Innholdsfortegnelse for 2/26/2024 i The Big Issue

I’m a big fan of letters. One of the joys of being with Big Issue is that we still receive a lot of posted reader correspondence, either typed or handwritten. There is something very personal about handwritten letters. The idea of sitting down to physically make a mark and formulate thoughts, and then taking the time to go somewhere to have this delivered, establishes a connection that electronic correspondence can’t quite match. And there remains an element of excitement in receiving something through the post that is not a flyer for a miracle wifi service or a preordained Amazon package. It remains revelatory to read the letters of historical figures. Frequently real truths are presented that would otherwise be hidden or varnished. Shaun Usher’s Letters of Note collections are essential…

When George Anderson was struck down with pneumonia, his BBC ‘family’ jumped into action Long-time Big Issue vendor George Anderson has become a much-loved part of the community at the BBC’s Broadcasting House in London but he couldn’t believe what happened when he was forced off his pitch. Anderson was hospitalised between Christmas and New Year with pneumonia, leaving the pitch where he has sold the magazine to small-screen stars for nine years. Leila Mannish, a director on the BBC News channel and Newsnight, found out what had happened to George and started an online crowd-funder to help him cover his hostel rent fees while he recovers and cannot earn a living. Mannish even enlisted the help of BBC director general Tim Davie to mobilise staff in London and so…

Bert Hardy captured a side of Britain lost to time. The days you could carefreely perch on Blackpool’s seafront and not have to worry about flocks of divebombing seagulls. When a passing panda would offer to take a turn in goals. Born in Blackfriars, London, in 1913, Hardy was a self-taught photographer who documented four decades in the UK and beyond, from Blitz-battered streets to combat postings in Southeast Asia. It was his snapshots of everyday life that became his most famous photos. Above is a picture of Ming, a London Zoo panda, where, if there were no other stories to cover, Hardy would head with his son to take some pictures abetted by some zookeeper friends. Hardy died in 1995. A selection of his photographs, letters and diaries are…

I was a little bit wayward as a teenager. My friends from school always remember me having a bit of a biff and a boff. The Angel, Islington was pretty tough and rough back then. So you either went one way or the other. We were getting into a bit of skulduggery, but when it started getting too much, I thought, I can’t do this to my parents. So I had to extricate myself from the whole gang thing, and thank god, because loads of them ended up in borstal. When I found music, that was the massive change. I was 16 when we formed the band at Dame Alice Owen School. We were originally an R&B band, called The Cut, and would do songs like In the Midnight Hour…

I am at Slapstick Festival. Between talking to Tim Vine about his feature film about a giant moth and Sylvester McCoy discussing his career – from weasels down his trousers to Middle-earth, I walk a couple of miles to the Montpelier of Bristol. It is an area blooming with independent cafes and those shops where you are not quite sure what they sell but they smell beguiling and their windows are decorated with items that are “not for sale”. I could see Bagpuss opening a second shop here. The walls are ruddy with “Free Palestine” and “Ceasefire Now”. On the side of The People’s Republic of Stoke’s Croft, a line by George Carlin is painted in broad strokes, “Property is theft. Nobody owns anything. When you die, it all stays…

THOMAS OVEBRATTsells Faktumon Donsö Island, Gothenburg The first time I drank alcohol, I was seven years old. My little sister was only four. It was New Year’s Eve, we were at home in Lidköping, and my dad poured a glass for each of us. Dad was an alcoholic; he drank every day. I did well at school, until secondary school. In my seventh year, when we suddenly had new teachers for each subject, I lost focus. Things got messy. I spent the summer after year nine working to take care of my dad’s needs. By then, I had started drinking too. On weekends with friends, and on weekdays at home by myself. For 18 years, I ran my own business selling kitchen equipment at markets. The longest I was sober…

VENDOR WEEK How Big Issue has helped thousands work their way out of poverty. Leaders take note New figures show how Big Issue Group (BIG) has tackled the cost of living crisis head on by supporting thousands of people affected by poverty to earn and find employment in the last year. Almost 4,000 people were given the opportunity to change their lives through enterprise in the previous 12 months across the group’s services, including by selling the magazine or being helped into work through Big Issue Recruit (BIR). The figures, released as BIG puts the spotlight on vendors for National Vendor Week, show that the number of people the group has helped grew by 8% year-on-year as the cost of living crisis continued to bite. That work has resulted in…

A woundedness always haunts governments that are losing the contest for the popular vote. Hence the kybosh of current political leadership. A sense of unbelievability descends. Ministers who formerly could bat off the most difficult of interrogations fold once the governmental show to be empty of vitality. Gordon Brown swept into office having seen off all threats to his assuming the leadership of government once Blair had surrendered. Yet a few years later he left Number 10 like a wounded animal, empty, seemingly rundown, and unbelievable. Even though, possibly of all recent prime ministers, he was just the right and decisive one in the face of a global economic meltdown. Of course, he socialised the banks and made them no different from any other nationalised industry. And then he and…

