Editing Bristol (section)

== Government ==
{{Main|Politics of Bristol}}
[[File:Bristol Council House - geograph.org.uk - 197619.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=A large brick building, built in a shallow curve, with a central porch. In front of that a pool and a water fountain. |[[City Hall, Bristol|City Hall]], the seat of local government]]
[[File:Arms of Bristol City Council.svg|thumb|[[Coat of arms of Bristol|Coat of arms of the City Council]]|alt= Acoat of arms, with a shield showing a sailing ship and a castle with maned lions on either side, surmounted by the helmet from a suit of arms and two hands holding a snake and scales of justice. The motto at the bottom is "Virtute et Industria"]]

Bristol City council consists of 70 councillors representing 34 wards, with between one and three per ward serving four-year terms.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Political makeup of the council |url=https://www.bristol.gov.uk/council-and-mayor/voting-and-elections/local-councillor-election-2024 |access-date=5 May 2024 |website=Voting and elections|publisher=Bristol City Council}}</ref> As of May 2024, no party has an overall controlling majority, but the [[Green Party of England and Wales|Green Party]] are the largest group on the council.

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Political makeup of the council<ref>{{Cite web |title=Local councillors election 2024
 |url=https://www.bristol.gov.uk/council-and-mayor/councillors-and-the-lord-mayor/political-makeup-of-the-council |access-date=5 May 2024 |website=Council |publisher=Bristol City Council}}</ref>
|-
! Party || Councillors
|-
| [[Green Party of England and Wales|Green Party]]
|style=text-align:right| 34
|-
| [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]]
| style=text-align:right | 21
|-
| [[Liberal Democrats (UK)|Liberal Democrats]]
| style=text-align:right | 8
|-
| [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party]]
| style=text-align:right | 7
|}

Between 2012 and 2024, the council was led by a directly elected mayor, the [[Mayor of Bristol]]. The post was abolished following a 2022 referendum, in which voters chose to replace it with a council committee system.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Morris |first=Steven |date=16 November 2012 |title=Bristol mayoral election won by independent George Ferguson |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/nov/16/bristol-mayoral-election-independent-red-trousers |url-status=live |access-date=5 May 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140505141901/http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/nov/16/bristol-mayoral-election-independent-red-trousers |archive-date=5 May 2014}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=6 May 2022 |title=Bristol mayor vote: City decides to abolish mayor post |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-bristol-61336049 |access-date=6 May 2022}}</ref>

The [[List of mayors of Bristol|lord mayor of Bristol]] is a figurehead elected each May by the city council. The lord mayor is Councillor Andrew Varney.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Current Lord Mayor
 |url=https://www.bristol.gov.uk/council-and-mayor/councillors-and-the-lord-mayor/lord-mayor-of-bristol/current-lord-mayor |access-date=5 May 2024 |website=Council |publisher=Bristol City Council}}</ref>

In the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]], Bristol is represented by 5 constituencies, [[Bristol East (UK Parliament constituency)|East]], [[Bristol North East (UK Parliament constituency)|North East]], [[Bristol North West (UK Parliament constituency)|North West]], [[Bristol South (UK Parliament constituency)|South]], and [[Bristol Central (UK Parliament constituency)|Central]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=11 July 2024 |title=Constituencies – MPs and Lords – UK Parliament |url=https://members.parliament.uk/constituencies?SearchText=bristol |access-date=11 July 2024 |website=parliament.uk}}</ref>

