I was in Stockport at 7am this morning.  I’d heard rumours of some sort of rioting or looting in the town last night, but absolutely no firm confirmations.

The Tesco Extra by the Portwood Roundabout was closed.  24 hour opening?  Not today.  Apparently they closed it yesterday evening on Police advice, as did Asda and Sainsbury’s, and hadn’t opened by the time I was there.

I went around Stockport as far as I could – the Peel Centre into the Town Centre.  I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary – so if there was something, it was somewhere I didn’t spot.

I understand that a small group of young people did meet up around the market area during the evening, but were met by the police and swiftly sent on their way.

Police have since confirmed: no rioting or looting took place in Stockport last night.

Then into Manchester, bin bags in the car ready to do some cleaning up (one of the really positive outcomes of all this is the willingness of people to get stuck into both defending their communities and getting things right afterwards – helped by organisation through Facebook and Twitter).

Only I didn’t find any to do.  The places I was hearing about last night as in serious trouble were mostly OK.  Again, I didn’t go everywhere and I’m sure there were many things I missed, but Manchester this morning is a city getting on with life and you’d hardly know what had happened last night.

In the Northern Quarter there were a few smashed windows: Forbidden Planet, for example.  The only place that looked like someone had got in was a jewellers on Thomas Street where the security grating had been pulled away.

KRO Bar on Picadilly Gardens, which I’d heard about last night, had one door with shattered glass (still in place in the door), but other than that was open for business at 7.45am and looked to be OK.

Affleck’s Palace was, I had been told, a target for looters last night.  I couldn’t see any evidence of that from the outside – everything looked normal – but again that doesn’t mean that I didn’t miss something (to add – I’ve since heard further confirmation that Affleck’s Palace was not hit by the looters, so that looks to have been a false rumour).

On Princess Street, by Manchester Town Hall, several shops had their windows smashed.  I didn’t see much on Deansgate though.

I went past the Arndale at the market end and it looked normal, opening up for business with stallholders getting ready for the day.  I didn’t go in, or check out any of the other entrances, so there’s probably more of that story to tell. (to add: I’ve since heard an interview with the manager of the Arndale who says damage was superficial and looters only gained access to one unit – Foot Asylum – from which most stock had already been removed as a precaution).

Overall, a few observations.

This looked to me to be the work of looters rather than rioters.  There was very little general vandalism or destruction in evidence – everything I saw appeared to be a result of people trying to break into commercial premises.

There’s obviously been work going on overnight to clean up the city centre.  I’d gone in with bin bags, ready to get stuck in, but there was nothing I could find that needed doing (also helpful as it started chucking down at about 8am).  Some windows were already boarded up, and apart from the usual rubbish I didn’t see piles of broken glass or anything like that lying around.

It seems to me that this was the work of opportunist looters, keen to get their hands on free stuff.  If there was any other agenda, they’re keeping it a closely guarded secret.  It doesn’t seem to have been as bad as some are making out, or as reports from last night suggested, at least in terms of the outcome this morning.  The City is not in ruins.  Businesses are opening, people are going to work, life is going on.

We’ll see how things progress during the day: I didn’t go everywhere and there will be lots that I missed.  But I hope we can avoid getting this out of proportion.

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