Setting the Bristol Agenda for the people and the media: 2021 to 2024

In this hazy twilight between the old administration and the new one, we have a chance to look at what’s important in the council without worrying about what colour suit the politicians will be wearing.

There are two important questions in a democracy:

1. Who benefits?
2. How?

A person thinking of what they’re typing on their laptop

I say that these are important questions in a democracy because the implication of ‘rule by the people’ assumes that each person has an equal chance of being heard and of being treated equally.

When these two principles fail, we ask why, how, and to whose benefit?

In order to ask these questions, we need to know which decisions are being made and what impact they have on individuals.

Does a single mum in council housing whose children have no access to school have the same ability to be heard as the chair of Bristol’s chamber of commerce, for example? And of having her needs met?

Here is how we find out. We ask:

• In whose interest are decisions being made?
• Where is the money going? Who profits?
• How are those decisions made?
• Who gets heard?
• Who gets ignored?