Innholdsfortegnelse for 7/24/2023 i The Big Issue

To me, the mural in Shoreditch is an extraordinary statement. It is one of the finest pieces of outdoor art I have ever seen. It is big and bold and red and takes over a side of a biggish building. And what it celebrates is The Big Issue and our vendors who are like small shops, selling their product, but out in the street. I was not involved in its creation and was astonished to find it so big and bold when last week I went to look at it. Around the corner was the Jealous Gallery where we had an event. The artist My Dog Sighs was doing a show of prints for The Big Issue. It was a brilliant, jazzy, (am I allowed to say sexy?) evening where…

Nine years ago, Jason Williamson was working as a benefits adviser. He’d seen the effects of changes brought in by the coalition government, and had tried to help people how he could. But in 2014, aged 43, the success of his band allowed him to quit. He’s half of Sleaford Mods, along with bearded beatmaker Andrew Fearn. His lyrics, delivered with East Midlands venom, take aim at the grim state of the country, the failings of politicians, class, benefits, and beyond. It’s music chronicling the state we’re in, and it’s not always pretty. Fast-forward to July 2023. With three top 10 albums under their belt and a reputation as outspoken, debauched stalwarts of the music landscape, Williamson and Fearn are at a sold-out Wembley Stadium in London, about to support…

REVIEWS A tortuous trip to see the in-laws As an author who’s always trying to write different books to those I’ve produced before, I’m constantly impressed by writers who effortlessly pull off this kind of thing. This week we have two great examples. First up is one of my favourite writers, Megan Abbott. Abbott started her career writing in the vein of classic noir, before moving on to a hugely successful spell writing contemporary thrillers revolving around teenage girls. Her terrific Dare Me, about the passions and dangers of cheerleading, was made into a fantastic television series, which has led her into even more success as a screenwriter. But she has returned to fiction with Beware the Woman, a novel which could easily fit into the psychological horror genre. The…

A few times a year, I go away with my cousin Bruce on a walking weekend. We pick an area where there’s plenty of shaded woods, coastal paths and undulating hills and just get at it for a couple of days. Both of us live and work in cities and we find it helps to get out of the buzz, noise and pollution once in a while. We are dads with bills to worry about, kids to feed and deadlines to hit. Like everyone else, life gets on top of us. Sometimes we must run away from it for 48 hours. But boutique hotels or luxury spas just seem like throwing good money after bad. A cheap Airbnb in the middle of nowhere offers better value. Nature is good for…

HOUSING Renters could face eviction every 15 minutes this summer Thousands of renters will face a no-fault eviction over the summer after MPs went on recess without debating the Renters Reform Bill, campaigners have warned. The Renters Reform Bill, billed as a “once in a generation” shake-up of housing laws by the government, was introduced to Parliament in May but a second reading will not take place until after MPs return in the autumn. Generation Rent estimated that there will be one no-fault eviction claim made almost every 15 minutes over the six-week summer holiday. Ben Twomey, chief executive of Generation Rent, said: “Despite promising four years ago to outlaw arbitrary evictions, the government has failed to table the second reading of the Renters Reform Bill. We are now seeing…

Get in touch The Big Issue, 2nd floor, 43 Bath Street, Glasgow G2 1HW letters@bigissue.com @bigissue /bigissueUK @bigissueuk @thebigissue Cause for thought On spending £100,000 [Issue 1572, 10 July], I would use it to fund a counsellor to visit those with severe ME/CFS in their own homes. The charity that did this for my child, ME North East, folded just before Covid. They have had the last eight years of their teenage and young adult life shut in with few visitors and no services coming to the house. Like many others in the same situation, they are abandoned. Carrie McCulloch This may not be exactly the answer you’re looking for but if I had it, I’d give £100,000 to MVM (Make Votes Matter). The only way to get real change…

