A strange thing happened as I was being kettled by riot police up Deansgate away from Bolton town centre, walking side-by-side among about 300 mostly Asian men.
As I was tweeting the latest about the trouble that had threatened to turn very ugly but was by now petering out, one of those men came up behind me and grabbed me in a warm embrace around my shoulders.
He held me tightly for a few strides and muttered something in my ear about telling the truth and how he was full of love, only love.
In that moment, I totally believed him. A few hours earlier, he was at the front of a group of counter demonstrators shouting angrily at another group which had styled itself 'Enough Is Enough', separated by a line riot cops and police dogs. READ MORE Bottles and 'missiles' thrown as police given extra powers to calm town centre violence It struck me a man of such obvious warmth might get on with Nyree and Jonathan Brown, who were on the other side of that police line. “This country is on its knees.
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