For over three decades, Big Issue has provided employment opportunities for those on the margins. People often use selling magazines as a step up into other forms of work. Big Issue Recruit (BIR) was launched in 2022 to help even more people overcome barriers to employment. The launch coincided with a growing skills gap in the UK, with 531,200 skill-shortage vacancies in 2022, more than twice the corresponding number five years ago. BIR is tackling this by furnishing candidates with the right skills for the current labour market and seeking partners who want to work in innovative ways to fill vacancies. The job seeker is at the centre of everything and the service is free. Job coaches support candidates to become work ready, offering opportunities to build skills, confidence and…

John Malkovich is being John Malkovich. Speaking to The Big Issue from an immaculate suite, radiant in a white shirt, white V-neck and white jacket, he answers questions in a meandering drawl, simultaneously sounding bemused and confessional, playful and profound, in total control yet completely unpredictable. A prolific star of film and TV, Malkovich, 70, was born in Illinois and studied acting at Manhattan’s William Esper Studio. Now, he unpacks his French accent again for the latest prestige drama from Apple TV+. The New Look sketches the rivalry between Coco Chanel [Juliette Binoche] and Christian Dior [Ben Mendelsohn] against the suffocating and brutal occupation of Paris in the Second World War. Malkovich plays Lucien Lelong, leader of the most famous fashion house of the time who served as mentor not…

Eight respected female curators including Alexandra Steinacker-Clark, Jo McLaughlin, Lee Sharrock and Art on a Postcard founder Gemma Peppe present eight auctions for miniature postcard-sized original artworks by female artists, with 100% of money raised going to the Hepatitis C Trust. The auction spans two weeks, including International Women’s Day on 8 March, and the bidding starts at just £50. Proceeds from the auction donated to the Hepatitis C Trust will go specifically towards supporting the work they do with women affected by the criminal justice system, both in prison and local communities. The artwork pictured, titled Rose, is by Marina Dorgan, a Barcelona-based painter and illustrator whose work focuses on the essence of femininity. The auction is live from 27 February–12 March via The Auction Collective; artonapostcard.com The work…

REVIEW Sand and deliver This may not come as a complete surprise but as a kid I was a glasses-wearing sci-fi nerd who could not kick a ball to save my life. That means I did my Dune diligence a long time ago, reading Frank Herbert’s increasingly batty cycle of space opera novels as a young teen and then taking in the screen adaptations in probably the wrong order (first the spirited but shonky 2000 TV mini-series for the Sci-Fi Channel, then David Lynch’s ambitious but condensed 1984 film when it was a DVD giveaway with The Observer). While it would never be my specialist subject on Mastermind, the sandy contours of the story are familiar to me: in other words, I know my Arrakis from my Duncan Idaho. So…

PREVIEW Listen and be thankful The music I love can be divided pretty cleanly into two categories: accessible and instantly gratifying, or reciprocal; the kind of music that offers a return in proportion to how much time and attention you’re willing to give it. During the UK’s Covid lock-down in 2020 I lost a lot of my freelance work and found that using the spare hours I’d gained to sit with the albums that required me to put some effort in was not only a good use of my time, but a godsend for my mental health. When Floating Points’ beautiful collaborative album with Pharoah Sanders and the London Symphony Orchestra, Promises, started to gain huge amounts of attention upon its release the following year, I realised I wasn’t the…

OUR BUDGET WISHLIST The spring budget presents the Chancellor of the Exchequer with two exciting opportunities. They can drink alcohol at the dispatch box if they choose, and they can reshape the British economy through their policies. In recent years, they have done neither. Tipping into a recession at the end of 2023, the British economy is in a perilous state, keenly felt by those in poverty. Inflation and interest rates remain high; shopping and borrowing is expensive. Housing is scarce, and public services are on their knees. Fundamental change is likely only to come with a new parliament, whether that’s a new party in office, or the same party with a fresh mandate. In the meantime, even long-announced policies are floundering, like the mythical ban on Section 21 evictions.…

Get in touch The Big Issue, 2nd floor, 43 Bath Street, Glasgow G2 1HW letters@bigissue.com @bigissue /bigissueUK @bigissueuk @thebigissue Big thanks Just to say, from an organisation working closely with asylum seekers in Belfast and the rest of Northern Ireland, we have noticed and very much appreciated your work highlighting the impact of Home Office policies in causing homelessness among newly recognised refugees and refused asylum seekers. Just finished reading this one of yours online [How the UK is going backwards on immigrant rights] – so clear and persuasive. I’ve sent it around our organisers to share with the people they’re working with, both from the refugee community and the wider homeless community here. Their issues are converging, and your work helps them to understand each other – makes building…

REVIEWS Finding agency in a patriarchy Its title may be Mrs Gulliver but – set on tropical ‘Verona Island’ and with epigraphs from Romeo and Juliet – Valerie Martin’s new book owes more to Shakespeare than Swift. In this hymn to carnality, the not-so-star-crossed lovers are Carità, a blind prostitute, and Ian Drohan, the rebellious son of a judge, determined to save her. All the harbingers of doom are present – an impetuous killing, a banishment, a priest, a dose of belladonna – yet the narrative arc bends towards the happy-ever-after of The Tempest. Like Property – Martin’s Orange Prize-winning novel about a southern belle on a Louisiana sugar plantation – this book is about inequality of power. Mrs Gulliver started her career in a whorehouse known as The Tackle…