How the trans bomb detonated Bristol council

[IwantToRetire]

When local women asked the city’s leaders to follow the Supreme Court’s gender ruling, they were met with heckles, placards and walk-outs.

... One council officer, who didn’t give her name for fear of being identified, agrees that an “unhealthy” ideology has taken root at Bristol City Council: “I wouldn’t dare mention that I believe that sex is binary and immutable,” she says. “When some councillors walk out of the chamber or wave placards when members of the public simply quote from a Supreme Court ruling it sends a very clear message about which opinions are welcome within the council and which aren’t. I don’t think that’s healthy for an organisation.”

All the women point out that for the chamber to be a place of democracy, they need it to be a neutral zone – without any form of protest. “We think about what questions we’re going to ask,” says Stephenson. “The law is behind us. Sensible people are behind us. And we come into this chamber and it’s just humiliating. They’re not playing by the rules at all… They’re laughing at us.”

So why persist in the face of such humiliation? Stephenson’s answer is simple: institutions like Bristol City Council shape people’s lives, from schools, to charities, to public services. ...

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/11/20/pro-trans-cabal-shutting-down-bristol-council/
and also at https://archive.is/ity27

we believe that by working collectively, we can overcome challenges and build a peaceful city. Through open and caring conversations, we will find solutions and foster harmony among all who call Bristol home.

How do they do that when they march out of the chamber rather than hear voices they disagree with?

Are these ludicrous scenes going to be repeated across the country if Zack and his tribe of lunatics actually get some power?

I would assume so

Yes.

Can you imagine what it would be like in the HoC if they did that. 😂

It would give us a laugh I suppose! (Or a cry.)

I suppose it might interfere with their legislative agenda if they all flounce out of the Chamber whenever an Opposition member speaks against one of their wheezes. I'm not across my Erskine May but it might result in them running their own Bills out of time without the need for filibustering from the other side of the House. 😂

This is one of the reasons we’ve now
moved out of Bristol. Lived there for 14 years and we’re just moved to Cheltenham to avoid the insanity.

I never lived in Bristol, but worked there for many years and lived nearby, and I have fond memories of the place. Seems such a shame, reading about it now.

I have friends in Bristol & really fancied moving there, there was a period between the wildest of the Aggi Crew/ Yardie years & the current madness when it seemed like a great place to live. Now it just looks like the worst & most gormless of the middle class have run amok.

Massive Attack in Queens Square! 😃

Different times. I don't think I'd have much in common with MA now.

I really despair.

Because women dont qualify to be cared about.

By community to mean everyone else. ie groups that follow patriarchy eg religions, left right politics.

In there frame of reference women's rights doesn't meet the same standard of importance.

Women are just this irratating, upsetting group that wont STFU and follow quietly and dutifully.

I've discovered that MPs have no legal obligation to even reply to constituent enquiries. LA councillors likely to be the same. They can do what they like, really, no obligation to do anything. Entirely legal.

LA councillors likely to be the same

Not on this issue but have found out much too late that going to my local councillors is pointless because they will not reply directly, they will only forward a response written by an "officer".

ie far from being independent from the workings of the local council, who can maybe raise issues about service provision or whatever, they are merely the ventriliquists dummy.

I have heard of a similar approach by local MPs in response to a constituent making a complaint about say the police.

You go to a meeting expecting to talk to your MP but you find they have invited someone from which ever police force it is to answer your questions, and they just nod along.

Or so I was told by someone who voted yes to Brexit because of some EU law that was to protect public employees.

Far from being independent from the workings of the council, councillors ARE the council. The officers are civil servants who follow the instructions of councillors. If something is going wrong with council provision then the councillors are responsible for that. Therefore the councillors in power will defend their officers and the councillors in opposition will blame the councillors in power. Unless it is an easy fix then they might fix it to show themselves in a good light to get votes.

