The Bristol Cable

On 2 May 2024, Bristol will wave goodbye to its mayor and return to a committee system. Isaac Kneebone-Hopkins chats with Priyanka Raval about what we can learn from Sheffield's experience of local government reform.

In just a few weeks, Bristol will wave goodbye to its mayor Marvin Rees – and to the system of governance that he has represented.Instead of one person being directly elected to lead the city, as has been the case since 2012, the council will be run as a ‘committee system’.

Groups of councillors will be responsible for decision-making in different areas, with supporters arguing that this will increase the level of scrutiny and democracy.

But how will this work in practice? Has the new model been given the resources to make sure it will succeed? And with Bristol’s past use of the committee system not always having been popular, could the city be replacing a model criticised for being too centralised with one that instead creates democratic gridlock – meaning nothing gets done?

Seeking to answer these questions, Isaac Kneebone-Hopkins, a freelance writer and organiser of the Bristol Transformed festival, spoke to councillors involved in the city’s transition process. Freedom of information requests sent by Isaac also raised questions about how much Bristol has invested in the process compared with a similar-sized city that’s also undergone recent political change and embraced a committee system – Sheffield.

The Steel City’s governance changes do not exactly mirror Bristol’s, but Isaac’s research – reported in the Cable’s most recent print edition – suggests Bristol could still learn some valuable lessons from its northern peer if it wants to make a success of the new system.

With voting cards arriving in postboxes across Bristol – and the Cable about to kick off its local election coverage in earnest – now is the perfect time to be thinking about how the city will operate after the ballot on 2 May.

Join Isaac, in conversation with the Cable’s Priyanka Raval, for a fascinating chat about what could change for the better – or worse – under the committee system.

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This Cable longread – on co-design, a participatory approach to designing solutions – was first published in October 2022, and followed up on proposals that Bristol City Council had been considering around demolishing and rebuilding some of its estates.

The council has so far not pursued these plans. But in light of the Barton House tower block evacuation in November 2023, the condition of Bristol’s social housing and the ways in which public bodies communicate with residents have remained big issues in the city.

The We Can Make project profiled in this piece works with local residents in Knowle West to create new social housing in large gardens and other underused spaces on estates. While it has only worked on a small scale so far, the scheme has set an example in terms of how people can be involved at every step of changes to their area, rather than just through tick-box consultations.

We Can Make has attracted interest both from central government and from other councils looking to replicate it as part of efforts to tackle spiralling housing waiting lists. Back in Bristol – where 20,000 households are now waiting for social housing – it was announced in February that the scheme will now be expanded across the south of the city.

This longread podcast formed part of the Cable’s year-long Future of Cities journalism series, which ended in autumn 2023. The project looked in depth at how Bristol and other similar cities are trying to tackle some of our most difficult problems, around housing, transport, the environment and sustainability.

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Listen: The Debrief, digging deeper into revelations of institutional racism at a local NHS trust

Priyanka Raval discusses the inside story of her recent investigation into racism in health services, and what it says about the state of the NHS, with Cable colleague Matty Edwards

It was 23 June 2023 when the Cable journalist Priyanka Raval received a tip-off from a source asking to discuss institutional racism at a local NHS trust.

That very day, an internal report published by the same organisation – University Hospitals Bristol and Weston UHBW) NHS Trust – sounded a warning on the same subject. “The feeling from some staff is that more work needs to be done around communicating and engaging… to demonstrate that the Trust is taking issues [around racism, discrimination and microaggressions] seriously,” it said.

This followed on from two inspections by the Care Quality Commission, in 2021 and 2022, which also raised concerns.Priyanka, whose aunt faced racism during 40 years working as a nurse in the NHS, says she would have “expected better” in 2023. But her months-long investigation uncovered a series of depressingly similar accounts from current and former UHBW staff, detailing issues with bullying, people of being colour being passed over for promotion – and in some instances being subjected to direct racial slurs.

Much of the behaviour people experienced was far more subtle than this, but the pervasive impression was of staff from Black and other ethnic minority communities being treated differently from white colleagues.

With bitter irony, many of the interviewees had been employed from overseas in a bid to tackle the acute crisis in recruitment and retention that the health service is currently going through. They alleged that despite being made aware of problems, the UHBW trust had done far too little to address them – in part because of a lack of diversity in key areas such as HR. Not much appears to have changed in the meantime.

