The news that the London Bombers made their explosives from common household products sounds faintly ridiculous but also terrifying. The Commissioner of the NYPD has advised that the bombs were made from hair bleach, citric acid and the sort of heat tablets you can use in a basic camping stove. Mobile phones were used as the timers.

This is the ultimate in home made terror. Now that this information is in the public domain we can all become bombers if we chose. Anyone with an axe to grind now has a blueprint for success. Can Western governments restrict sale of these items? I think not, they are standard products which can be found in the cupboards of millions of households worldwide.

How do you track the purchase of these items? Will every woman or man who buys hair bleach become a terrorist suspect? While the world worries about nuclear threats from Iran and North Korea, the rest of us could be picked off by our local nutters with their rucksacks full of hair bleach, fermented lemon juice and a few fire lighters.