Innholdsfortegnelse for 04-09-2017 i The Big Issue

Welcome to the latest edition of The Big Issue. This week Russell Brand is telling us all about his struggle with addiction issues. He sat down with some Big Issue vendors who have been going through similar battles. Take a look on page 20. We’re also looking at the terrible housing problems that some brilliant social enterprises are working hard to fix. At the moment I’m sleeping outside a church in Southampton, where I sell the magazine. The people at the church and people in the city have been good to me but I’m hoping to get a flat of my own soon. You can read more about the great work going on to provide more homeless people with somewhere decent to live, on page 26. And you can read…

Liam Gallagher is among the A-list stars to have signed up to headline a mass sleep-out fundraiser in Edinburgh later this year. Organised by Social Bite – and dubbed Scotland’s answer to Live Aid – Sleep in the Park will bring the Oasis icon to Princes Street Gardens alongside Scots stars Deacon Blue, Amy Macdonald and Frightened Rabbit for special acoustic “busking” sets in December. It is hoped that up to 9,000 people will “sleep rough” in West Princes Street Gardens and around Edinburgh city centre, with the aim of raising £4m to tackle homelessness in Scotland. Comedian Rob Brydon will host, Monty Python legend John Cleese will read a bedtime story, while a host of sports stars, celebs and politicians are also expected to take part in the sleep-out…

The Discworld creator isn’t the only writer to demand the destruction of unfinished works. Franz Kafka  Plagued by self-doubt, the Czech Metamorphosis author asked friend Max Brod to destroy unfinished manuscripts on his death. Kafka burned a lot of his own work, but some still remains. Vladimir Nabokov Best known for controversial Lolita , he requested that his final, unfinished manuscript remain unpublished and be burned. His son and heir, Dmitri, felt conflicted over its destruction and in the end published The Original of Laura , in 2009. Virgil Poet, perfectionist and author of The Aeneid – the Latin epic that tells the legendary story of Trojan Aeneas who travelled to Italy, demanded his friends throw away his work. By…

The UK’s fostering system was in the eye of a media storm last week after a young Christian girl was placed with a Muslim family. But Fostering Network chief executive Kevin Williams says religion, culture, age or background are no barrier to fostering The fantastic job that tens of thousands of foster carers do looking after the 64,000 children and young people who are fostered every day rarely gets the acknowledgement it deserves. Unfortunately, fostering did hit the headlines this week but not for the reasons it ought to. Worse still, these headlines are in danger of distracting from the real fostering story – that young people across the UK are flourishing because of the love and stability they receive from foster carers, and that thousands more foster carers are…

“We started because we wanted to help disadvantaged people in real need of housing” Hurricane Harvey’s effect on Houston has been devastating. Images of the flooding are apocalyptic, the stories of lives devastated are heartbreaking, and the scale of it all is terrifying. Tens of thousands are displaced. But the response has been as life-affirming as the scenes are distressing: acts of bravery and heroism – like the rescue of 15 elderly care home residents waist-deep in water after a desperate cry for help – have bonded communities. Local baseball teams have pledged donations of over $20m (and rising), while celebrities pitched in – Sandra Bullock donating $1m to American Red Cross, and the Kardashians offering $500,000. Budweiser brewery Anheuser-Busch halted beer production to send thousands of gallons of drinking…

A concert in a multi-storey car park, orchestra and audience gathered on level eight of an 1980s brutalist hulk of concrete in Peckham, south-west London. It all sounds rather JG Ballard-esque. Indeed, the entrance is grubby and litter-strewn, beside PeckhamPlex cinema. There’s a bouncer and heavy-duty metal barriers like one might see at a demo. At the box office, we’re given not a ticket but a wristband, as if we’re at a secret rave. The BBC Proms logo reassures us that we’ve come to the right place. It’s a hot day so a visit to the chemical loos on the top floor requires a deep breath and a strong stomach. In fact the Bold Tendencies venue (which has been supported by Big Issue Invest), home to Multi-Story Orchestra, is far…

Right to work safely Why should vendors have to put up with comments and abuse from members of the public when most people don’t? Tim Garden, email Deliberating Diana Despite the recent po-faced claims uttered by the – self-parodying – Diana, Princess of Wales TV ‘experts’, the bizarre assertions that she somehow “changed the world” and “changed how we think or feel” is, frankly, the most laughably ridiculous kind of nonsense. It is the TV media and its manipulation that teaches us what to think or feel. Diana’s tragic death was simply another televisual catalyst to glue us to our screens, despite our ignorance of whether she was a nice person or not. As soon as we switch on the television, the editors, directors and presenters have an agenda to…

The transfer window slammed shut last week with spending records smashed yet again. If you find the £1.4bn that Premier League clubs spent this summer – with £210m splashed on Thursday’s deadline day alone – to be a bit grotesque, the Homeless World Cup offers a more palatable alternative. The annual tournament kicked off in Oslo last week with all four home nations battling with 50 other countries to take the top prizes. But fair play is just as important throughout the week-long football extravaganza and Team England’s Okasia Brown has embraced that idea. The Londoner impressed match officials so much as she captained the women’s side to a 4-0 victory over Sweden that she was awarded one of only 120 whistles in recognition of her commitment to playing fair.…