In the latest episode of our new podcast strand – The Debrief – going behind the scenes of our big stories, Priyanka and fellow Cable journalist Matty Edwards discuss how the UHBW investigation came together, its impact, and why the issues it exposed point to the need for structural reform of the NHS. (edited) 

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Over just 18 days at the end of January and the start of February, three Bristol teenagers lost their lives.

Knife crime is a national issue that’s as complex as it is devastating, and it doesn’t exist in isolation. It’s set in a wider social context where housing, school exclusion, unemployment, mental health, and government cuts can be issues at play.

As part of Together for Change, a city-wide campaign with community leaders, campaigners, and the city’s media, the Cable will explore the social issues that underpin the knife epidemic in the city. We will amplify the voices of those most deeply affected, bringing communities, and authorities together to build a local effort to make a difference, building a task force, and lobbying the government for change.

In our latest Debrief podcast, reporters Priyanka Raval and Sean Morrison discuss why we’re joining the campaign, and why it’s so urgent.

As we were recording on Wednesday, news broke of another serious incident in St Paul's. A 30-year-old man was stabbed to death on Tuesday night, police later confirmed, launching their fourth murder investigation in East Bristol since June last year. 

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This investigation, months in the making, reveals racism in Bristol hospitals.Our journalist Priyanka Raval was contacted by whistleblowers from local NHS trust University Hospitals Bristol and Weston (UHBW), many of whom have been recruited by the NHS from overseas to deal with the UK's chronic staffing shortages.

The Cable has been investigating claims of institutional racism at the trust, after 10 whistleblowers came forward to share their stories, including seven who have now left as a result.

Bullying, facing racial slurs, being passed over for promotion and blamed for mistakes – these are just some of the experiences sources say they’ve faced in recent years.

We reveal how complaints went unheard, despite promises from management to tackle the issue. Meanwhile regulatory body the CQC has promised to investigate the issue and hold the trust accountable. But six months on, sources are giving up hope the CQC will make good on its promise.

All names have been changed to protect their identities.

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On 15 May 2022, a group of Palestine Action protesters, two of them dissident Israeli citizens, smashed their way into the Bristol headquarters of Elbit Systems UK, a subsidiary of Israel’s largest arms manufacturer.

The date of the action is significant – it marked the anniversary of the Nakba, Arabic for ‘catastrophe’, when the mass displacement of Palestinians began in 1948.The seven Palestine Action activists used sledgehammers to break into the Elbit Systems building, before barricading themselves inside, where they caused damage to the facility to the tune of thousands of pounds.

Elbit has nine sites in the UK, with Bristol its main operational facility. The activists say that shutting down the site – which is owned by a local council – is key to ending Britain’s “complicity” in what they and international human rights groups describe as Israel’s “apartheid regime”.

The group were arrested, charged with criminal damage and burglary, and stood trial at Bristol Crown Court a few weeks ago. We covered the trial, which you can hear about in more detail on our previous podcast – Inside Bristol's 'murder factory'.

Since then, the 'Bristol seven'/'Elbit seven' have been found guilty and will be sentenced on 22 March. The maximum sentence for burglary and criminal damage is 10 years in prison.

In this podcast – a new format for the Cable, the Debrief – reporter Priyanka Raval and Sean Morrison discuss the verdict and the trial as a whole, in the context of the state’s clampdown on protesters since the Colston statue topplers were cleared.

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Kingswood is about to undergo radical makeover, at least politically.

The Bristol-South Gloucestershire border town’s voters will at this year’s general election find themselves going to the polls in one of four new constituencies – with their current one set to disappear altogether under boundary changes being made to the political map of the UK.

The area’s local MP, Tory minister Chris Skidmore, has also disappeared – he stepped down over the government’s climate plan – triggering a by-election in the constituency where the winner will hold their seat for only a matter of months before it is erased. You might ask: who would fight for a prize that will be so short lived, or even, who would bother voting?

Some Kingswood residents aren’t too enthusiastic about February 15’s vote, nor fans of the boundary changes that will follow shortly after. They say that tampering with the political map, as well as a lack of investment by South Gloucestershire Council in the high street and local services, is an existential threat to his home town’s identity.

This is Area in Focus, a new podcast by the Bristol Cable, where we get out and about to talk to people about the big issues shaping our city. Subscribe to the Cable where you get your podcasts to get weekly episodes, from on-the-ground reporting to investigations and live events.

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Salma, a lawyer who spent her childhood in Gaza, shares the 'dystopian' experience of life under occupation and knowing your family are in a war zone, as well as discussing happier memories and pro-Palestinian activism in the UK.

