I'm no football fan, nor a Mancunian (technically, I'm from one of it's satellite towns in the conurbation) but I do have a degree of admiration for how the council and GMP handle the disturbances when the Glaswegians kicked off.
"The Police were heavy handed." I'm a liberal, and I thought that they did a good job with a great degree of restraint. It would have been so easy for them to re-group and scatter the crowd whilst knocking a few heads on the way.
"It wasn't a good advert for the city." On the contrary, it showed the expertise and professionalism of both the police and local authority to deal with a less than ideal situation. It would have been easy for the city to have been overrun and left like a wasteland for weeks (which many cities would have managed) but when things got tough, they got on with sorting it.
Basically, they got more Scots than they were expecting to see (by more I mean on the scale of tens of thousands!) and sure enough something went wrong, doesn't it always?!? The Police dealt with it without too much grumbling and the local council tidied up the mess, again without too much grumbling other than about the cost.
But, it showed to many sporting and other bodies that not only can Manchester host a high-profile event, it can also properly deal with the fall-out if anything goes wrong (and believe me a few thousand rioting Scots is a good test of that resolve!!!!!)
And too the local business that whinged about the mess: events like this have always increased the visbility and profile of the city in a good way, which in turn creates extra business. You need to take the rough with the smooth!!!!
The one disappointment is that Utd fans may not be able to have their parade now as GMP are pissed off. Come on, they have just won two massive championships, these people are in their home city, they want a party not a fight. Don't piss on that parade!
