WHATEVER assorted banners the mobs staging May Day demonstrations in London and Manchester were purportedly gathered under -- anti-capitalism, eco-activism, anti-state anarchy or whatever --sane people would group them under just one: that of mindless, lawless thugs.

For if there was a collective, benevolent purpose behind yesterday's mayhem, how is it explained, for instance, by the targeting of Manchester's Metrolink system -- a green and classless utility if ever there was one?

And how might it be elucidated by the desecration of war memorials when these are monuments to the selfless sacrifice of millions of people in the struggle for liberty which these bogus battlers for freedom were so wickedly abusing yesterday?

The fact is that this orchestrated protest against global capitalism -- without which, incidentally, most of the protesters would be bereft of the education and social benefits they take for granted -- is simply a cover for deliberate anti-social violence on the part of most, manipulated by a sinister minority.

But if there are political principles at the root of these demonstrations -- ostensibly, those of anarchic dreamers who envisage a word without the fetters of society -- they should be countered by the converse forces which have created a civilised society governed by respect for others, for law and order and for property. In short society, the decent, lawful majority abiding by these precepts, should hit back.

Liberty is, after all, the freedom to do as you please without harming others.

Yesterday's violence and mob behaviour were the precise opposite of that.

And, as a result, society is empowered in both principle and in law to defend itself.

In this instance, it must be by the organisers and perpetrators of the brutality, vandalism, destruction and looting that went on being caught and having the full force of the law thrown at them.

But since this May Day demonstration was so predictable that six months of planning had gone into the police in London mounting the biggest public order operation for 30 years, at a cost estimated at £1million, there should be the same level of preparedness for next time and zero tolerance for any demonstration that is not peaceful.

If the mob minority spits in the eye of the decent majority, it must in future expect to feel the full clout of the law -- literally -- from our riot police and then again in the courts.