Your say / Politics
‘Councillors walking out of the council chamber is childish, petulant and pathetic’
At this week’s full council meeting, a few members of the public attended, as they often do, to challenge the council on trans issues following a recent Supreme Court ruling.
As they stood up to speak, some councillors ostentatiously got up and left the chamber, returning when each speaker had finished.
It was a childish, petulant and pathetic display, and sadly not the first time some councillors have behaved like this.
The culprits are nearly always from the Green Party although others have joined in before.
Council meetings include half an hour of ‘public forum’, where any Bristol resident can come along and speak to the council for one minute or ask questions to senior councillors on any topic they like.
Statements do get vetted in advance for some basic standards; you can’t say something slanderous for example, but you’re free to cover any topic you want within the law.
Public forum is an important opportunity for people to make their points to decision-makers, to raise issues that concern them, to challenge decisions or show support or opposition to policies. It underlines the crucial principle that councillors are sent to the chamber by their electors to represent them.
Council business is about the city and everyone living in it, not about the delicate sensibilities of the 70 people elected to carry it out.
Bristol currently has 70 councillors, with most wards having two elected representatives – photo: Rob Browne
Politicians are in the disagreement business.
Across Bristol, there are people with a multitude of perspectives. We all think different things and want different things, whether it’s on trans rights, roads or bin collections.
Think of pretty much any opinion on any issue and there will be people out there who believe in it.
The point of democratic politics is that it creates a space where all of those views can be heard, debates can be had and decisions made without us coming to blows.
It doesn’t mean that we’ll all get what we want all of the time, but that we can be heard and our views taken into account.
You win some and you lose some; that’s democracy.
As Winston Churchill probably didn’t say: “It’s the worst system of government, except for all the others.”
Democracy cannot work though if opinions can’t be heard.
Freedom of speech is fundamental to open and democratic government. As soon as we allow someone to decide what opinions we may or may not express in a public forum, democracy fails.
It might sound pompous, but Bristol’s council chamber is a bit of a sacred space for democracy.
Like the House of Commons, it’s a place where opposing opinions should be aired and debated. You don’t have to like or agree with everything you hear – and you’re free to set out your opposing view – but it is a councillor’s job to listen to those opinions.
High principles aside, it’s also a simple matter of good manners that councillors should be willing to listen to the people who elect and pay for them, whether or not they like what they hear.
The Green Party have 34 councillors out of the 70 at City Hall – photo: Rob Browne
A few years ago when I was lord mayor and responsible for chairing council meetings, I was approached by Green councillors who asked me to ban some public statements on the grounds that some members found them offensive.
I refused, saying that people had the right to speak freely in the council chamber.
The appalling murder of Charlie Kirk at an event in Utah this week shows us what can happen when people reject free speech and open debate.
Obviously, a few local Green councillors having a petty strop is a world away from a cold-blooded assassination, but the two are both driven by a similar intolerance for views that they don’t want to hear.
Those councillors who walked out of the chamber would do well to reflect on that.
This is an opinion piece by Steve Smith, former Conservative councillor for Westbury-on-Trym & Henleaze and lord mayor of Bristol from 2021 to 2022
Main photo: Alex Seabrook / YouTube
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