
Tag: bristol


Report: Are Rent Controls Coming to the UK?
by Rivkah Brown
40 years since Thatcher scrapped them, rent controls are back on the political agenda. Rivkah Brown reports.

Opinion: Local Politicians Are Scapegoating Sex Workers to Score Points With Voters
by Layla Caradonna
Anti-strip club campaigns like Bristol mayor Marvin Rees’ are cynical vote-winning ploys.

Opinion: A Kill the Bill Protester’s Court Case Is All the Evidence You Need for Police Abolition
by Vala Z Francis
A Bristol woman battered by police won a partial victory last week, but could still get prison time. Her case highlights the untenability of our police state.

Interview: Could This Be the Green Party’s Second MP?
by Aaron Bastani
The Greens have quietly tripled their councillors since 2018. With new co-leader Carla Denyer eyeing a second seat in Westminster, Aaron Bastani went to Bristol to discover how she plans to overturn a thumping Labour majority.

Feature: The ‘Colston 4’ Won by Invoking History – And Using It to Build a Strong Legal Defence
by Priyanka Raval
Since the Colston 4 were found not guilty last week, the right has sought to claim their win was ideological - an assault on the rule of law. This is simply not the case, writes Priyanka Raval: the group’s legal defence was robust.

Opinion: Free Speech Means Nothing Anymore
by Lorna Finlayson
It’s tempting to rebut cancel culture panics by insisting that nobody has literally been silenced. This buys into a rightwing notion of free speech, argues philosopher Lorna Finlayson.

Analysis: Is Bristol As Radical As It Seems?
by Priyanka Raval
Between the Colston statue toppling and the Kill the Bill riots, it's easy to see Bristol as a bastion of radical action. In reality, the city’s working class is deeply divided, writes Priyanka Raval.

Long Read: What Happened to Kill the Bill?
by Rivkah Brown
The PCSC bill is on the brink of entering law, and yet the movement to kill it has all but evaporated. Activists haven’t given up, though - they’re simply changing gear to a longer-term project of abolition. Rivkah Brown reports.

Novara FM: Police State of Mind
Rivkah Brown presents a special episode examining how the blue tentacles of police power creep into our lives.

Feature: What Happened to the Bristol Police?
by Rivkah Brown
A force known as relatively progressive has come to epitomise the extreme police response to the Kill The Bill movement. For some it’s a shock. For others, it’s business as usual.

Opinion: Police Brutality in Bristol Has Shocked the Country. Why Won’t the City’s Labour Politicians Condemn It?
by Anna Lart Greene
Labour’s complicity with police savagery is an insult to Bristolians, one they are unlikely to forget come 6 May, writes Bristol student and Labour activist Anna Lart Greene.

Analysis: Labour Has a Problem With Sex Work
by Sophie K Rosa
From supporting a strip club ban in Bristol to attempting to use the sinister new police bill as a vehicle to smuggle through an amendment that would further criminalise sex work, a certain set of Labour MPs seem fixated on a crackdown that women in the industry say would put them in danger.

Long Read: We Already Know Starmer’s Labour Ends in Tears – Just Look at the West of England
by Aaron Bastani
Rulebook-burning, a leftist purge plus a mayoral candidate nobody wants to campaign for have produced disaffection and despondency. We don't need a crystal ball to see what the future holds for Keir Starmer - it's happening right now in Bristol.

Live: Police Violence at Third Bristol Protest
On Friday Bristol saw its third protest against the policing bill in 6 days. We speak to Adam Cantwell-Corn, co-founder of The Bristol Cable, who reported from the scene.

Live: Policing Bill Sparks Riots in Bristol
The Tories' draconian policing bill sparks riots in Bristol. Michael Walker and Ash Sarkar discuss the fallout from the protests, and the utility of riots.

Report: Students Have Been Duped Into Returning to Halls – So They’re Refusing to Pay Rent
by Rivkah Brown
On Tuesday, the University of Manchester joined the growing list of UK universities whose students are going on rent strike during the pandemic. Rivkah Brown reports on the student movement the pandemic has restarted.

Explainers: Statues Tell Us Nothing About Our Colonial History
Statues like that of Edward Colston don’t teach us about Britain’s past. They stand in the way.