Listen: The Debrief – why does transparency matter, and is the council getting any better at it?
It’s almost six months since the Cable asked why Bristol’s performance on FOI requests was so poor. As the city’s political system prepares for change, Alex Turner talks to Priyanka Raval about why this is important, and whether we can look forward to more open local government.
Listen: The Debrief – Bristol is ditching its mayor, but what can it learn from Sheffield?
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.
How a media backlash led to a St Paul’s woman’s dramatic release from prison
In 1933 Mary Burridge, a poor mother of five, was sentenced to a month’s hard labour after stealing a few items of food at Easter. But after a national outcry over her treatment, a wealthy lawyer flew to Cardiff to free her from prison.
Bristol is about to ditch its mayor. What can it learn from Sheffield?
The clock is ticking down on Marvin Rees’ time in charge, with a new less centralised power structure based around committees replacing the mayoral model. With a similar transition having taken place in South Yorkshire, are there lessons for our city?
‘It’s completely put a stop to Mariella’s life’: The lasting impact of being convicted on a riot charge
Three years after her arrest for ‘rioting’ at a Kill the Bill protest, Mariella Gedge-Rogers is serving a lengthy jail term on a controversial and rarely used criminal charge. While she struggles to rebuild her life, police officers who brutally beat demonstrators still aren’t being held to account.
The ‘Red Scout’: how a boy from Brislington became caught up in anti-communist hysteria
Seventy years ago this month, Paul Garland was kicked out of the Scout movement over his links to the British Communist Party, with his case making the pages of Time magazine and sparking debate in the House of Lords.
