Innholdsfortegnelse for 12/3/2018 i The Big Issue

01 BOUNCE Dog-Poline: the world’s first trampoline park for dogs In a world first, ZAPspace trampoline park in London have teamed up with pet-sitting service Rover to give four-legged friends and their owners a free 10-minute bounce. Safety will be paramount, with good boys and girls only let on one at a time after an onsite vet check. If everything goes well – and what could possibly go wrong? – the concept is to be considered for a countrywide rollout next year. December 6, ZAPspace, Stratford, London; zapspace.co.uk 02 VENT The Little Book of Bad Moods: Be Your Worst Self Yes, being balanced, calm and mindful are all best practice for maintaining a healthy mental state – but isn’t there also something to be said for having a good cathartic…

The loss of a private rented tenancy is one of the leading causes of homelessness as tenants struggle to keep up with rising rents. It’s charities like Rock Trust and MyBnk which are making the difference in giving youngsters the financial support and education to negotiate the private rental market. Rock Trust set up their Rent Deposit Scheme in 2017 in collaboration with End Youth Homelessness. The initiative gives landlords in Glasgow and Edinburgh a guarantee certificate in place of a traditional cash deposit. This protects the landlord from damage or rent arrears while giving the young person a safe way into the rental market without the burden of an enormous financial outlay hanging over them. MyBnk’s The Money House project sees youngsters head to a London flat for five…

We have to turn every child – every child, not some children – into their own research and development department. Every child has to be seen as so full of the biological tools that have taken billions of years to develop that they’re on the cusp of running with this formidable cocktail of body and systems. And take those systems to higher and higher levels in their own lives. I watch my heavily biologically programmed cat creep its way through our garden towards a potential kill; towards a surprise attack on something smaller than itself. The fierce face of the little fella, its perfectly evolved eyes aimed at that pounce, and that attack. Yet our own little humans are often misled and diverted from their future potential because of the…

Mr Christmas 1998 Up from the streets: Alfe busking with a band in Venice 2012 On the balcony of Buckingham Palace with soprano Renee Fleming 2018 Alfie and wife Sarah at the Global Gift Gala in London At 16, I was mainly focused on hanging out with my friends. And being a drummer in a band. I played a lot of music with local musicians. I struggled at school, I didn’t enjoy it much. I didn’t get the opportunity to discover many things I might be good at. When I was supposed to be in my maths exam I was riding to the lumber yard on my bicycle to pick up some two-by-four boards for the barn the school was building. I quite liked art and English and I wanted…

The food we cook, eat and share is at the heart of all our lives, especially at this time of year. And for HRH the Duchess of Sussex, it’s no different. Working with the Hubb Community Kitchen has made her reflect on what it means to her. “I have a lifelong interest in the story of food – where it comes from, why we embrace it and how it brings us together: the universal connection to community through the breaking of bread,” she says. Her favourite dishes are collard greens and black-eyed peas with cornbread, eaten with family every New Year’s Day, and her mother’s gumbo, which bring back memories of her childhood in Los Angeles. “Travelling far from home highlights the power of personally meaning recipes,” she explains. “We’ve…

Thousands of children in Britain won’t be greeted with a pile of presents under the tree this Christmas Day. For those kids in emergency accommodation – 48,000 a year – Christmas is a lonely and traumatic experience, after fleeing with their mothers to escape domestic violence at home, leaving everything behind. Karen Williams was enraged by this and set up the Buddy Bag Foundation to try to help in 2014. She was inspired by a trip to Australia, which introduced her to the bags that The Alannah and Madeline Foundation have given out to children in emergency care. She returned to Swadlincote in Derbyshire and set up her own Buddy Bag appeal. Last month her 1,800-strong team of volunteers, dubbed the Buddy Bag Brigade, delivered their 16,000th bag. The rucksacks…

50 MILLION children have been uprooted from their homes because of because war and of disaster war and . disaster 4.5 MILLION children under five will need treatment for life- the-theni ening malnutrition this year he in most the most dangerous conflict zones including Yemen, Syria and South Sudan – an increase of 20% per in cent tw in ears two years 600,000 are expected to die because they will not receive treatment receive treatment 300,000 At least 300,000 unaccompanied child refugees were registered in 80 countries in 2015-16 -– five times more than 2010-11. Many who end up as unaccompanied refugees end up trafficked and exploited for slave labour and slave prostitution labour and prostitution 5,145 In 2017, 5,145 potential victims were referred to the National Referral Mechanism 35%…

