Innholdsfortegnelse for 21-11-2016 i The Big Issue

Fish are far from the unfeeling, dead-eyed feeding machines we assume them to be. They are, in fact, sentient, aware, social and even Machiavellian – in other words, rather like us. A few years ago, a biologist diving off the Micronesian coast of Pulau filmed a male orange-dotted tuskfish doing something distinctly unfishlike. The foot-long fish uncovered a clam from beneath the sand, picked it up in his mouth, and carried it about 30 metres to a large rock. There, the tuskfish used the rock as an anvil to smash the unfortunate mollusc open for eating, deploying a series of well-timed head flicks and releases. It was hailed as the first filming of tool-use by fishes. Even though fishes of various kinds have probably practised the art for thousands or…

“Along, long slog” is how Kit Harington described the experience of filming The Battle of the Bastards, the spectacular penultimate episode of Game of Thrones’ sixth series. Broadcast earlier this year, it saw Harington’s Jon Snow and Ramsay Bolton’s armies finally square off in the shadow of Winterfell. Here, we have Snow gasping for breath in the thick of the battle as Bolton’s men close in from every angle in a pincer-like circle of shields. According to director Miguel Sapochnik, this scene was inspired by Alexander the Great’s fourth and final major victory in the Battle of Hydaspes in 326 BC. Nothing about Game of Thrones is less than epic. This hour-long episode was Game of Thrones at its finest. A cast of hundreds, a budget of millions, explosive set…

Once upon a time social enterprises were the Cinderellas of the business world, purveyors of products bought by do-gooders as token gestures. But a booming generation of entrepreneurs across the UK are creating a thriving marketplace for bright ideas, goods and services that also help change society for the better. When John Bird launched a magazine to be sold by homeless people on the streets of London in 1991, the phrase ‘social enterprise’ barely existed. In 2016 social enterprise is one of the hottest trends in the commercial landscape, with 70,000 organisations operating in a diverse range of fields using trade to tackle social problems. They make money from selling goods and services in the open market, and reinvest their profits back into the business or the local community. And…

“I am a man, she is a woman. I am around twice her age. And we still get exactly the same treatment?” A few weeks ago I was queuing at the pharmacy to pick up a box of Tylenol for my back pain. In front of me stood a young woman. I couldn’t avoid hearing her asking for a painkiller for her backache. The pharmacists gave her a pack of Tylenol, to be taken two tablets every six hours. Now it was my turn. By pure chance, the same problem, same recommendation, same drug, same dosage. Does this not sound strange to you? I am a man, she is a woman. I am around twice her age and have probably over 30 per cent more body mass and we still…

A United Kingdom is the true-life story of an African prince who fell in love with a British secretary in the late 1940s. David Oyelowo is Seretse Khama, heir to the throne of Bechuanaland (then a British protectorate, now Botswana) who has swapped his tribal homeland in southern Africa for dingy digs as a law student in London. Rosamund Pike is Ruth, a young woman who works in a civil service typing pool and still lives in her family’s modest terraced house. They meet in the sedate surroundings of a Christian fellowship dance, and pretty soon are conducting a chaste romance revolving around swapped LPs, swing-time dances and moonlit walks. Thus begins A United Kingdom, unfurling for the first 10 or so minutes with a sweeping sense of period romance…

“This service restores the hope, dignity, respect and justice every human deserves” Last week a service was held at St Martin-in-the-Fields to remember the 160 homeless people who died in London in the last year. The names of people who had died while sleeping rough, or in hostels, were read out and there were performances by Streetwise Opera and the Choir with No Name. The Rev Richard Carter, who led the service, said: “The length of the list powerfully symbolises the struggles for many in London today, how easy it is to become homeless, and how incredibly difficult it is to find an affordable home or room. This service remembers all those who have died homeless, and those to whom we long to restore the hope and dignity, respect and…

SUNNY BY CHRIS BIRD AND MINA BOROMAND Chris, who submits this artwork in collaboration with his partner Mina, is a regular contributor to Street Art and wrote to The Big Issue to say: “I am very grateful to you for featuring my art and poetry. You helped me a lot. I wanted to let you know that, partly as a result of your outstanding compassion and support, I am participating in a group exhibition at St Pancras Hospital in north London. I was in a unit here before.” The exhibition titled The Shapes and Lines of Beauty runs until January 19 at The Conference Centre Gallery in St Pancras Hospital. OIL PAINTING BY GERALDINE CRIMMINS “I have been homeless twice in the last 15 years living on the streets around…

Is Jeremy Corbyn the weirdest man in politics? Or just the most honest? Perhaps being so honest about himself is precisely what makes him seem weird in the murky shadow-world of Westminster. There is zero choreography about the Labour leader. I go to see him speak at a TUC event one Saturday morning in London. The chairperson has to stretch out his introduction to the stage to a truly awkward extent because he hasn’t turned up on time. Eventually, he walks through the doors of the auditorium in trademark crumpled suit and wanders onstage with as much fanfare as a parish vicar about to deliver his Sunday sermon. After the speech has ended he wanders off again, almost aimlessly. There are no security teams or bag-carriers. He exits the room…

