Under gloomy, swirling, dark clouds, it was with precision that the Police Officers lined up to protect the visiting Conservative Party members to their annual conference and keep them safe from the protesters that October morning. Decked out in their thick black boots, smart trousers and figure hugging t-shirts, the men and women of the Greater Manchester Police lined the city streets.

The racing of coaches, trains, trucks, cars, bikes and feet produced a flood of 35,000 people into Manchester to join a rally. The objective being to try to get the governments’ attention to tell them that there was an alternative to the cuts to public services and proposed tax cuts.