When Viz first appeared on newsagents’ shelves in 1979, Queen Elizabeth II was on the throne and Britain was a divided country with a collapsing economy and a deranged woman as Prime Minister. How things have changed. Back then, Viz was a crudely drawn, poorly written, foulmouthed rag, cheaply printed and riddled with typographical errors. How things have changed. So come with me, long-time editor Hampton Doubleday, as I look back at some of the highlights of my four decades at the helm of the country’s third or fourth funniest magazine. Possibly fifth. 1979 Viz issue number one, costing a mere 20p, appeared in November 1979, and only 150 copies were ever printed. It is an interesting and intriguing fact that at…

Official biographies from political figures whose profile remains vertiginously high are rarely compelling. You usually have to wait until they’re powerless for the good stuff. Michelle Obama however, stepped into the spotlight already a very different kind of political celebrity; a First Lady from a very modest background who seemed as tough as she was warm, as intelligent as she was playful. More than a match for her brilliant, brainy husband, and with an even easier charm. And, as she puts it herself, “black through and through, as black as we come in America”. Early news leaks about the frankness with which she writes about her miscarriage and subsequent IVF treatment made it clear that Becoming would not be the usual folksy whitewash full of innocuous platitudes about love of…

It feels like an artful monument to Redford’s legendary career In 2013, Robert Redford was the only credited actor in All Is Lost , the tale of a crinkly yachtsman thrust into a life-or-death struggle in dangerous waters. Alone, incommunicado and with his scuttled sailboat driǼting into a violent storm, Redford was required to communicate stoicism, thoughtfulness and, as the situation worsened, the poignant sense of a stubborn septuagenarian weighing up his life choices in the face of oblivion. It was a one-man show gripping enough to stand alongside Redford’s most iconic roles, and felt like the perfect career-capper for a Hollywood icon. He should have won an Oscar (bizarrely, he wasn’t even nominated). All Is Lost remains an acting masterclass but The Old Man & The Gun – likely…

A little while back, editors at the Financial Times spotted a problem: the sources quoted in journalists’ articles were overwhelmingly men – as many as eight in 10. To help, the newspaper’s developers built a bot to automatically scan stories, hoping to spot unconscious bias and encourage writers to find more female voices. That’s one way bots, be they chatbots or actual robots, are helping to make us better people, encouraging gender equality, helping us to quit smoking or lose weight and supporting mental health – even popping up to tweak our writing. Workplace chat tool Slack has a bot that checks for tone of voice in your messages, so you don’t accidentally send a bit of snark to a colleague. The trick, says Professor Jon May, psychologist at the…

Capitol centre, Queen Street, Cardiff Every day, 10am-7pm I’d lived in Merthyr up in the Valleys all my life before I came to Cardiff. About three or four years ago I broke up with my partner, had a breakdown and became homeless. Before that I’d had three heart attacks so I was already out of work. I was out on the street and that’s when I came here. I tried to get enough money to sort out somewhere to stay but unfortunately I’m still sleeping rough now. I’m supposed to be getting a place in January. I’m with this new project, Housing First, and they’re marvellous. They work with rough sleepers, helping with appointments and finding a property and stuff. It would be a flat of my own but with…

Looking out for you Danny! Great news about vendor Danny Collins starting university life. I was one of his customers and chatted to him now and again outside Hillhead Library, mainly about Bob the Cat! I am a retired member of Glasgow University staff and still active in research. I just wondered if I’d bump into him on GU campus. Ben Torsney, honorary research fellow, School of Maths and Stats, University of Glasgow Never a cross word Thank you so much for the wonderful prize of a Chambers Dictionary: very useful and very timely – my 1972 edition badly needed updating! I’d also like to thank Karl (aka Bubble) for being at Snow Hill station in Birmingham in all weathers to sell me a copy each week. His determined recovery…