Entries for The Big Issue’s 2016 Christmas Cover Competition are pouring in to our offices, with an avalanche of glittery snowmen, cheery Santas, red-nosed reindeer and ginger cats piling up through our letterbox. But the clock is ticking and there is now only one week left to enter. It’s a great way for schools to talk about issues and get creative – or for grandparents, parents and guardians to keep kids occupied. Entries can be anything – drawings, paintings, crayons and digital creations – and the winner’s picture will be the cover of our big festive issue on December 12. It’s open to anyone aged 13 and under. Last year Children’s Laureate and illustrator Chris Riddell shared his top tips on how to get started with your drawing, with his…

Pushkin Press continues to enlighten English speakers with extraordinary work, most recently from pioneering children’s author Astrid Lindgden, peerless Russian diarist Teffi, and the audacious Arthur Schnitzler. With the first English translation of 1947 Dutch masterpiece The Evenings, by the out-of-time, out-of-step gay Catholic convert Gerard Reve, it makes perhaps its most crucial contribution yet to bringing quietened, radical non-English voices into the open. Reve’s debut doesn’t have the mainstream-baiting sensationalism of his later, sex and religion-focused, work. But it’s debatable whether he ever wrote anything better. Trying to sum up the rare quality of this novel in a few hundred words is akin to tossing off a pithy one-liner on Karl Ove Knausgård’s six-volume opus My Struggle. Comparisons to that chronicle of domestic minutiae are actually rather neat; much…

“The wave is coming. When it hits us, we will be dashed, flippers flailing” While I was watching Planet Earth II, marvelling over some chinstrap penguins being slammed at full force into volcanic rock by an unforgiving, violent wave, I thought – it’ll soon be Christmas. Just like a penguin in a rip tide, there’s nothing you can do about it. You are not evolved enough to defeat it. You have no surfboard, no boat, no private helicopter. Just ill thought-out little flippers that will flap weakly through tins of Roses, weeding out the coffee creams, while Love Actually is on for the 50 bajillionth time. Still, I look forward to it in a perverse way. No having to pretend you’ve seen stuff on Netflix, no need to hone witty…

Leonardo DiCaprio called in for lunch with some Big Issue vendors in Edinburgh last week. The Oscar-winning heartthrob dined at Home, a restaurant run by Social Bite, which offers training and work to homeless people. Former Big Issue vendors Colin Childs (far left) and Sonny Murray (far right) prepared DiCaprio’s lunch, a “posh macaroni and cheese”. Murray said: “I caught him checking himself out in the mirror.” DiCaprio follows George Clooney, who stopped traffic in the Scottish capital last year when he also dropped into Social Bite.…

We all dream of jetting off to warmer climes in the winter but the Arctic tern takes that to record-breaking extremes. In July 2007, biologist Carsten Egevang attached locators the weight of a paperclip to 50 terns before they left their breeding grounds in Greenland. Ten returned the following summer carrying data showing that, on average, they had flown 70,900 kilometres from an island in the Arctic to sea ice off Antarctica and back. It was the longest animal migration ever recorded, nearly doubling previous estimates for the species. The record stood for four years until five terns tagged by a Dutch team travelled an average distance of 90,000 kilometres. This map shows four birds, two from each dataset. For both groups, the southbound trip took three to four months.…

Last week President Obama tried and failed to reassure the world its established order would not be turned upside down by a Donald Trump presidency. “I don’t think he is ideological,” said Obama. “I think ultimately he’s pragmatic… and that can serve him well as long as he’s got good people around him.” Obama sounded as though he was struggling to convince himself that Trump – an angry whirlwind of convention-breaking behaviour and bad juju – might finally be tamed by the demands of the highest office in the land. In his post-election statements Obama has desperately clung to the idea of an underlying “continuity” in the democratic system. But the rise of the populist outsider across the US and Europe has left many wondering how stable western democracy is.…

1. THE DARK HEDGES One of the most picturesque landmarks in Northern Ireland, the stunning stretch of 300-year-old beech trees are said to be haunted by the Grey Lady who comes out at dusk. Ever since this otherworldly stretch became the ‘King’s Road’ in series two, where Arya Stark fled King’s Landing with Yoren, Gendry and Hot Pie, the country road is now littered with visitors all day, every day – and it’s little surprise that the tourism board is pushing to restrict, or close, access to traffic. 2. CASTLE WARD This 18th-century, 332-hectare National Trust property is found in the stunning County Down countryside, and is a stone’s throw from the burial place of the Irish patron saint. Beyond the castle walls, you can easily take in the scenic…

It’s only 13 months until Christmas 2017 but in the meantime you can occupy yourself with getting into a panic about everything you still need to do for Christmas 2016. There is so much Christmas to choose from this week. First up, Christmas At Kew (November 23–January 2, Kew, London; kew.org) sees one of the capital’s most ornate gardens get into the festival spirit with tunnels of light and lasers illuminating the ground, putting this display somewhere between horticulture and a polite rave. Winterfest: Christmas Arts and Crafts (November 26 & 27, Nottingham; whatsonatthoresby.co.uk) has, well, arts and crafts for those of you who like to get your shopping done early or in one fell swoop. See jewellery, glass, pottery, woodwork and art from local makers. For the yule hat-trick,…

I was born here in England but my family moved to Canada when I was young. I was there for about 30 years, before I moved to London in the mid-’90s. There are a million reasons people become homeless. For me it was quite complicated, one thing after another in quick succession. In a short time I went from having a job and a flat to sleeping in a churchyard and being isolated from family who I was too embarrassed to ask for help. The main thing is what happened next – I steadily worked myself out of homelessness with the opportunity The Big Issue gave me. I found that as well as putting some money in my pocket, it gave me my self-respect and confidence back. I was chosen…