IN an age of spin it is very easy to be cynical when it comes to politics.

Was it any coincidence that, on the day the Queen's Speech placed the war against terror at the heart of Tony Blair's election build-up, newspapers featured reports suggesting that the security services had foiled plans by al-Qaida to fly hijacked planes into London's Canary Wharf skyscrapers?

Could it be, as Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy and Tory co-chairman Dr Liam Fox suggested, that ministers were whipping up a climate of fear, having taken careful note of the electoral success George Bush enjoyed by playing the national security card?

Whatever the truth, the Government can't win. By focusing so heavily on countering the threat from terrorism, Mr Blair stands accused of scaremongering.

But imagine the reaction if Britain was hit by an atrocity and the Government had sat on its hands. It is right to underline the threat and it is right to plan measures to prevent it turning into horrible reality.

It is one thing to allay fears and quite another to play on them - and that is the balance the Government has to find.

That said, we should not kid ourselves that identity cards - introduced voluntarily to begin with - are going to stop terrorists in their tracks.

While we do not have a problem with the principle of ID cards, they didn't stop terror attacks on America or Spain.

So wouldn't spending the money on more police and security services not produce a more potent weapon in the fight against terror?