PEOPLE in the Swindon area are being warned by senior police officers to be vigilant about terrorism.

Even though we might not think of ourselves as a likely target, the argument goes, there’s not really any such thing as an unlikely one these days.

The advice can’t do any harm, although most of us have already realised that we should be on the lookout for potential attackers.

That’s because, unlike the senior politicians I was on about last week, we’re the ones who’ll end up at the sharp end if anything nasty happens.

If we want to go down to the pub, or to the local shop for some milk, a box of budgie seed and a paper, we don’t get to do so in the back of a vehicle with three-inch-thick reinforced body panels and windows. If we decide to walk it, we don’t tend to do so accompanied by a gang of ex-SAS blokes toting MP5 machine guns and casting their eyes in all directions for any sign of trouble.

We are also acutely aware that the security services are mostly too busy to save us from harm, as they spend a great deal of time zipping one another up in holdalls for reasons unknown, going on jollies to secret prisons, and going strange thanks to the inbreeding which has afflicted the privileged classes for centuries.

All of that being the case, the authorities can be fairly sure most of us have been taking plenty of notice of our surroundings for a decade or more.

The police, it’s important to remember, are in no way at fault; they’re just stretched as thin as the base of a bargain-basement pizza thanks to some of the most horrific cuts ever imposed. Last week’s decision to reverse the latest planned round of cuts is something to be welcomed, but let’s not get too excited.

After all, if you chainsaw a person’s leg off, plan to do the same to the other leg and then decide not to, it’s still a bit of a cheek to expect that person to do a spot of dancing.

If they want to make us extra-vigilant, there are a few pointers they might want to bear in mind. One is that they should make it as easy as possible to report suspicions of terrorist activity.

Putting the number of the National Anti-Terrorist Hotline – 0800 789 321 – in a prominent place on the ‘Contact Us’ section of the police website or on the home page itself, instead of tucking it away, would work wonders.

It would save us the dilemma of trying to choose between the emergency 999 line and the non-emergency 101 line, and the nagging worry that if we choose wrongly we might end up being told, somewhat sharply, that 999 is for life-or-death matters only.

When we did report something, it would do a great deal for our confidence if somebody – preferably the person we spoke to in the first place – got back within a reasonable time to tell us how things were progressing.

Senior officers might also send out a message to security staff and assorted petty officials along the lines of: “Generally speaking, somebody blatantly taking a family photo outside a shopping centre or similar public structure is probably not a terrorist.

“So if you could stop pouncing on them and then wasting our time by trying to have us arrest them, that would be a great help.”