It is one of the perversities of life – and history – that the good creative folk in the world, of whom there are a great number, can so often have their innovations destroyed by the malevolent, even evil.

An historic German tribe is a terrifying example of the latter; although they existed some 1,500 years ago, their malign influence would appear still to permeate the world in which we live today. The Vandals were that notorious tribe; the pinnacle of their triumphs was in AD 455 when they sacked Rome leaving behind them death, carnage and mayhem on a truly monumental scale.

Sadly the passing of the greater part of two millennia has not seen humankind eschew the venomous behaviour of so many amongst us in this world.

Supreme in this direction in recent times has been, and to an extent, remains, that fiendish body of sub-human beings known as, so called, Islamic State.

Their acts of barbarism and viciousness are on a par with the Nazis in terms of their contempt for human life (although on a far smaller scale), whilst their penchant for destruction is, in a sense, worse. They as a group, are all too reminiscent in their wilful devastation as the tribe which has given their name to such contempt for that valued by others.

The dictionary describes the word vandal as being ‘a person who wilfully or maliciously destroys or damages property or things of beauty.’ Assuredly Islamic State were, and remain, serial destructors of so many iconic, historical and beautiful creations and buildings in our world, especially the Middle East.

Sadly, however, such vindictiveness is not confined to fanatical, militant, savage groups – and foreign lands.

For virtually every town and village in this country suffers from this pestilence; probably there are only the few involved as opposed to the many, but the mischief, misery, distress and angst they can, and do, cause is immense.

What motivates them? At times it can be a personal grudge against an individual; thus a nasty malcontent may take a coin or key and gouge the paintwork of the car of a perceived enemy or trash their garden, or the like.

Among the worst acts of vandalism locally which I know of took place in very recent times when someone displayed malice to the very highest level by, at night, taking a chainsaw to an orchard of healthy, long established apple and pear trees.

How what must have been a very noisy destruction was not heard is a mystery; sadly the culprit, or plural, were never caught.

Mind you, most acts of destruction of other peoples property, whether in the public domain or owned privately are on a smaller scale than this but usually cause distress, upset, anger, bafflement, inconvenience and – or – financial loss (indeed, so very often, all of them).

More often than not this wilful destruction takes place in communal areas; park benches smashed, broken glass spread over grass, trees uprooted, graffiti sprayed, fences torn down and, possibly worst of all, expensive and much used children’s play equipment blitzed with some of it deliberately left in a dangerous condition which could harm a child if the state of such is not discovered before youngsters go there to play.

What is the mindset of these so very nasty people who perpetrate these vile, criminal acts? In what way can it possibly bring them satisfaction or pleasure?

What have they to gain from it? If somebody steals a car and sells it, an act of illegal avarice has been committed but the thief’s pursuance of easy but ill-gotten money is not hard to discern as a motive.

If, however, they smash its windows or set fire to it, such is, to me, behaviour which bemuses almost as much as it disgusts – though not quite.

The question is, of course, what does society do about it? The simple answer is – not put up with it in any way. Clearly there is great difficulty in catching the miscreants ‘red handed’ as most of these despicable wanton acts will take place out of sight and under the cover of darkness.

If folk have any idea as to the villains involved then such should be reported to the police; also those found to be guilty of such loathsome actions should be shown no mercy by the courts.

Full financial reparation should be paid by them, community orders be made that they physically clear up the debris they have left; in some instances they should be sent to jail. One thing for certain – they should not be accorded tolerance or understanding.