“F is for fire that burns down the whole town, U is for Uranium… bombs! N is for no survivors!” While you may read this as the negotiating position for either (or both!) sides within the Brexit fandango, it is, surprisingly, not. These are the words of SpongeBob SquarePants. For those of you unfamiliar with SpongeBob SquarePants (shame on you) he is a yellow sponge who lives in a pineapple at the bottom of the sea. He works in a fast-food burger joint and wears brown shorts and a red tie. He has a friend called Patrick who is a starfish and not hugely bright. He is always joyously, unbreakably, happy. I’ll be straight with you. SpongeBob is not actually real. He is a cartoon. He features in a TV…

Foodbanks are desperate for essentials over the busy Christmas period and a bright idea from 13 teenagers is rising to meet the demand with a simple label on a supermarket shelf. National Citizen Service graduates in Exeter spotted that foodbank donation bins in their local Sainsbury’s were being neglected as shoppers had already paid by the time they reached the bins, making them less likely to donate. But the youngsters came up with the idea of creating a special label to highlight priority products on the shelf, pointing out pasta, tinned goods and more items that foodbanks will constantly need to keep the most vulnerable fed. The label will be rolled out nationwide this month. Mark Richardson, manager of Exeter Foodbank, said: “It’s great to see young people being empowered…

James Longcroft left Durham University with “basically a third” in chemistry, and a child. He secured, and promptly came to hate, a job in the oil and gas industry. His struggle to gel with a 9-5 lifestyle forced him to think like an entrepreneur without quite knowing what that meant. He was also motivated by this thought: “Why don’t we try putting some good out into the world?” On a visit to Gambia, he saw first-hand the poor health conditions and socioeconomic devastation the lack of clean drinking water caused. Returning home, Longcroft decided to go back to basics. The now father-of-two teamed up with a friend to launch Choose Water: a start-up shifting a product as simple as bottled water, but with a twist (not just the screwcap). From…

Serves four 7 tbsp ghee or vegetable oil 2 onions, roughly chopped 900g lamb neck fillet or boneless shoulder cut into 2.5cm pieces ½ tsp gum mastic (optional) 8 cardamom pods, crushed 2 bay leaves 1 litre chicken stock 300g Egyptian short-grain rice or long-grain rice 850ml water 3 pitta breads 1 tbsp crushed garlic 5 tbsp tomato pureé ½ tsp ground cumin 1 tbsp white wine vinegar Heat three tablespoons of ghee or oil in a large pan on a medium heat and fry the onions for five minutes. Add the lamb and fry for 10 minutes, until lightly browned. Add the gum mastic (if using), cardamom and bay leaves, followed by the stock. Season, bring to the boil and skim off the foam. Lower the heat, cover and…

Not all people who find themselves on Britain’s shores are here willingly as migrants, refugees or asylum seekers. Every year thousands of victims of modern slavery are trafficked to the UK: in 2018 between January and September 5,039 people were identified in the UK as having been trafficked from 87 countries. Purposes included adult slave labour, children being exploited to work on drug farms or for dealers, and organ harvesting. Those who escape are referred to the National Referral Mechanism (NRM), which compiled the above data. The application process victims have to go through to prove their circumstances and find out if they can remain in the country can be as traumatic as the experiences many have been through. The system should be as straightforward as possible – but that…

“My drawing feels more technical than artistic,” says frequent Street Art contributor Steve, who submits his work via the 240 Project, a London arts and activity centre for people affected by homelessness. “Puzzles, crosswords and historical facts influence my thoughts and occupy my time, though my work comes from my imagination. I don’t feel in any rush when working, just take my time, each line is considered, not instinctive.” Street Art is created by people who are marginalised. Contact street.lights@bigissue.com to see your art here. To see more and buy prints: bigissueshop.com At least half the proft goes to the artist.…

01 Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo The most powerful anti-war novel I know: the story of a man terribly wounded in the trenches. A bomb leaves him deaf and blind, without arms or legs. All that remains is his brain. Using Morse code, he is fnally able to communicate. 02 All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque Written from the German viewpoint, but in a way that is universal, this novel is set in the First World War. It’s written in the frst person, and the reader wants to be friends with the narrator. 03 The Sergeant in the Snow by Mario Rigoni Stern This novel, written with great simplicity, is about an Italian author’s experience of a retreat through Russia in the Second World…

