The Telegraph
Emergency services rushed to the scene, but struggled to make their way through the protesters. Barricades were thrown up across the streets, and the mood was turning ugly quickly as torches set fire to the hastily assembled pyre, and the flames snarled high into the cold night air. It sounds like a scene from Paris, as strikers fought back against President Macron’s hated pension reforms. Or perhaps from Iran, or Algeria. Instead, it was Rochdale, on the outskirts of Manchester, last Thursday n