URBAN NIGHTSCAPE BY STEPHEN MUNDY Stephen served two years of a four-year prison sentence at HMP Lewes, Sussex. “While I was in prison I was given the choice of working in the workshop, or going to education,” he says, “I chose education. I was very mentally ill, and practising art was a real benefit to my mental health.” He describes this painting as “a bit of fun on a haulage pallet, part of my college end-of-year project. It is quite a simple painting, full of colour, energy and hope.” ACRYLIC ABSTRACT ON TREATED PAPER BY GERALDINE CRIMMINS Geraldine has struggled with drug addiction and been homeless twice in the last 16 years, living on the streets around Victoria in London. She’s now clean and in a housing association flat, and…

“There is no one smarter or more hilarious when it comes to talking about our weird and wonderful universe than Dara Ó Briain”* *maybe. So reads the author bio in his new book Beyond the Sky: You and the Universe. Ó Briain has taken time out from presenting pretty much every show on TV to share his knowledge on life, the universe and everything (that title was already taken, sadly) in a bright, bold and witty style. The book is aimed at children but perfect for anyone whose sense of wonder hasn’t been bludgeoned out of existence by the miserable post-truth, post-expert times we live in. The Big Issue: “No one smarter or more hilarious…” That’s a lot of pressure. Dara Ó Briain: I don’t remember writing or endorsing that…

1. WORM LOVES WORM JJ Austrian Insects in this adorable picture book worry about the details of a garden wedding, but these two invertebrates know that sex and gender roles don’t matter when worm loves worm. 2. THIS DAY IN JUNE Gayle Pitman Go to a Pride parade with this brightly illustrated Stonewall Award-winning picture book, complete with Dykes on Bikes, all sorts of families, and of course, lots and lots of rainbows. 3. TWO BOYS KISSING David Levithan A broken-up gay couple deciding to break the record for longest kiss would make a good story, but add the narration by the generation of gay men decimated by the AIDS crisis and be ready to have your heart wrenched. 4. RAMONA BLUE Julie Murphy There was a time in my…

To celebrate International Literacy Day on September 8, we’re giving you the chance to win a case of classic Dr. Seuss books – a collection of 20 of the iconic author’s tales. Some are pictured above, including The Cat in The Hat, Horton Hears a Who! and Oh, The Places You’ll Go! To be in with a chance of winning, answer this question: What colour of eggs does Sam-I-am offer with his ham? Send your answers with DR. SEUSS as the subject to competitions@bigissue.com or post to The Big Issue, 43 Bath Street, Glasgow, G2 1HW. Include your name and address. Closing date is September 19. Include OPT OUT if you don’t want to receive updates from The Big Issue. We will not pass your details to any third party.…

After reading Damian Barr’s Opinion article in your July 3-9 issue, I felt compelled to reply. So much of what he expressed about renting in the private sector is horribly accurate, and yet my young son and I have encountered amazingly generous and inspiring landlords in the last five years. Living in rural Aberdeenshire in a small flat attached to a large former game lodge, owned by the same family for three generations, we always got on very well with our landlords and eventually became friends as well as tenants. On December 30 2015, we all experienced the catastrophic flooding as a result of Storm Frank. I work full-time but finances are tight and I had not been in a position to pay for household insurance for the possessions I…

An older man with long hair tied into a bun at the back of his head leant forward as I sat at a small table signing books. I had just finished an hour’s talk at the Shambala Festival, in Kelmarsh, Northamptonshire. He crouched down to talk over the noise of the tent and its competing sounds. He offered me great wisdom. Actually, greater wisdom than either he intended or I was capable of attaining on my own. Wisdom that almost fell from the skies, so to speak. This was my third day at the festival and my third talk. The first talk in a crowded tent called the Imaginarium was called Poverty to Purpose and was my usual struggle story up from empty slum life through crime, homelessness and other…

Harley Street addiction therapist and counsellor Mark Dempster knows better than most the power of The Big Issue to help people recover from addiction. A former addict and drug dealer, and having served time in prison, Mark was a Big Issue vendor from 1993 to 1996, before he trained as a counsellor and launched his successful Harley Street practice. He and Russell co-present a radio show We are Recovery Radio on Zone One. And Mark is now teaming up with The Big Issue to offer advice to readers with issues of addiction to alcohol, drugs, gambling, sex, the internet and more. His first column is online now and you can send questions to Mark in confidence at: bigissueproblems@bigissue.com Please state in your message if you would like anonymity. Mark’s advice…

From the universal illumination of the pharmacy sign to digital teaching aids – the role of graphic design in healthcare in communicating messages globally is boundless. An exhibition of more than 200 objects demonstrates how graphic design has been used to persuade, to inform and to empower. Dick Bruna – illustrator of the famous white rabbit Miffy – was known for frequently donating his design services to organisations including Unicef and Amnesty International. He designed this campaign for Het Nederlandse Rode Kruis (Red Cross Netherlands) to promote giving blood. Can Graphic Design Save Your Life? is at the Wellcome Collection, London, until January 14. wellcomecollection.org…