I’d left school by the time I was 16. I went to an academy because my brother went to one and I thought I’d be letting the family down if I didn’t go, but they taught me nothing. I was really interested in art and music, but they wouldn’t let me near the piano. So I left at 15 and got an apprenticeship at 16 at the National Engineering Laboratory in East Kilbride with a view to becoming an engineer. Because that was a proper job. My dad was a van driver all his life, so it was instilled in my brother and I that we get proper jobs; a trade, a skill. So it was music at the weekends and filing, turning and milling during the week. It was…

NINETIES REVIVAL Britpop’s returning heroes remain a different class There was a joyous moment at one of Blur’s two Wembley Stadium shows earlier this month, when frontman Damon Albarn and guitarist Graham Coxon shared a cheeky kiss on the lips between songs. A slightly oversentimental show of unity, perhaps. But as plain and earnest proof as you could hope to witness that the heart of one of Britain’s greatest ever bands has healed after so much bad blood, and that Blur’s happy resumption of business can be celebrated without cynicism. The second summer of Britpop, as some have dubbed it – with three of the era’s four biggest artists back on the road at the same time – is proving nothing if not emotional. Blur have performed their biggest-ever gigs,…

DANIEL WILLIAMS, 47 I’ve been selling The Big Issue since it started but I’ve been selling it on and off. I’ve only just come back about five months ago. It was the cost of living that brought me back this time. I just couldn’t make my benefit go far enough to keep electricity on the meter and food in the cupboard. I can ask my family for help with the cost of living but at the same time my father’s a retired blind veteran so he’s not really able to help. And most of my siblings are on benefits so I guess they’re not in a position to help me. So it was either go back to selling The Big Issue or sit on the street begging. And I know…

There was a question about it in Parliament, at PMQs. The question came from the former business secretary, Jacob Rees-Mogg. It was a question about that most important of national issues, Nigel Farage’s bank account. Farage’s account was recently shut by the high-end bank Coutts. They said his views “do not align” with their values. Farage is raging. He’s claiming all manner of dark goings on. He has some well-placed allies. As well as Rees-Mogg taking up parliamentary time, in the midst of a period of financial turmoil for millions of people and a potentially catastrophic environmental change, to ask a question of the PM on behalf of a pal, there was also public support from home secretary Suella Braverman. She tweeted about ‘sinister’ forces. Barely a heartbeat ago, Braverman…

SCHOOL HOLIDAYS School’s out! Since the end of June, Scottish kids have been free of the shackles of homework. Now, all across the UK children are ready for a summer of play. As lovely as it might be to have them home, parents know the drill. Entertaining them for six weeks is a challenge. And you have to do it without breaking the bank. In the cost of living crisis, it is harder than ever. The lifeline of free school meals and childcare is ripped away for many families. It means more mouths to feed when grocery shopping has never been more expensive, and finding childcare when you can’t afford to take the time off work. A place at a holiday club now costs an average of £157 a week,…

Carmen is a tale as old as gender politics: man falls for woman, woman prefers other man, first man gets jealous, kills woman. She first appeared in an 1845 novella by Prosper Mérimée but became an icon thanks to Georges Bizet’s dada-da-DA opera, which scandalised audiences when it premiered in Paris in 1875. Since then, the story has been reimagined scores of times, shifting to reflect the anxieties of the age. Carmen started as a gypsy working in a Seville cigarette factory, moved to making parachutes in the World War II-set Carmen Jones with its groundbreaking all-black cast. Rita Hayworth played her as a peasant in The Loves of Carmen; a 19-year-old Beyoncé made her film debut in Carmen: A Hip Hopera, where this time she’s a struggling actress who…

OPINION How I learned to start worrying and love activism As much of the world roasts under record-melting temperatures, it’s easy to think there’s not much you can do about it. That’s what filmmaker Josh Appignanesi thought too… It’s not like I didn’t know the world was ending. It’s not as if no one told me about the mass extinctions, the droughts, the wildfires, the pandemics. I’m assuming you might have heard about them too. Yet somehow there I was, somehow too absorbed in everyday life (read: the everyday destruction of our entire environment) to do anything much about it. It’s not like I was even unaware of the irony. But my cognitive dissonance was registered via the odd dinner party joke, and that was about it. We know that…