“Oh, Richard - I've got to stay around to back you up. Since moving to Bristol I've met so many people, many from elsewhere, trying to deal with their problems, eg drinking, drugs etc. So, Mum, Hope during your work must have come across many non-Bristolians. This City has some of the best support agencies, so fortunately/unfortunately many people are sent here and remain here. A friend from Liverpool believes that she'd still have her children if they'd lived here, and she'd certainly have been told in detail about why and what was happening. She loves Bristol, esp the Gloucester Rd Bishopston area.
As for the inequalities - I think that because the CIty developed in a very different way to the Victorian industrial ones, in that for centuries there have been two distinct groups - the merchant classes and the workers, and for generations this divide has continued; may also be the reason why there are more fee-paying schools than anywhere else, apart from one area in London. However, I know 'ordinary' people who have worked their way up in stockbroking companies, int'l law and accountancy firms etc. We're not saying the City's perfect, there is much improvement needed, but surely one cannot deny that, in the main, it's a beautiful place, interesting and laid-back?”

“Dear Mum of Hope,
Bristol caters for all it's people and all the tools are available here to help everyone improve their lives.
This council have done my family proud, my friends families proud and everyone who has turned to them in times of difficulty. It's not the job of Bristol council workers and charities to constantly baby sit people who do not want to be helped.
For children in danger Bristol social services do a very good job and nobody has an excuse to be on the streets as shelter, charities, jobcentre rents, council homes and other charities are here to help.

Bristol is a great all round city. The police try their best as well.”

“I am not moaning Birbeck simply commenting on my experience of working for and in the City after living and working elsewhere and then moving back to the area.

The poverty, deprivation and social divide I see in the City is something I wish I did not have to comment on but it is very real. Something that a new shopping centre and pioneers can not mask.”

“Congrats Bristol! A Fab city! I've lived in London for 30 years & love it & I've visited many other great & exciting cities but for me my home town is still No.1. Incidentally to that idiot who wrote that Bristol hadn't done anything for the last 30 years: well if you were at least half awake you'd have seen that it was in the news just last week with a story about stem cell innovation.”

“Thanks for lovely comment. I just think of a London friend who's recovering from the big 'C', who came to visit for the first time, was so impressed and said it was just what she needed. I find loveliness & newness every time I walk about the City.”

“Dear Birbeck of Montpelier,

If I could I've give you 'The Key to the City'.

Bristol is great becuase people like you make it great, thanks for a great story.”

“Richards, Norman, Paulie G & Steve, luckily for us, we're the happy ones. As a mother, I'm pleased that my London-born teenage daughter loves it too (considering I dragged her to this little city at 16 yrs old). I think this will be my final say on this subject, I'm in a happy place so I don't need to do this.

Please, all you moaners do move elsewhere. I believe there are still thousands of boarded-up properties going for a song in Liverpool, despite its European accolade (a City with one of the lowest skilled workforce in Eur - but fashion capital of the UK!; where 50% of its pop. has vanished since the last century), but £4b plus invested by Govt/EC. Also, cheap places still in parts of Leeds, Newcastle, Manchester (ASBO capital; so many sweetners offered to companies to locate there, and the Govt moving many depts up there). These Victorian industrial cities along with the W Midlands, nosedived into the unemployment blackhole since the 1950-70s, without any idea of how to get out of it without outside support. No foresight, just put all their industrial 'eggs' in one basket. Whereas, Bristol has always maintained a high status and weathered the financial storms since the C12 due to its diverse industries and flexibility. Excl Edinburgh, it has the highest skilled workforce in UK and in the Eur top 20 (top Int'l survey). What you moaners ignore about Bristol is that it's developed without being under the control of the monarch, church or aristocracy, has had so much success because many entrepreneurs (way before transatlantic slavery) took risks - it wasn't some Monarch who fancied a sea captain or wanted to beat another Euro country that built & paid for the Matthew in 1497 (those other cities were mere villages, or cities such as York/Canterbury under the thumb of the monarch or church); since Saxon times the City has been involved in sherry, ports & wines - there are 900 yr old wine vaults in the City centre; porcelain/glass produced long before most other places. London's beseechings to the Americans didn't get them the first American Consulate; nor was it govt help that got the UK's first Aeroplane Company off the ground, that by 1910 it had sold several to Imperial Russia, and had already designed and manufactured the a fighter plane prior to the War. Concorde, British Aerospace & Rolls Royce engines were not dropped on Bristol's lap, they've all been part of its industry since early C20, making planes, best fighter plane engines & submarines/torpedoes in the world during the war (& still one of the world's best). Same can be said about the BBC Natural Unit, there has been natural film-making for over a 100 years - that's why the organisation when it came here in 1957 found a core of wildlife enthusiasts, conservationists and media pioneers, incl one of the founders of the WWF, had already been working in the city and its environs, & the City has the world's capital wildlife and environmental filmmaking industry, producing around 25% of the world's documentaries; the air balloon capital of the world that grew singlehandledy out of one Scot's (who obviously fell in love with the CIty) ability and determination; (these amongst many other reasons is why we're so respected & one of the top Science Cities. A City known for being seriously scientific yet the most greeenest, ethical, eco & organic too. All this success not because Bristolians moaned that we get forgotten or how are we to get out of the mire? When I lived elsewhere I rarely heard a W Country accent, but the same can't be said about here - in hospitals, restaurants, shops etc so many British dialects area heard (Scottish & Scousers are commonplace ones).

Just take a train to Cardiff - see our colourful, higgledy-piggledy landscape disappear to flat, drab granite stone. Talk to visitors, incl foreigners, most are taken with the City (some say Clifton Wood reminds them of Burona, Venice) and that it has the most Continental fe”

“Glass half empty springs to mind...if it is so bad here jog on ..

Move somewhere attractive like hmmm Wales...? Better still move up north your comments would match the weather

Half of pint of bitter please (in a pint glass)”

“This is why I love Bristol we filter out the endless bad things our eyes and ears notice and pretend nothing is wrong, oh joy to the world”

“Dear Mum of Hope,

That's what's great about Bristol, we are evolving all the time and you've chosen to live and work here. In just a year you've seen so much and it's talent like you that will take Bristol forward! Do your homework with the schools and after school clubs for your children and obviously continue the fantastic work you've started here.
Bristol is another city like London which is an example of how people from all backgrounds, cultures and abilities can work and enjoy life together.
Bristol has big issues in parts but we must look at micro enterprise schemes and innovation to improve areas. We need to all tap in to the VOSCUR charity to use the pool of charities available to help people on the bread line across our great city.
We are great for industry but we're just as great with charity and helping others and none more helpful than the council.

Oh Craig, sorry I forgot. Don't forget Royal Portbury Docks... one of the largest docks and possibly the largest for the car industry.”