So says Home Secretary Jacqui Smith on The Andrew Marr Show just now.

I’m confused, Ms. Smith. How can the terrorist threat be growing? We’ve been fighting the terrorists constantly for the last six and a half years. How come the threat they pose is increasing?

Surely you can’t be tacitly admitting that government policy in Iraq and Afghanistan has been making Britain more of a target? Surely you can’t be suggesting that the huge loss of life and massive expenditure fighting two wars in two far-off countries (not to mention the increased counter-terrorism measures at home and collusion with other powers around the world) has been a waste of time?

Nah – surely not. After all, we’ve repeatedly been told by the government that the Iraq war had nothing to do with the terrorist attacks in London on 7th July 2005. The terrorist threat must simply be growing organically, independent of government policy, like a particularly virulent form of Japanese knotweed.

Ho hum. It seems there’s nothing we can do to stop the terrorists. A strange admission for a Home Secretary to make…