I stayed away from last night’s riots in Manchester city centre as I wasn’t on commission, but when I passed through Salford Precinct a few hours before it all started, I could sense that something was brewing. Like many local people I spent last night glued to my radio and getting increasingly angry about what was happening, and so this morning I got up early to check out how the city was looking. It felt very much like certain kinds of business had been targeted by looters – jewellers, pawn shops, bookies, mobile phone dealers and sports shops. The rest of the centre was relatively clear – the street cleaners had done a good job before I arrived at 6.15am. The atmosphere in Manchester was relatively defiant today but over in Salford people were decidedly jittery and expect more trouble tonight.