Indeed. Council officers advise councillors but can be over ruled. I don't know if the current head of BCC legal services has advised Bristol councillors of the requirement for them to follow the law but the previous one did - and was ignored.

tbh local authorities are often taken to court because they have failed to apply the law correctly. I've sat in meetings with councillors (nor bcc!) where councillors have asked council officers if they can ignore this bit of the law because it's expensive/unpopular/difficult to apply

Anyone with a child with SEN will be very familiar with how often councils ignore the law. Councils have collectively spent hundreds of millions of pounds at SEN tribunals and lose around 98% of cases

Does your council organisation begin with a W by any chance? If not, mine is the same.

I agree. So they should be debating, not shutting people down, walking out, refusing questions. That's the opposite of democratic.

MPs are supposed to legislate. They are not social workers and making them act like social workers is doing the government of the country no good whatsoever. However, they should reply to letters (think one of mine re statutory guidance has been ignored by my MP Liz Kendall - at least not seen a reply).

I'm sure that some time back I was able to look up MPs on theyworkforyou, and it included a list of MPs who do not reply to emails as a matter of policy, and gave percentage figures for those who did respond. But I can't find it now, so either my Google-fu is lacking, or they've changed the site, or I saw it somewhere else.

The idea that the role of Parliament is to legislate is very much a late 20th century phenomenon. Governments are supposed to govern & constituency work is supposed to be a large part of what MPs do.

In any case, very few MPs ever legislate. Governments legislate. Most backbenchers are lucky if they ever get a sniff of a Private Members Bill & when they do, it's rare as hen's teeth that they draft it, or even understand it - look at the carcrash that is Kim Leadbeater's euthanasia Bill & her consistent inability (granted, perhaps it's performative but I doubt it) to understand what it says. The nearest most MPs get to legislating is dutifully trooping through the lobbies according to a three-line whip.

Not even those in govt can be relied upon to understand the legislation they pass - look at the humiliating ignorance displayed by various longstanding Labour frontbenchers re the GRA 2004 & the EqA 2010.

This isn't true even if in theory it should be.

It would seem by what happens in my local council is that councillors hope and leave the paid employees to do the basic services. And if you use their complaints system (run by the paid employees) the person complained about replies rather that a neutral person who obvious talks to the person concerned but they looks at it in relation to its emplementation, or breach of Council policy.

In the meantime Councillors are a bit like the Royals who turn up to events that promote their particular pet project and refuse to answer questions about an issue of service delivery or discrimination and just ask their "officers" to write reply.

But in a way what's worse is they get voted back in each time!

So the role of both Councillors and MPs is to be a sounding point, or indepentent assessor of the provision of services both in relation to the agreed service (or MPs would include the law etc.) to then comment whether somewhere along the line it had gone wrong, or the resident / voter had got the wrong idea of what was possible, or as can happen, whether those left to implement the Council / HoC decisions are doing so effectively and fairly.

But then my council being virtually a one party situation, has now become even less democratic as they are limiting the number of questions that can be asked at a Council meeting, and set a very short time limit for how long a question can be debated.

Its probably no surprise to many if I say it is a Labour Council and veering on some sort of old fashioned USSR form of politics.

Well, yes, governments are supposed to govern (sometimes one wishes they'd do it) and MPs don't often bring in legislation, they debate it and vote on it, which is their part in the legislative process. I am very glad Leadbetter's appallingly drafted bill is falling though I cannot understand why she doesn't understand its flaws). But MPs are not social workers. Thanks.

There is no neutral person (apart from, in some respects, the role of the monitoring officer). Of course the actual provision of services is delegated by councillors to officers but the councillors are still responsible for what they do, even if they are left to do the same thing they have always done. So if you write to your councillor they will get the person carrying out the action on their behalf to write a response that they forward to you.

It is a mistake to believe anyone within the council is neutral or independent. Even opposition councillors who vote against every motion have their own agenda. If you are making a complaint then this is the most important thing you must consider. In order to get a favourable response you must have them pinned into a corner so that agreeing with you is their easiest way out. Even then you might still need to go to the Local Government Ombudsman.

MPs are selected by the same constituency party that selects the local councillors.