AFTER experiencing genuine emotion when Barack Obama won the US Presidential election, I was brought back to earth very sharply by some of my fellow Bolton citizens.

Scanning all the triumphant headlines in my local supermarket the following day, I listened with some incredulity as the chap next to me said he did not know what all the fuss was about because it would not make any difference to us.

The price of our petrol was unlikely to be reduced, he said.

Later that night a group of friends shrugged their shoulders when I enthused about the outcome and one chap ventured that Obama was bound to be assassinated before long anyway.

Somehow, the message of change and hope has not reached all areas of Bolton.