Innholdsfortegnelse for 13-11-2017 i The Big Issue

Welcome to the latest edition of The Big Issue. This week Paddington Bear – the new hero of Christmas – pops up on page 20. I remember reading his stories in junior school. I’m really interested in technology and how it’s shaping the world – on page 24 we look at treating PTSD with virtual reality. This week I’ll be speaking at The Big Sleep Out, sharing my journey and how I came to sell The Big Issue, as well as telling people about the charity I’ve just founded. Read more of my story on page 46.…

In late October, BrightHouse, the rent-to-own firm, was ordered to pay £14.8m for mistreating customers. The company offers those with poor credit files and little ready money access to goods they couldn’t otherwise afford. However, this modern version of HP comes at a considerable cost. The cheapest washing machine offered by BrightHouse, for which a similar model costs around £250 on the high street, totalled £1,056.12 over three years. This is a poverty premium. If you are in need, and you can’t afford it, you’re going to pay even more. And if you get into difficulty, that’s going to cost more too. BrightHouse said they’d pony up. They apologised. But that was after the fact. Last week, there was much noise around the Paradise Papers – details about where the…

Equine welfare charity, Bransby Horses, spent months caring for a horse that was so badly neglected her life was left hanging in the balance. In January 2016, Bransby Horses and the RSPCA, attended a private address and removed the Arab mare, named Emerald, along with four other horses. For three weeks, Emerald was lifted to her feet by hand with a special harness every two hours, day and night. A camera was set up in her stable and gradually she started to stand up for extended periods unaided. In the night, if she was down again for too long, five staff got out of bed and lifted her. By week four she was finally able to get up on her own, her blood counts continued to show improvement each time,…

The past couple of years have been a boon for feminist writings by great women writers. Rebecca Solnit has carved out a niche for speaking about women’s representation in media. Mary Beard, in turn, has turned two speeches about women in public discourse into a new short book on women in antiquity and in the modern day. Something of a contemporary A Room of One’s Own, Women & Power has the feel of a lecture and the clean-lined arguments of a great academic’s pen. Beard gives so many excellent examples that you might as well highlight the lot. The Public Voice of Women (part one) looks at the ways in which women have been silenced through time. From decidedly masculine Greek words for public speech, through centuries of societal conditioning,…

“That which lacks a PR budget can be doomed to invisibility” There are stories, some of which have been confirmed enough times that it rises them above the apocryphal, of broadcasters who meticulously edit every “um”, “errr” or slight trip or verbal pause that may dispel the myth of their perpetual pristine fluidity. Somewhere, there may be an archive, a digital warehouse of all those slips and slurs that is the equivalent of what we see at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Resonance FM would be the place to jemmy open these boxes and put together hour-long collages of these unwanted DJ noises. Much of Resonance FM’s output lacks the expected grammar of “professional” radio. It has a naturalism and variety of voices and passions that makes…

EU cannot be serious I am disappointed to see The Big Issue printing two factually incorrect anti-Brexit letters, especially as one is the Comment of the Week [Letters, November 6-12]. Howard Henry Smith asserts that “most Britons now believe that Brexit is a huge mistake”. In fact, the regularly updated survey at whatukthinks.org shows opinions have hardly changed, with no discernible trend. Sandie Schagen would have us believe that the cost of Brexit is £4,200 per household per year. Go to eu-facts.org.uk to see why “this figure is fundamentally misleading and cannot be taken as a credible assessment”. Mike Houghton, Nottingham Please note, Britain is a net contributor to the EU. Any grants etc essentially come from our own money minus expenses. Derek Walker, Stow-on- the-Wold Hitting the bullseye Rosamund…

At The Big Issue we’re committed to improving literacy. It matters, hugely. In February we launched #whybooksmatter – our campaign for better literacy in Britain. We believe early work can improve the life chances of those who need it most, and when researcher Professor Yvonne Kelly got in touch after seeing our campaign launch with some brand-new research we saw the incredible benefits of reading to your child. Did you know, for example, that reading to all children daily could result in a 20 per cent fall in the numbers of youngsters with behavioural problems? Or that between the ages of three and five, children who are read to daily do better in all tests that predict how well they will get on at school? It’s not just children who…