Yippee-ki-yay, ya filthy animals: this week also sees the rerelease in UK cinemas of two comparably violent movies that have become festive favourites, with the original Die Hard celebrating its 30th anniversary alongside Home Alone (not far behind at 28 years old). Both are Christmas stories about foiling invasions by opportunistic thieves, although Die Hard has both a sharper script – “Nine million terrorists in the world and I gotta kill one with feet smaller than my sister?” – and Alan Rickman’s peerless, era-defining villain.…

Two million turkeys. Five million Christmas puddings. Over 74 million mince pies. It’s not the scene at The Big Issue Christmas party, but some of what makes up the estimated 270,000 tonnes of food wasted in the UK each year. Half of Brits said they usually overspend on food at Christmas, with those in north-east England proving to be the worst culprits. Unilever research showed that while weekly household budgets continue to fall – more than 100,000 children are at risk this winter as the rollout of Universal Credit continues – many will feel obliged to spend more than they can afford for their family this Christmas. And, ultimately, much of it ends up in landfill; food redistribution charity FareShare calculated that only six per cent of it ends up…

A hand up, not a handout... At Christmas our sellers BUY every copy of the magazine for £1.50 and sell it for £3. Trade, not aid… Which is why we ask you to ALWAYS take your copy of the magazine. Our sellers are working and need your custom. Poverty is indiscriminate… That is why we provide ANYONE whose life is blighted by poverty with the opportunity to earn a LEGITIMATE income. The right to citizenship… The Big Issue Foundation, our charitable arm, helps sellers tackle social and financial exclusion. Prevention… Big Issue Invest offers backing and investments to social enterprises, charities and businesses which deliver social value to communities.…

The only thing that will change is that Coronation Street will get moved in the schedules. @Official_MRLP, Twitter It would be great if he could work out what his stance is by the time it takes place. Alice Willoughby, Facebook I’m sure Amber Rudd will do her best. Mark Finch, Facebook She hasn’t ‘agreed’ to a debate ‘with’ Corbyn, she has challenged Corbyn to a debate and he has agreed to a debate with her, she instigated the act. Very much like she instigated the election but then refused to debate Corbyn at the last GE. Sarah Banks, Facebook Are you kidding? Corbyn will wipe the floor with her – I can’t wait. Amanda Gabriel, Facebook…

You asked. We listened. In this ever-more cashless society, we have been increasingly asked when vendors will be able to take contactless payments – now we are pleased to announce that The Big Issue has partnered with iZettle to launch trials of the technology. Up to 20 vendors in London, Bath, Birmingham, Bristol and Nottingham will accept contactless payments alongside cash before it’s rolled out nationwide. Payment firm iZettle report that more than 70 per cent of transactions in the UK are now cashless, and this partnership will boost financial inclusion for vendors. Ever-popular vendor Easton Christian will be among the first to get his hands on the device. The 64-year-old, who sells the magazine at London’s White City, said: “I’ve definitely noticed a dip in the number of people…

FRIENDLY FRUIT PEAR RATTLE £6.99 Hand made by a fair trade cooperative which creates fairly paid and flexible jobs in rural Bangladesh FIGHT LIKE A GIRL T-SHIRT £24.90 Our slogan t-shirts make a statement, bringing together a range of issue-led designs and feel good messages GERANIUM AND RHUBARB TRIO £39.00 Every purchase of this gift trio helps provide employment for the blind or otherwise disabled INDIA NECK TIE £65.00 Sustainably handmade from high quality silk, each tie purchased will help a child to read and write for a year HAND SCREEN PRINTED DIAMOND CUSHION £26.99 This linen cushion showcases the talents of people with hearing impairments and physical disabilities in Tanzania MEDIUM WASH BAG £57.50 Made from genuine decommissioned fire-hose, 50% of the profits go to the Fire Fighters Charity…

