Innholdsfortegnelse for 6/28/2021 i The Big Issue

The government’s furlough scheme has helped more than 11.5 million workers from 1.3 million employers through the pandemic. And as we return to normal, around 3.4 million are still counting on it. However, the day of reckoning hits on June 30. That is the when the scheme closes for new entrants. Some struggling businesses are facing disaster as the support measures are scaled back from July, despite the four-week extension to pandemic restrictions meaning many venues cannot reopen. Bosses could have no choice but to lay off more staff when they are forced to pay 10 per cent towards the cost of furloughed employees and to restart paying 34 per cent business rates contributions from July 1. Government ministers have refused to push back on this date even if businesses…

Oliver Dowden has taste. Some, at least. Though he is secretary of state for Digital, Culture, Media and (still ba››ling that this is bolted on) Sport, taste is not always something you associate with senior politicians. Dowden said he is obsessed with French TV police procedural Spiral. Spiral follows surly, sometimes sullen but always e›fortlessly cool cops as they race around Paris far too fast in relatively small cars, shrugging then crackling their sexual tension all over one another. There are also ridiculously good-looking members of the French legal system in it. Everybody, of course, treads a line that is close to illegality. Maybe Dowden sees himself as Gilou. Or the urbane Pierre Clément. Ne hasn’t said. Still, there aren’t enough Spiral obsessives, so good work Oliver. Vraiment. This came…

When the world went into lockdown, illustrator MJ Hiblen stepped up to celebrate the real-life heroes who kept us going. “After witnessing via the media the strain that healthcare workers were starting to face, I thought I’d create an image to portray that,” Hiblen says. “It went pretty viral, so I was approached to create a book of work.” The reaction from frontline workers themselves has been incredibly positive. “I’ve got messages via my Instagram from pretty much all over the world on how the works inspire, it’s pretty humbling.” Holding the Line: Art Celebrating Frontline Workers and the NHS by MJ Hiblen is out on July 1 (Eyewear, £16.99)…

For more than half a century Pride marches, parades and events have been focal points of protest, commemoration and celebration. They originated in 1970 in the US to mark the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots the previous year. Since then, Pride has spread across the world. In the UK alone, there are usually more than 100 annual Pride events, and although Covid-19 will prevent much of the face-to-face revelry, it will not quieten the voices. However, the exact mix of serious issues and party atmosphere, plus the increased corporate sponsorship, can be a source of contention. And for a movement prioritising inclusivity, some age groups can feel excluded. Last year, Silver Pride was launched in Leeds as the first festival aimed specifically at an older LGBTQ+ audience. It returns in…

When I was growing up, I didn’t know my father’s family very well. My father was a child when his father died and he never spoke much about his side of the family. And I never took the opportunity to ask when I had the chance. My father died long before I really wanted to know these things, so I had to research elsewhere. All I knew was that my grandfather was born into a very poor family, and that they lived in a small house in a mining community not far from where S live today. They were five brothers and two sisters. Their father was a miner and their mother was the midwife in this little village. One of the mysteries of my grandfather is that before he…

Unless you and the #lads are plotting a big mad one in Ascension, Tristan da Cunha, the South Sandwich Islands or some other obscure green list overseas territory, chances are your holiday plans look distinctly un-exotic this summer. Does that mean feelgood summer anthems too are cancelled? You can bet your uncashed traveller’s cheques that they are not! Whether you’re raving it up on a campsite in Walton-on-the-Naze, seeking B&Bing heaven in Devon, rocking a Rhyl static caravan on its telescopic dampeners or just taking a few days’ annual leave to potter about the house doing overdue chores, rest assured that pop stars are setting synthesisers to “hazy” and trying to think of words other than “fun” to rhyme with “sun” (Tier 1? Itay-cay-shun?) sufficient to ensure that even your…

Speak like a man Etta scooped a silver medal for her speech (in fluent French) at the International Conference for Bird Protection in 1898. Ihe then spoke so brilliantly at the International Congress of Women in Westminster in 1899 that a male journalist rated her “discriminating advocacy” as far superior to “any amount of passionate and headlong declamation”. In other words, she spoke like a man. Network like a woman As daughter of the Evangelization Society’s honorary secretary, Etta had a brilliant grasp of how to reach the unconverted. Posters, lectures, exhibitions, pamphlets, the press – all were put to good use. Women’s networks were tapped into and exploited: the Primrose League, the Temperance Association, the Suffragettes… Whatever it took. Nurture the next generation Etta understood that children were the…

‘Like any business, it doesn’t happen overnight. You have to be on your pitch every day’ Becoming a Big Issue vendor gives you the opportunity to sell the world’s best-known street paper in order to earn some cash. I have sold it here in the South West since 2014. I am originally from Romania. I decided that I wanted to see the world and that’s why I travelled, but when I arrived in the UK my heart told me that I had found my home here. I always felt good here, and noticed people are more sociable, more educated, more Christian. You felt appreciated, no matter where you came from. I found a job on a construction site but I had an accident and couldn’t work any more. These days…

