Innholdsfortegnelse for 28-11-2016 i The Big Issue

WE BELIEVE in a hand up, not a handout... Which is why our sellers BUY every copy of the magazine for £1.50 and sell it for £3. WE BELIEVE in trade, not aid… Which is why we ask you to ALWAYS take your copy of the magazine. Our sellers are working and need your custom. WE BELIEVE poverty is indiscriminate… Which is why we provide ANYONE whose life is blighted by poverty with the opportunity to earn a LEGITIMATE income. WE BELIEVE in the right to citizenship… Which is why The Big Issue Foundation, our charitable arm, helps sellers tackle social and financial exclusion. WE BELIEVE in prevention… Which is why Big Issue Invest offers backing and investments to social enterprises, charities and businesses which deliver social value to communities.…

There’s no money left. Again. Six years after George Osborne told us it was going to hurt a bit as he would spend five years balancing the books, we’re told it’s not going to happen. National debt is accelerating. A balance will come. Eventually. When? Soon. SOON! WHAT?! Some of the cash Philip Hammond is borrowing is for infrastructure development. It’s not clear what this means but it sounds like a useful £23bn. Still, that’s not going to fix everything. Remember that load we gave the banks back in 2008. It caused a big hole in the public money bucket that hasn’t been filled in yet. It was essential, or we all might be scraping sticks together in a cave; but perhaps the repayment bit should have been more clearly…

BAD NEWS Office of Budget Responsibility revealed Brexit vote will cost £58BN over the next five years. Economy set to grow by only 1.4% in 2017, down from 2.2% previously predicted. GOOD NEWS Government bans letting fees charged to tenants in a bid to help Generation Rent. New £2.3BN fund for housing infrastructure aimed at helping to deliver 100,000 new homes. New National Savings & Investments bond available from spring 2017. Government needs to borrow £122BN more than expected to fill black hole in budget.…

No, it’s not Santa Claus. Pictured above is Ralph Church, a Big Issue vendor on the south coast of England – and now a husky-driver in the Nordic wilderness. A popular fixture in Torquay, Ralph had worked hard selling the magazine and by Christmas 2014 had saved £1000 to buy a boat for himself and his beloved dog Jess to live on, his “dream come true”. But last November Jess was killed in a road accident close to his pitch. Ralph was devastated and overwhelmed. “It was a difficult time,” he admits. “I loved her. Everybody loved her. She was the perfect dog. “I found myself at a very loose end and was wondering what direction I should take next. Then I spotted an advert for help driving huskies in…

1. VILLETTE Charlotte Brontë Brontë’s last novel is at least as good as Jane Eyre. Lucy Snowe, its heroine, is a “bottled storm” of desire and passion. The writing itself is fierce and lovely: it glows. 2. THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD Zora Neale Hurston Janie Crawford is a black woman living in Florida in the early 20th century. In her own words, she chronicles a lifelong search for love and freedom. This book is so alive it practically vibrates. 3. OUR SPOONS CAME FROM WOOLWORTHS Barbara Comyns This 1950 novel boasts a plucky protagonist and the most harrowing depiction of medicalised childbirth I’ve ever read. Plus, like every Comyns novel, it’s a peculiar delight. 4. MATILDA Roald Dahl In the words of my seven-year-old: “Matilda is a story about…

Brought to book Well done John Bird for bringing to this government’s attention the urgent need to save our libraries and independent bookshops. He is correct in saying that these must be saved, to reverse decline in literacy standards in schools and improve the poor literacy rates of the nation. Let’s hope that The Big Issue literacy campaign saves the closures of these valuable assets for ordinary working people, especially the young. Andy Scott, email Celebrating vendors We were so happy to be visiting the UK. We were walking through, I think, St Christopher’s, and went to use the public facilities. Someone kindly offered to give us the 50p so we could enter. We realised she was a Big Issue vendor. When we finished we went back and got a…

Is there any relationship between the fact that recently Govia, the management company who run my local railway company, fails again and again by cutting services, and Tony Blair’s invasion of Iraq? Or is that just some silly, spurious yoking of two unconnected things together to make some dumb point like, “The world is going down the tubes. From the leafy rail lines of Hertfordshire to the cities overrun by murderous ISIL and now being, hopefully, recaptured; the direct result of the Blair-Bush invasion.” Monty Python, which should be a part of our school and university curriculum and is probably the profoundest that thinking ever gets in our sceptred isles, asks these kind of at-times unrelated questions. Thus in one spoof programme they asked the TV and studio audience about…

