BristolUK

Well, my 47 years in Bristol until 2004 tell a different story to your 25.

As I said earlier, I saw no trouble in many years of Friday/Saturday nights on the town in Bristol. If it really was happening to the same extent/severity that it's happening 'today' and I never saw it, then it must, as I suggested, have been happening in certain places at certain times. Now it's not only those places and only at those times.

I understand there's been a few changes since I left Bristol ONLY three years ago - Broadmead etc so places may be different. But give me a Friday/Saturday night in town from 1973 to 1987 (in my experience) over an afternoon walk in the 90s and 00s in Portland/Brunswick Squares, Stokes Croft, Newfoundland Rd, the Bearpit and other subways, some multi-storey car parks

To those unfamiliar with Bristol these are all places actually IN TOWN , or across the road from the shops or minutes away just on the edge of town.

A special committee exists involving police and businesses/workers in the area. It meets regularly and issues reports regularly because of the high crime there. Street safety is a major issue during the day, hence the setting up of the committee.

David Brent

With Britain reportedly handing out millions of pounds in benefits to illegal immigrants each year it is rather sad to read about the plight of many of the famous Gurkhas.

The Gurkhas were proud and gallant soldiers of the British Army who fought with distinction in World War 2.
They originated from Nepal and have served the British Crown since 1815 and are renowned for their loyalty. Indeed, Gurkhas have won 13 Victoria Crosses.

Yet there are some 5,200 Gurkha ex-servicemen and some 5,000 Gurkha widows who "do not qualify" for a British Army pension.

As there is no social security or a national health service in Nepal it must be to Britain's shame that many of these proud men and women have been left destitute.

What a way to treat war heroes.

Dave.

samkydd

The Ghurkas have been failed by all previous governemnts, but with the present one they've even less chance of any recognition.

Brown will only help people who will vote for his party, and immigrants will eventually become citizens and vote Labour, no matter what their work circumstances are. His Marxist philosophy is also the model for the ANC in South Africa, and you can't even get help off the police there unless you're a party member!

The other lot aren't much better and the mighty right sabre rattling over benefit fraud reminds me of the days of Tebbitt and Hezzer some 20 years ago. Do they not realise that benefit fraud is a drop in the ocean compared with corporate tax evasion and other big business defrauding of the government.

Moor Larkin

It just crossed my mind that 'crime' has evidently decreased by 40% since the 1980's yet we are currently being told the prisons are full up to over-flowing by the same department.........
Something doesn't appear to add up does it......
BBC NEWS | UK | Prisons reaching 'bursting point'

This is where journalists should come in, to help make sure the politicians are caught out when they just make it all up. That has been a big problem in the Blairite years, when the generally left-leaning/liberal journalistic 'class' has allowed the ruling politico's to steal away the 'gold-plated' British Company Pension scheme by it's unopposable tax policy.
Brown knew cost of pension fund raid | This is Money
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Oh. Just realised. It's the blooming Daily Mail again. Can't even rely on the internet for unbiased information either..............

Marky B

The story that has cheesed me off in the last week or so,was the one about the magistrate who walked out of court,because the defendent would not remove her naqib. He has been reprimanded and sent for retraining. I have nothing against people wearing their traditional clothes,but I do not like to Muslim women having their faces covered. It is degrading and does not fit in the so-called modern society of a developed country.
Ta Ta
Marky B

I am special. The heavens always open for me.

Steve Crook

Instead, we come in and make sure the journalists are caught out when they just make it all up

Steve

Steve Crook

Isn't there a bit of a discrepancy between those two statements?
Have you asked any Muslim women what they think of it? Many cover up by choice, not because they are forced to.

Steve

Wolfgang

You seriously cannot say that Islam is not degrading to woman, and naqibs while fairly harmless on their own are part of that. That said someone has to be identifiable in court so if she is not willing to remove it she should have been found in contempt and imprisoned until she agreed to remove it.

Moor Larkin

There was another one last week where a prisoner refused to leave his cell (supposedly) and the jail authorities were worried that they would breach his Human Rights if they forced him to. The judge was highly annoyed and said he thought the man should have been 'strong-armed' to court. Whatever it was all about - the case was adjourned.

The one closed-shop Maggie never got round to was Law and the Lawyers.....
I have a vague memory that she and her courtesans were mumbling about getting to grips with it towards the end of her reign......

Then she was gone........

........ Voted out by her M.P.s......

Most of whom were/are unreconstructed lawyers.....

Steve Crook

Yes I can. Don't confuse the religion with the social environment in which it is often found. Islam gave women a lot of rights, including ownership of property, a long time before any Western country did.

Many of the traditions that are reported as being Islamic are actually traditions that were in that country long before Islam and Islam (or many parts of it) has been trying to get rid of them.

Steve

penfold

To those unfamiliar with Bristol, these are the roads that surround St Pauls...(most ousiders don't realise that St Pauls is not an outlying modern estate but very central and predominately late 18th C)....so unsurprisingly they got a bit of a reputation. You are right about there being changes even in the last four years since you left...you would not recognise Newfoundland Road or Bond Street due to the Cabot Circus shopping development nearing completion (Bigger than Broadmead), and Brunswick and Portland Squares have both been cleaned up so are no longer the kerbcrawling district they were until about fairly recently.

Bit of a Bay Window, what??

BristolUK

Whch makes it sound like it's totally separate to "in town" whereas in reality The Bearpit is a pedestrian precinct separating bus station and shops and one also has to walk through it to get to Stokes Croft - one of the major routes in/out and probably the most used by pedestrians leading as it does to a large residential area. One of the other major routes in/out of town is Newfoundland Rd. I may not recognise it now, but it's still on the route of all those poor drug addicted souls coming into town from the two hostels. That's what makes it unpleasant and unsafe if you happen to be confronted by someone desperate for money for their next fix or someone off their medication.

Glad to hear the two squares have been cleaned up, although prostitution was far from the only problem there. That is really the only place I mentioned that wouldn't impact on most people in town. But that's no comfort to the many people who use the NCP there or work in all those offices there including the Spectrum building if it's still there.

penfold

I did think that I emphasised how central St Pauls is to Bristol's shopping areas...but all the roads you mentioned do more or less delineate its borders...it's a parish name the same as St Pauls in London. Also you wouldn't recognise the Bus Station, now, either, it's all nicely done a la Victoria Coach station if you know it. Stokes Croft is now quite an expensive place to live, and again, apart from the perennial eyesore of the old coachworks, improving.

Bit of a Bay Window, what??

kelp

Blimey! kelp in agreement with Samkydd. Well said that man.

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR...YOU MAY GET IT!

BristolUK

Yes you did....I was just thinking that those who didn't know Bristol as well as us might still think of that defined area as being 'apart' from in town.

I wasn't really looking at Stokes Croft as the residential area....more passing through it for St Andrews and Bishopston and even Cotham for those that don't mind a hill.