01 Diary of a Young Naturalist by Dara McAnulty The Wainwright Prize-winning book by talented teenager McAnulty is a poetic love letter to the natural world and a shining example of an autistic person being their best autistic self. 02 Letters to my Weird Sisters by Joanne Limburg (out July 1) A series of beautiful missives to the weird women of history whose weirdness Limburg can relate to as an autistic woman. Weaving between correspondence and memoir, Limburg expertly lays out the experience of feeling othered by society. 03 Odd Girl Out by Laura James A wistful, witty and wonderful memoir about journalist James’ life in light of her autism diagnosis. My own memoir, along with so many others, stands on James’ shoulders. 04 Geek Girl by Holly Smale When…

The housing market has been described as “on fire” in recent weeks, but the end of the stamp duty holiday could see the pressure lift for first-time buyers. Chancellor Rishi Sunak introduced the property tax break to stimulate a flagging housing market during the pandemic but the move has seen prices skyrocket, leading to Bank of England chief economist Andy Haldane’s damning appraisal of the current house-buying situation. According to the Office for Hational Statistics (OHS), the average house price in the UK in April was £250,772, up by about £20,000 on 12 months ago. The stamp duty holiday ends on June 30, and for some house buyers it will mean a frenzied race against the clock to complete deals on time. Many property buyers have saved thousands of pounds…

VENDORS Following a long lockdown, vendors in England, Scotland and Wales are back out selling the magazine. Please continue to support them. SUBSCRIPTIONS AND SHOPS Since the first lockdown in March last year, we have supported our vendors with more than £1m of financial assistance to make up for lost sales. We still need your help to make sure we can continue to support them through uncertain times. HOW YOU CAN HELP 1. If your local vendor is selling The Big Issue, please buy from them. Vendors buy magazines for £1.50 and sell for £3, keeping the difference and working their way out of poverty. 2. If you cannot buy from a vendor, subscriptions to the magazine are available on a three, six or 12-month basis with a new edition…

5.6 million people have applied through the scheme Applications have surged to 10,000 to 12,000 per day in the days ahead of the deadline There is a backlog of 400,000 applications which may take until the end of the summer to process The Home Office has received 1.5 million helpline calls and 500,000 requests for online help (Source: Home Office) One in four people who reported problems had trouble viewing their status, according to preliminary ‘Report It’ findings by the3million One in five people who reported problems were asked for proof of their status when travelling or applying for a job (Source: the3million)…

When I was 24 I got my hands on a small 49cc moped and drove it at great speed around London and then up and down the Thames Valley. I went as far as Oxford, about 60 miles away, selling prints of the bridges of the River Thames taken from a book published in 1832. I had had the pages reproduced and printed and sold these framed in card. It was my second innovation as a publisher and one I enjoyed, especially the freedom of being on a little motor engine. Being able to zip wherever I wanted made me feel as free as a bird. Strangely this sense of freedom came back to me the other day when I witnessed a young man expressing the joy of whizzing along…

This week we have a novel by one of my favourite authors and another from a brand new voice who might well become a future fave. First up is ›e Night Always Comes by Willy Vlautin. This is the American author’s sixth novel, and personally I think his backlist contains some of the best books I’ve ever read. As well as being a writer, Vlautin was frontman for alternative country band Richmond Fontaine, and is now the creative driving force behind The Delines. Nis songwriting deals with the downtrodden underclasses of American society, and the way in which the so-called American dream is a bogus idea that hides a broken society for so many. Vlautin’s novels deal in similar terrain – I think of them like Tom Waits songs in…

Etta Lemon is the aptly named woman who built the RSPB. She was bitter in her opposition to the plumage trade; acid in her scorn for women’s vanity. Mrs Lemon’s attacks on “murderous millinery” – the Victorian and Edwardian fashion for elaborately plumed hats – were astringent. “A more ridiculous picture could scarcely be transmitted to future generations than a portrait of some of the huge hats, bristling with wings and tails, and flopping plumes of preposterous length, beneath which some women have been seen this year,” she wrote in her 1907 annual report for the RIPB. Ner colleagues called her ‘The Dragon’ – but to the public, she was simply ‘Mother of the Birds’. This bullish, determined yet essentially modest woman steered the fledgling RSPB from its all-female origins,…

A hand up... Our sellers BUY the magazine for £1.50 and sell it on for £3, keeping the difference. Not a handout… Vendors earn a legitimate income, and gain valuable social and employability skills. With your support, we can continue to help them now and in the future. The right to citizenship… The Big Issue Foundation, our charitable arm, helps sellers to 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.…