“I’ve lived a parallel life,” Ronnie O’Sullivan says. “People have seen the story with the snooker but they haven’t realised what’s really gone on.” O’Sullivan has been hailed the most naturally gifted snooker player of all time so often it’s become a cliché. But equally as famous as The Rocket’s prolific potting is the love/hate relationship he has with the game. It’s a subtle affair – sometimes he loves to hate it, but at the moment it feels like he hates to love it. He said last month he is “not good enough” to compete at the top level, then quickly proved himself wrong by reaching the final of the Champion of Champions tournament in Coventry. Back in the 1990s, O’Sullivan’s talent on the table was matched only by his…

Photographer Lee Jeffries has assembled an incredible collection of powerful portraits of homeless people across Europe and the US. For Christmas, he is teaming up with Julia Bradbury, M&C Saatchi and us at The Big Issue to launch an exhibition of his work. Opening on December 7, at M&C Saatchi in Soho, it will run until January 3. Prints are available to buy, with 10 per cent of every sale going to The Big Issue. Julia will host a Q&A with Lee on December 7. If you want to buy a print but can’t make the exhibition (which is by appointment) visit: thefrenchartstudio.com…

Thank you for your article about saving our libraries. My ballet company [above] has been performing in London libraries for 10 years now and I think they are a fantastic, often undervalued asset to our communities. We recently did a children’s literacy project and the libraries could not have been more enthusiastic to have us perform in their spaces (despite the obvious logistical problems of making room for 14 dancers and hundreds of audience members!). Libraries are amazing social and educational hubs with leaders and staff who are keen to innovate and are open to new ideas. I hope the government will see that we cannot afford to lose them! Natalie Krapf, email…

Big-hearted Big Issue vendor Kevin Collick raised more than £5,000 for this year’s Children in Need appeal. The popular Winchester man hit the huge sum last week when he donated all his takings on Children in Need day and also fundraised for the charity. A local branch of Santander agreed to match what he raised – doubling his £2,500 to the £5K total. “I’ve had a lot of support over the years, so I thought I’d give something back,” a delighted Kevin said modestly. His good deeds saw him immortalised in oil. Lucy McLoughlin, a Live Event Artist, painted Kevin as he worked, dressed as a Christmas tree.…

KING OF MADNESS BY ANTONY PYE Antony suffers from psychosis and was homeless for a long period of time after being kicked out of his parents’ house. After staying in different places, including a tent, a boat and a garden shed, he has a flat of his own. “I do not want anybody experiencing what I had to,” he says, “I want to help those who are in need by the distribution of survival goods, starting off with blankets – with art on them.” TWINS BY JOHN SHEEHY An exhibition of artwork by regular Street Art contributor John Sheehy has opened at Outpost on Holloway Road in London. A partnership with Crisis and Mind Islington, the exhibition is titled No Time for Tears and will run until January 31. “The…

“I met Stevie Wonder when he was eight, playing bongos on waste baskets” The first thing I would say to myself at 16 years old is to ask if my daddy might let me stay out a little bit later. Living in my father’s house we had rules. Momma would remind me, being the oldest girl of 12 children, that I would have to study hard, and that I would have to do my housework before I could go out for recreation or leisure. My biggest thrill was singing, and going to a neighbourhood house, where Mrs Rogers would let us sing and teach us how to walk on stage and how to carry a microphone and sing with a big band because her sons were musicians. So it would…

There are so many myths about the relationship between homeless people and their animal companions, says Wendy Kruger, dog behaviour specialist with animal charity Wood Green… “Some people assume that if someone is struggling to cope with their own living circumstances they won’t be able to give the right care to a dog but they couldn’t be more wrong. “We recognise that dogs looked after by Big Issue vendors are often the luckiest of all: they have 24-hour contact, an unbreakable bond with their owner and are always well looked after. “In my experience, dogs in that situation are really easy going – nothing seems to bother them and that’s because they’re living in a changing environment. That nomadic lifestyle really suits a dog’s natural behaviour – their daily life…

Last Sunday marked the start of Advent, so I feel I can officially say we’re now into the festive season. Christmas aside, though, festive is just what it’ll be in east London next week, with the week-long Spitalfields Music Winter Festival beginning on December 4. Spitalfields’ biannual festival specialises in Early and New music – not to mention its excellent outreach work – and the two are closely intertwined next week in and around the Shoreditch area. Spitalfields Music is celebrating its 40th birthday this year, and the headline act of the Winter Festival is also marking a significant milestone: pianist Melvyn Tan, who turned 60 this year, is in recital on December 6. Tan is best known as a period instrument specialist but he is equally at ease with…