The Big Issue: What made you want to do a Christmas album this year of all years? William Shatner: Well I’m not sure how many more Christmases I have leǽt! The truthful answer is I was given the opportunity to make a Christmas album and I thought, “Well, why not?” And why not try and find traditional Christmas songs and bend them a little to make them more, you know, fun? Were the guest stars friends, or people you’ve come to know only through making this record? I actually knew hardly any of them before I started making the album. But most of them jumped on when asked. In some cases they actually sought out the record company and asked to be involved. I’m not quite sure why. Because you’re…

Born in Prague, Alfred, Baron Dubs, was rescued in 1939 aged six by Nicholas Winton and brought by train to the UK as part of the Kindertransport evacuation of 10,000 Jewish children from the Nazis before the outbreak of World War 2. He studied at the London School of Economics and worked in local government before joining the Labour party in the 1970s and serving as MP for Battersea South between 1979 and 1983, being given a life peerage in 1994. A patron of the Humanists, he was awarded Humanist of the Year in 2016, the year that he sponsored an amendment to the 2016 Immigration Act, which would offer 3,000 unaccompanied refugee children safe passage to Britain. Originally rejected by  the Commons, ‘the Dubs Amendment’ as it became known…

Over 2,000 asylum seekers will spend the holiday period in custody in detention waiting for the Home Office to decide their future. With 26,541 individuals entering detention centres in the 12 months to March, the UK has one of the largest immigration detention systems in Europe, with no time limit on how long people spend there before their asylum claim is decided. The median stay for individuals in detention centres is four months – the longest is three years. 56 per cent of a sample of 188 detainees were officially classified as at risk of harm, including suicide: uncertainty over length of detention was officially designated as contributing to the suicide of a 28-year-old asylum seeker. Half of detainees have never committed a crime. They sleep on bunks, two to…

When I was a boy, my mother read me the myth of Icarus. I wept on my pillow when the wax attaching the wings to his slender body melted, sending him tumbling to the ground from high above. Why hadn’t he heeded his father’s warning not to fly too close to the sun? It was a kind of hubris, and curiosity, wasn’t it? And I knew that I couldn’t always control mine either. In those days I’d spend hours at the Museum of Natural History [in New York]. Looking up from my little frame at the giant dinosaurs, I felt a sense of wonder and astonishment. Was it true that these creatures walked the Earth millions of years ago, when our ancestors were frightened shrews scurrying between their shadows? To…

A clever, funny, fiercely contemporary, deeply personal, madly eclectic yet crisply constructed and just ridiculously entertaining suite of songs invoking all from glittering new wave to vocoder-treated R&B-pop, smoky jazz, neo-soul and hushed acoustic balladry, there’s a lot going on during The 1975’s new album A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships, and so much to love. It’s definitely one of the best albums of 2018 and possibly one of the best albums of the century so far. One of its most talked-about tracks is peculiar centrepiece The Man Who Married A Robot / Love Theme, a spoken-word interlude set to romantic orchestral music, narrated by Siri, the iPhone’s inbuilt virtual assistant. It’s a tragicomic skit about a man identified as @snowflakesmasher86 who falls in love with the internet, and it’s…

Once upon a time, David Attenborough’s mellifluous tones comforted me. He hung out with gorillas, and fitted into that Richard Briers/John Noakes category of thoroughly good eggs. Now, though, whenever he’s on TV warning us of the mindless destruction humans have caused to the planet over a massive panoramic tracking shot of the Brazilian rainforest, it gives me a panic attack. So I’ve had to psyche myself up to watch Dynasties. Luckily, it looks good on my new big telly, which is quietly heating up the planet to the same temperature as a molten microwaved burger. And it was about PENGUINS the other week, which is always good for a laugh. Look at them with their ›lippers and funny feet! I mean, get some arms! They fight for survival during…

01 Why I like Cambridge It’s the learning capital of the world. There are so many places to see here, loads of good things – all the colleges, all the different cultures that are here. I’ve learned to say thank you in at least 25 languages. My favourite is Afrikaans. It’s pronounced ‘baie dankie’ but I remember it as ‘buy a donkey’. 02 The best history Great breakthroughs happened here in Cambridge and there are plaques all over the place. There’s loads of history. Oliver Cromwell, the guy who tried to get rid of all the royal family – aǼter they had his head on a spike at Westminster Hall they brought it back here and buried it at Sidney Sussex College. 03 My favourite park Christ’s Pieces was voted…