THE recent Mayday protests in London and elsewhere are missing the point the answer to globalisation lies in changing our own lives, and not in protest, peaceful or otherwise.

The Mayday protests were against globalisation, and the domination of people's lives by multinational organisations, but a single march or a demonstration day, no matter how big or bloody, does not greatly affect the profits or status of an organisation.

The protest must go on for months, and requires significant investment of time and money by the protesters if it is to bear fruit.

How do the multinationals gain power? Through our own inertia and gullibility. We buy goods and services from the multinationals, and in so doing; we feed them, and starve the independents, the high street traders, of trade.

This buying pattern has become entrenched because we have been conditioned to believe that the multinationals benefit from economies of scale and so can sell better goods, cheaper.

This may have been true once, but now they have a dominant position and are intent on reaping the benefit

There is a very simple answer: stop dealing with the multinationals where possible, and go back to the high street butcher, baker and greengrocer.

My wife and I did this two years ago because we were looking for better quality, and found that not only did we gain in quality, but also our household bill went down. This approach isn't dramatic, doesn't hit the news, takes time, but works! Protest, in the sense of the Mayday protest, is futile. However, small changes of lifestyle, across the whole population, will have a dramatic effect.

If enough people go back to the independents, the multinationals will be reduced to uneconomic shells, with infrastructures too large for the remaining turnover.

The independents will prosper and the public will benefit from the close coupling of supply and demand that in the past ensured quality and prevented the generation of environments that foster FMD and BSE.

Do I believe it will happen? Sadly, not really. People do not willingly upset routines.

It took my wife and me a long time to realise the benefits of independent suppliers. We, too convinced ourselves that the effort was not worth it, that the cost would be higher, the quality would not be there, we would spend more time shopping, etc,

What we were doing was finding reasons not to disturb our routine.

Simply put, if you want change, you must create it yourself, in your life.

Don't expect the multinationals to respond to protest they are only responsible to their shareholders, regardless of what they may say.

J.R.Blake Flackwell Heath