SPACES BY TREVOR Trevor is from London and is a longstanding member of the 240 Project, an arts and health activity centre in West London for people affected by homelessness, vulnerability and exclusion. HEALING BY ROBYN FORMAN “My work is about healing, forgiveness and reconciliation,” says Robyn, who is in her late 50s and lives in Brighton. “I come from the school of hard knocks. A recent diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis on top of my bipolar is difficult, however art has rescued me, the artistic process gives me relief from the difficulties of managing my health issues.” Street Art is created by people who are marginalised by issues like homelessness, disability and mental health conditions. Contact streetlights@bigissue.com  to see your art here.…

IN 1980 THE YEAR SHANE RICHIE TURNS 16…  John Lennon is shot dead in New York/ Ronald Reagan beats US President Jimmy Carter in landslide election victory / Breakfast television gets the go-ahead I always knew I wanted to be a performer. The first school production I was in was Toad of Toad Hall and I played Toad. All the kids made paper mâché masks, but I was crying to my mum: “What is the point if they can’t see my face?” They let me paint my face green instead. I was about eight – and that was the beginning of me wanting to show off. There was a Sliding Doors moment when I was 15. I had been accepted for the National Youth Theatre’s summer…

STEP 1: ARRIVAL In the original film, Paddington stows away on a ship bound for London. Undetected on entry, he is homeless when the Brown family encounter him at Paddington Station and take him in. Under section 24 of the Immigration Act 1971, Paddington is an illegal entrant and has committed a criminal offence. Assisting unlawful immigration is also a criminal offence, but having assisted Paddington only after his arrival in the UK the Brown family would probably escape prosecution. If or when detected by the authorities, Paddington will somehow need to fit himself within one of the various narrowly predefined immigration categories or face removal. His most likely way forward is to make an asylum claim as a refugee. But this is not the easy option portrayed in some…

This elephant-shaped building was conceived in 1758 as an elaborate tribute to Louis XV, planned to be plonked where the Arc de Triomphe now stands in Paris. The idea outlived the monarchy, and Napoleon proposed a jumbo water feature to commemorate the storming of the Bastille, but work on it ceased after he packed his trunk for Waterloo. A plaster (of Paris) model was a local landmark for several years (turning up in Les Misérables) before residents insisted the rat-infested elephant was junked. Designs of ambitious buildings, like this one, that never made it off the drawing board, appear in a new book that collects visions of how exciting – and bizarre – our cities could have looked. Phantom Architecture by Philip Wilkinson (Simon & Schuster HBK, £25.00)…

1. THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES Eve Ensler You may have seen this work on stage but reading gives time for greater understanding. For women the real power would be in giving your own vagina a voice and writing your own piece. Then listen carefully. 2. THE ART OF SEXUAL ECSTASY Margo Anand Make pleasure a priority in your relationship and become an expert in arousal and pleasure. This ’80s classic is the text from which most current neo-tantric practice is taken. You will need to be dedicated; it’s detailed. 3. THE MULTI-ORGASMIC COUPLE ManTak Chia This book is good on mastering the practice, for men, of separating orgasm and ejaculation. This is an ancient tantric discipline and, if added to a man’s repertoire of sensual skills, will lead to more intimate…

Based on the novel by the massively influential sci-fi and horror writer Richard Matheson (I Am Legend, The Martian Chronicles), with a script adapted by Matheson himself, and directed by '50s sci-fi king Jack Arnold (Creature From The Black Lagoon), The Incredible Shrinking Man is regarded as one of the finest science-fiction films of all time. It tells the strange story of Scott Carey, an ordinary young man who, through an extraordinary set of circumstances, becomes The Incredible Shrinking Man. This beautiful UK Blu-ray debut features a documentary on director Jack Arnold, the pioneer behind Creature From The Black Lagoon and It Came From Outer Space; new sleeve artwork and a collector’s booklet; as well as, for old-school enthusiasts, a Super 8 presentation of the film – the incredible shrinking…

A special thank you I just wanted to take this opportunity to say just how grateful I am to all of my customers and regulars who buy the magazine every week and to the people who don’t buy it but stop and say hello and have a little natter, I appreciate each and every one of you, I’ve had days this year where I’ve found it very difficult just to go to my pitch and vend, you’ve lifted my spirit when I’ve needed a little lift, I’m very fortunate to have such an amazing bunch of people who pass me by day in day out, I’d also like to take the opportunity to thank Lord Bird for the unique business model he has brought to the market place and given…