Content warning: contains graphic descriptions of war and violence

Salma Hajjar is a young trainee solicitor who spent her childhood up to age eight in Gaza, where decades of oppression and violence have been succeeded by a return to the horrors of all-out war.

In the latest episode of Bristol Unpacked, the last of the current run, Salma offers a devastating personal perspective on the war – which has taken the lives of some of her loved ones – and on the “dystopian” experience of living under occupation. She reflects on happier memories of the beauty of Gaza – its beaches, its food and its community – and on the pain and loss of being separated from home, and the desire to return one day. 

Salma, who has now lived in Bristol for five years, also discusses her love for the city, the solidarity she has found, including from Jewish friends, and the value of activism in changing public opinions – and holding politicians’ feet to the fire.

With the International Court of Justice recently demanding measures to reduce the suffering inflicted on Palestinian civilians – and continuing to weigh a genocide case brought against Israel by South Africa – pressure for a ceasefire in Gaza is continuing to mount. 

But under what conditions can such a deal take place? Do the court’s actions go far enough? And are there any grounds for longer-term optimism around an end to Israeli-Palestinian conflict and progress towards a two-state solution?

Join Salma and Neil Maggs for a sometimes harrowing but always thought-provoking finale to the winter season of Bristol Unpacked – and with elections on the horizon, be sure to stay tuned for the team’s next moves during the spring.

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Join the renowned writer, broadcaster and academic for a powerful talk exploring his childhood and journalism career, and how his experiences have shaped his work.

Gary Younge is a renowned, award-winning journalist, author and broadcaster, and now a professor of sociology at the University of Manchester.

In the latest episode of our new Cable Live podcast strand – where we sit down with writers, academics and activists from across the UK, putting the Cable’s work in the national conversation – Gary delivers a fascinating speech reflecting on racism, journalism and power.

Gary takes us back to his working-class childhood in Stevenage, the youngest of three children raised by his Barbadian mother, his path into journalism after winning a bursary from the Guardian, and how his experiences have shaped his work.

“I entered journalism with a healthy contempt, embedded from childhood, for the dominant narrative,” he recalls. “I grew up assuming the official count of everything was at best suspect and most likely a downright lie – in part because I was being lied about constantly, who I was, where I was from, why I was here.”

What then does it mean for the journalism industry that many top jobs are still filled not with people who have grown up with such a “gimlet-eyed” worldview but instead have shared class and educational privilege with those likely to be running the country? How do journalists’ backgrounds influence their perspectives and what is reported on – and what needs to change?

Join Gary for a powerful and personal exploration of these questions and many others, in the most recent recording of the Cable’s ongoing speaker series. This podcast also contains edited highlights of the Q&A session that followed.

The talk took place at the Station in central Bristol where the Cable also has its office, and was hosted by our events coordinator Gigi El-Halaby.

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Inside Bristol’s ‘murder factory’ arms facility, with the activists on trial for occupying it

Stavit Sinai opens her phone to find she’s been added to a group on encrypted messaging app Signal.

The 38-year-old, a philosophy teacher at a community college in Berlin, has been asked to take part in a direct-action protest at the Bristol headquarters of Elbit Systems UK, an arms company that ships weapons to Israel.

Among the names of those added to the group chat, she recognises her comrade Ronnie Barkan, who, like her, has been campaigning for years against the actions of the Israeli state: its decades-long oppression of the Palestinian people.

The pair are dissident Israeli citizens with personal stories of the devastation of the Israeli forces’ operations in Gaza. Elbit, the group’s target as part of a campaign run by Palestine Action, helps develop technologies for drones, tanks and other weapons used by the Israeli military.

Elbit is Israel’s largest arms manufacturer, with nine sites in the UK. Bristol is its main operational facility, and the activists say that shutting it down is key to ending Britain’s “complicity” in what they and international human rights groups describe as Israel’s “apartheid regime”.

It was an action that landed Ronnie, Stavit, and their five co-defendants in the dock at Bristol Crown Court, where they are currently standing trial accused of burglary and criminal damage.

But while it’s the protesters standing trial, at the heart of the evidence is the history, tragedy and devastation of the Israel-Palestine conflict, and how what happens inside the Bristol facility plays a role in the death and destruction ordered by the Israeli state.

This is Bristol’s ‘Murder Factory’, part of our Cable Longreads audio series. Subscribe to The Bristol Cable wherever you get your podcasts.

Palestine Action activists are on trial for smashing into an Elbit factory that ships weapons technologies to Israel. But at the heart of this case is the history and tragedy of Israel’s operations in Gaza, and how Bristol’s facility plays a role in the death and destruction.

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