unelected and totalitarian European Union and the equally inappropriate UN Human Rights legislation we now have the Home Office Minister telling police how to carry out their stop and search operations.

Police should not use racial profiling in their efforts to prevent further terror attacks on London, Home Office Minister Hazel Blears has said.

People should not be stopped and searched just because they are Muslim she said, before the first of a series of meetings with community leaders.

Words fail me.

If British Muslims are serious about combating this poison in our midst then they are going to have to put up with the discomfort of being the primary target of police stop and search activities. How much time are we prepared to waste frisking little old white ladies in our search for jihadists with semtex in order to placate the sensitivities of British Muslims?

If police were looking for violent football thugs I would expect them to profile the typical football thug and expend a larger proportion of their time and energy on people matching that profile. So I would expect Muslims, for example, to form a very small fraction of their attentions whilst white males between the ages of 20 and 40 - like me - to face the occasional police stop and search.

Nevertheless, Ms Blears regales us with further wisdom in the pursuit of effective policing:

“Just picking people up just on the basis that they’re Muslim is never going to get the result you want,” she said.

Of course. When looking for Muslim terrorists it’s always best to shake down a few Jews, worry the occasional Hindu and, of course, harass those godless atheists. That’s where you are most likely to find Muslim terrorists.

At least the National Black Police Association’s Ch Supt Ali Dizaei has a few more functioning brain cells:

“People do not mind being stopped and searched, provided that it is explained to them, provided they’re dealt with respect, and provided they’re dealt with courtesy, and I think that is the key, and there’s every indication so far since the seventh of July that that understanding has been taking place across London.

“These are extraordinary times and people are committed from all communities to work together with the police in order to sort this problem out.”

Now that’ s much better news. I hope it’s true that people do understand the predicament we’re in and are co-operating with the police because it’s one thing to condemn the atrocities but unless the words are followed by the necessary actions - uncomfortable as they may be - then it’s all to no avail. I personally believe that most British people are fine with polite, professional policing.

A British Transport Police (BTP) spokesman insisted the force did not intend to ’single out’ any particular community.

“Clearly if we are looking for people and being operationally efficient, we have got to target the people who we think are maybe involved,” he said.

“It is going to be disproportionate. It is going to be young men, not exclusively, but it may be disproportionate when it comes to ethnic groups.”

Good. I don’t want to be blown up and nor does any Muslim reading this. So we need to allow the police to do what’s necessary to minimise the possibility, don’t we?

Seems not:

But Muslim Council of Britain spokesman Inayat Bunglawala warned the strategy could be “counter-productive”.

“While it is understandable that the police need to undertake every step to thwart would-be bombers it is crucial that they do not unnecessarily alienate and stigmatise an entire segment of society,” he said.

Ihtisham Hibatullah, of the Muslim Association of Britain, said such a policy would worsen the situation.

“It won’t help in terms of building a relationship or trust between the communities,” he said.

“It will alienate the youth and create unnecessary fear about the authorities, especially in the wake of the death of the young Brazilian man.”

What Mr Bunglawala needs to understand is that feeling alienated is partly a matter of choice. If people being stopped choose to see this as being an inconvenient but necessary means of defending ourselves against indiscriminate murderers then these feelings will not arise. However, if a person wants to regard it as an intrusion and an affront then feelings of alienation will surely follow.

Instead of pandering to these feelings these leaders ought instead to be asking their constituencies to stiffen the upper lip and accept some inconvenience for a while. Part of being British is co-operating with the authorities when the chips are down, not covering oneself in victim status and crying to the politicians.