The problem for the anti-war protesters, marching through Brighton and other cities, is that no one in government really took much notice.

The violence against police, damage to public buildings, graffiti daubing, trashing the streets with rubbish and all the rest of it did absolutely nothing for the cause.

On the contrary, it debased both the power and the value of the anti-war arguments being promoted.

While the majority of protesters were sensible, informed people who had thought through the arguments and decided they could not support a war to remove one of the world's most murderous despots, there were large numbers of stupid, ill-informed agitators who went along just for the hell of it.

They went looking for trouble, they created it, they revelled in it. That, sadly, is the downside of freedom in a democracy.

But after all the tumultuous events of this history-making week, who can seriously doubt it was the proper decision to go to war against Saddam Hussein.

Who can still argue it was our moral duty to leave the people of Iraq to live in misery and oppression under a dictator now acknowledged to be as dreadful as Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin or Nicolae Ceausescu.

Of all the news I have read during the past few days, the most moving quote came from a young student, cheering in al-Fardus Square in the centre of Baghdad when they toppled that huge bronze statue of Saddam.

"Yesterday I lived in hell. Now we have a future," said the young man. "You don't know how bad it was, the fear, the deaths. Saddam Hussein was inhuman."

But tellingly, when the reporter asked him his name, the young man became guarded and gave it simply as Abdul. "I am still frightened. What if Saddam comes back. He will kill me."

For those who have lived their lives in such a fearful environment, it will take years, not days, to accustom their palates to the taste of freedom.

If only those who so recklessly rushed around the streets of Brighton daubing their anti-war slogans and screaming abuse at the police could meet Abdul and his friends.

Regardless of the outcome of this conflict, there will still be those unable to accept going to war was the right thing to do.

But while I have every respect for their point of view and their desire to continue some kind of legal protest against war, I wonder if they will have the courage to do the one thing which would really make the Blair government blink and take note of their continuing anger.

Short of a good kick in the crutch, the one thing guaranteed to make politicians howl with pain is losing votes. So my advice to those still hell-bent on protest is simple.

In next month's local elections, use your vote. Vote for anyone, but do not vote Labour. I promise Blair will feel the pain.