The city has a tradition of political activism. [[Edmund Burke]], MP for the [[Bristol (UK Parliament constituency)|Bristol constituency]] for six years beginning in 1774, insisted that he was a Member of Parliament first and a representative of his constituents' interests second.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Edmund Burke, Speech to the Electors of Bristol |url=http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch13s7.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140708002901/http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch13s7.html |archive-date=8 July 2014 |access-date=5 May 2014 |publisher=University of Chicago}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Wills |first=Garry |date=14 July 2011 |title=Edmund Burke Against Grover Norquist |url=http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2011/jul/14/edmund-burke-vs-grover-norquist/ |magazine=The New York Review of Books |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140505182217/http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2011/jul/14/edmund-burke-vs-grover-norquist/ |archive-date=5 May 2014 |access-date=5 May 2014 |url-status=live}}</ref> Women's-rights advocate [[Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence]] (1867–1954) was born in Bristol,<ref>{{Cite ODNB |last=Harrison |first=Brian H. |year=2004 |title=Lawrence, Emmeline Pethick-, Lady Pethick-Lawrence (1867–1954), suffragette |url=http://oxfordindex.oup.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/37846 |url-status=live |volume=1 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/37846 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140505144340/http://oxfordindex.oup.com/view/10.1093/ref%3Aodnb/37846 |archive-date=5 May 2014 |access-date=5 May 2014}}</ref> and the [[left-wing politics|left-winger]] [[Tony Benn]] served as MP for [[Bristol South East]] in 1950–1960 and again from 1963 to 1983.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mr Tony Benn |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/people/mr-tony-benn/index.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140706060314/http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/people/mr-tony-benn/ |archive-date=6 July 2014 |access-date=5 May 2014 |work=[[Hansard|Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)]]}}</ref> In 1963 the [[Bristol Bus Boycott]], following the [[Bristol Omnibus Company]]'s refusal to hire black drivers and conductors, drove the passage of the UK's 1965 [[Race Relations Act 1965|Race Relations Act]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Alan Rusbridger |author-link=Alan Rusbridger |date=10 November 2005 |title=In praise of ... the Race Relations Acts |work=The Guardian |location=London |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2005/nov/10/race.immigrationpolicy |url-status=live |access-date=12 May 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130829194836/http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2005/nov/10/race.immigrationpolicy |archive-date=29 August 2013}}</ref> The [[1980 St. Pauls riot]] protested against racism and police harassment and showed mounting dissatisfaction with the socioeconomic circumstances of the city's Afro-Caribbean residents. Local support of [[fair trade]] was recognised in 2005, when Bristol became a [[fairtrade zone]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Morris |first=Steven |date=4 March 2005 |title=From slave trade to fair trade, Bristol's new image |work=The Guardian |location=London |url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2005/mar/04/fairtrade.ethicalliving |url-status=live |access-date=14 March 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130829022902/http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2005/mar/04/fairtrade.ethicalliving |archive-date=29 August 2013}}</ref>

Bristol is both a city and a county, since [[King Edward III]] granted it a county charter in 1373.{{sfn|Liddy|2005|p=13}} The county was expanded in 1835 to include suburbs such as [[Clifton, Bristol|Clifton]], and it was named a [[county borough]] in 1889 when that designation was introduced.{{sfn|Rayfield|1985|pp=17–23}}
[[File:Bristol-St Mary Redcliffe-Docks.jpg|thumb|right|upright|alt=A tall church spire over a quayside with wooden sheds and boats covered with tarpaulins. In front of these on the water a twin masted sailing boat and a narrowboat|[[St Mary Redcliffe]] church and the [[Floating Harbour]], Bristol]]

=== Former county of Avon ===
{{main|Avon (county)}}

On 1 April 1974, Bristol became a local government district of the county of [[Avon (county)|Avon]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Local Government Bill   |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1971/nov/16/local-government-bill#S5CV0826P0_19711116_HOC_316 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511175650/http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1971/nov/16/local-government-bill |archive-date=11 May 2011 |access-date=7 March 2009 |date=16 November 1971 |work=[[Hansard|Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)]]}}</ref> On 1 April 1996, Avon was abolished and Bristol became a [[unitary authority]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Avon (Structural Change) Order 1995 |url=http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1995/493/contents/made |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121113203448/http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1995/493/contents/made |archive-date=13 November 2012 |access-date=27 January 2013 |publisher=www.opsi.gov.uk}}</ref>

The former Avon area, called [[Greater Bristol]] by the Government Office of the South West (now abolished) and others,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Atkins |year=2005 |title=Greater Bristol Strategic Transport Study |url=http://www.southwesteip.co.uk/downloads/documents/sts.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120311210020/http://www.southwesteip.co.uk/downloads/documents/sts.pdf |archive-date=11 March 2012 |access-date=27 January 2013 |publisher=South West Regional Assembly}}</ref> refers to the city and the three neighbouring local authorities{{nsmdns}}[[Bath and North East Somerset]], [[North Somerset]] and [[South Gloucestershire]] previously in Avon.

The [[North Fringe of Bristol]], a developed area between the Bristol city boundary and the M4, M5 and M32 motorways (now in South Gloucestershire) was so named as part of a 1987 [[local plan|plan]] prepared by the [[Northavon]] District Council of Avon county.<ref>{{Cite news |date=24 July 1987 |title=Town and Country Planning Acts |work=London Gazette |url=http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/51007/pages/9483/page.pdf |access-date=29 March 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203001107/http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/51007/pages/9483/page.pdf |archive-date=3 December 2013}}</ref>

=== West of England Combined Authority ===
{{main|West of England Combined Authority}}

The [[West of England Combined Authority]] was created on 9 February 2017.<ref name="SI 2017 No 126">{{Cite web |date=8 February 2017 |title=The West of England Combined Authority Order 2017 |url=http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2017/126/made |website=www.legislation.gov.uk}}</ref> Covering Bristol and the rest of the old Avon county with the exception of North Somerset, the new [[combined authority]] has responsibility for regional planning, roads, and local transport, and to a lesser extent, education and business investment. The authority is led by the [[Mayor of the West of England]], [[Dan Norris]].