As the temperatures plummet this winter, Brits everywhere are reaching for a brew to warm the cockles. Cafédirect have you covered with their London Tea Company collection. The £20 set of 72 individually-wrapped teabags features nine different flavours and has more than enough mug-fillers to see you through to the spring. And with 50 per cent of profits going back to Cafédirect Producers’ Foundation – a UK charity run by farmers, for farmers – you’ll be left with even more inner warmth from every cuppa.…

Last Tuesday I packed my bag for Wales. I was excited. I was excited because I like Cardiff and I like sensible conferences. And the Welsh Assembly conference I was going to was about prevention, inclusion and future generations’ wellbeing, organised by Big Issue Cymru and that particularly admirable group, the Bevan Foundation, created to continue the work of that titan of social justice, Nye Bevan. Yes, he of the NHS, and the deeply fiery commitment to ridding the world of poverty and illness. Sometimes I buy a book because I like the idea of it. I liked the idea of one book by a particular Bulgarian-French philosopher who wrote one called In Defence of the Enlightenment. It was a finely made hardback, and as a former book printer, I…

Is Paddington a migrant? A refugee? What’s the difference between the two? Does it matter? These questions are being debated in the classroom, with Paddington introducing children to issues surrounding refugees and immigration. This year Paddington was announced as a Unicef ambassador, fronting their OutRight campaign which teaches kids across the UK about their rights, empowering them to speak up in support of other children around the world who don’t have a voice. “We are living in a time when millions of children are being forced to leave their homes, and to put their trust in the kindness of strangers,” says Lily Caprani, deputy executive director of Unicef UK. “To have a champion like Paddington, whose own story of leaving darkest Peru and finding a new family and home in…

“I wanted to offer an experience for the reader that was close to eavesdropping” Diaries and journals as we know them now have been with us since at least the 16th century. But it wasn’t until 1812 that the stationer John Letts first began selling a yearly almanac from his shop at the Royal Exchange in London. The Letts Diary was an immediate success, attracting such devoted users as William Makepeace Thackeray who favoured the ‘three shillings cloth boards’ No 12 model, and continues to be published in a multitude of formats to this day. I am an inveterate reader of other people’s diaries. That unique sense of being addressed directly, and sometimes extremely candidly, by someone, perhaps from an age other than our own, is intensely seductive. As a…

Good Time begins with a word-association game between a therapist and his patient in the prayerful quiet of a New York consulting room. It’s a subtle prompt, intended or otherwise, not to take the title of brothers Benny and Josh Safdie’s new movie entirely at face value. Yes, this film about a bank heist gone wrong in a gritty district of Queens is often very funny and it’s ferociously gripping: a crime caper that entertains with slick assurance. But as well as delivering on its promise of a good time, this thriller is doing other, more subtle things, things that stay with you much longer than quick laughs and buzzy thrills. It’s an electrifying and tragedy-tinged fable about the escalating misery of bad decisions. It’s a sly and vivid dispatch…

“Marking the 200th birthday of someone who has been dead for decades seems faintly bizarre” The classical music industry clings on to anniversaries like a limpet in fear of the tide. Major birth and, macabre fashion, death days form the basis of many programmes. For example, the 200th anniversaries of Chopin and Liszt’s births, celebrated in 2010 and 2011 respectively, both permeated nearly every concert series and recording during those years. Marking the ‘200th birthday’ of someone who has been dead for many decades seems faintly bizarre, yet these pegs are seen as vital by traditional promoters. This year, for instance, has seen several cross-cultural events to mark the 500th anniversary of the Reformation and 450 years since the birth of Monteverdi. But sometimes an anniversary appears that is ripe…

Obey your remaster. Metal luminaries Metallica have re-issued their seminal Master of Puppets album. Originally released in 1986, the album has sold over 10 million copies worldwide, hit 6x Platinum in the United States and became the first mental album to be added to the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress – an honour granted to works deemed culturally, historically or aesthetically significant. The 3 CD expanded edition boasts the full album, previously unreleased demos, rough mixes, interviews, live tracks and a 28-page booklet. We have three copies to give away. To enter simply answer the question below: In which year was Master of Puppets originally released? Enter as above, with PUPPETS as the subject line, or at…