Innholdsfortegnelse for November 23, 2015 i The Big Issue

WE BELIEVE in a hand up, not a handout... Which is why our sellers BUY every copy of the magazine from us for £1.50 and sell it on to you for £3. In this way we have helped hundreds of thousands of people to take control of their lives since 1991 and in the process created a global blueprint for social change. WE BELIEVE in trade, not aid... Which is why we ask that you ALWAYS take your copy of the magazine – it’s a bloody good read and 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…

I like the word of the year announcement. Every winter Oxford Dictionaries reveal a word they believe sums up the year. It’s a constant, a calendar appointment and a fine indicator of how we live now. That is until this year’s. I am angry about this year’s word. It’s not a word, it’s a symbol. The word of the year is emoji. Or to be more precise, a particular emoji – this one: Being of the modern world, you of course know well that this means ‘Face with Tears of Joy’. Whilst that may sound like the final line of profound haiku, it’s not. It’s a symbol, a picture that allows such open interpretation that the reader imposes their own nuance and meaning on it. Being charitable, you could genuinely…

As part of a global weekend of action ahead of next month’s UN climate conference in Paris, thousands of people will take part in Scotland’s Climate March on November 28 in Edinburgh. The following day the People’s March will take place in London. Our united voice will be a force that politicians at the UN conference, and back in our home countries, cannot ignore. Whatever climate deal is agreed, countries will need to translate their promises into concrete action. Next year’s Holyrood elections will be crucial in making sure Scotland plays its part. That means getting serious about transport. Transport accounts for a quarter of Scotland’s greenhouse gas emissions, yet car traffic on our roads hasn’t changed in five years. People leaving the car at home to walk, cycle and…

At 16 a great awakening took place in me. It was quite wonderful and made me immensely happy. I was the son of a coal miner in Goldthorpe, Yorkshire. My dad was a wonderful man, a heroic man. He got rid of 17 tonnes a day in the coal mines. And he played cricket for Yorkshire on the weekends. We lived in happy times. We’d won the war. As I went through my teenage years I realised I could be a man. That meant I could be an actor if I wanted to. Amateur theatre was very powerful in South Yorkshire at that time and I suddenly realised there was a possibility of drama school, even for the son of a coal miner. It was a miracle. I could do…

The Big Issue believes empty buildings offer a great chance to increase housing supply. We want to see the following: • More support and funding for community-led empty homes projects. • More public bodies engaging with community projects ready and willing to make the most of empty buildings. • More homeless people getting the chance to work on refurbishment projects. Britain also needs new ideas. Please get in touch and tell us your own suggestions for transforming empty buildings in your town or city. Contact editorial@bigsissue.com or tweet @bigissue…

More than 15,000 young people will have nowhere to live this Christmas. Sadly, this figure is growing all the time. Centrepoint, the UK's leading charity for homeless young people aged 16 to 25, are working all-year round to change this - and the good news is that you can help. The charity helps 8,400 homeless young people a year, finding them accommodation. Since 1969 they've helped more than 100,000 young people to get their lives back on track. However, securing a safe bed for the night is only a small part of Centrepoint's work. The charity also supports young people to help them overcome abuse or traumas , and teaches basic life skills so they can live independent lives. To help them build a brighter future, Centrepoint also offers vital…

Twenty-five years after the first Sandman comic by Neil Gaiman, the master of macabre has released a deluxe edition of The Sandman: Overture. Fan faves will appear, including Merv Pumpkinhead, The Corinthian, and Death, Desire, Despair, Delirium, Destruction and Destiny. The latest Sandman Gallery Edition is also out next month. This one features a compilation of drawings from the very first issue. The illustrations, by artists including Sam Kieth and Mike Dringenberg, will be reproduced in their original size on heavy paper. Sandman: Overture Deluxe Edition is out now; The Sandman Gallery Edition is out Dec 9. vertigocomics.com…

I was invited to suggest ‘five books every child should read before they turn 12’. As a typical American, I immediately felt stifled by British rule and inclined to belligerent disobedience. Couldn’t be helped. Sorry, it’s what we do. 1. ONE FISH, TWO FISH, RED FISH, BLUE FISH Dr Seuss (age 0-1) Fun matters. Dr Seuss changed the way we write for children, and his silly rhymes and crazy pictures have made readers of countless kids. 2. HAROLD AND THE PURPLE CRAYON Crockett Johnson (age 2-3) Good books inspire clever young minds, and Harold is the poster child for creativity. 3. THE PAPER BAG PRINCESS Robert Munsch (age 4-5) Great books empower kids to think for themselves. Munsch reminds young readers that stereotypes don’t define them. 4. WINNIE-THE-POOH AA Milne…

Filming has begun on The Office spin-off, David Brent: Life on the Road. Ricky Gervais is writing, directing and starring in the film, which lands in UK cinemas next summer. Val Kilmer, meanwhile, has confused fans by implying on Facebook that he’d star in Top Gun 2. But after it went viral he admitted the post had been “an innocent mistake” and that he may have “jumped the gun”, as it were. In bizarre remake news, Christopher Nolan’s classic film Memento, which dates back to 2000, is getting remade. For no obvious reason other than banknotes. No film-makers are, wisely, attached thus far. The title of Ridley Scott’s Prometheus sequel has changed again. It’s now Alien: Covenant, and the film is due in cinemas in October 2017. The X-Men spin-off…

Save arguably for the representative of Jesus Christ on Earth – and more on him in a bit – who could release an album of greater global significance right now than Adele? The London soul-pop singer’s third set, 25, is the follow-up to 2011’s 30-million selling 21 – the fourth biggest-selling British album of all time and practically the singlehanded saviour of flagging music industries on both sides of the Atlantic. For feverous anticipation, it has more in common with the launch of a new Apple product than anything else in the pop sphere. In unit-shifting terms, Taylor Swift, Beyoncé nor One Direction can hold a candle to the Tottenham girl with the voice of liquid gold. Can a record of such titanic expectation possibly live up to the hype?…

When in Rome… We have been very moved by the account of Marc’s interview with Pope Francis [November 9-15]. We were in Rome last week and were amazed and delighted to see that the colonnades around St Peter’s Square accommodate a number of homeless people each night. In attendance, parked in the square, are two first aid vehicles, while soup/ food is being distributed and taken to those already settled for the night. Importantly, there is human contact and interaction. Pope Francis has recently made-over premises as a shelter for homeless people, having previously installed showers, sinks and toilets, as well as the services of a barber around the Vatican. When he was elected, one of his fellow cardinals said to him: “Remember the poor.” He does! Frances McLean, email…

ARTY PARTY’S BIG ISSUE FESTIVE GIVEAWAY Ten artists – including Turner Prize nominee Jim Lambie (pictured) – will turn vendors into art dealers next month, by secretly placing individual works of art into random copies of The Big Issue. In a Willy Wonka-esque golden ticket-style extravaganza, 150 lucky people who buy the December 14 issue of the magazine in Glasgow and Edinburgh will find individual prints from internationally renowned artist Lambie inside. A troupe of Scots-based artists will also create exclusive individual pieces which they will either insert into copies or use the magazine as a canvas. Marvin Gaye Chetwynd, Kevin Harman, Sarah Muirhead, Ross Sinclair, Rachel Maclean, Alex Allan, Hanna Tuulikki, Scott Hutchison and Scotland’s Makar and Poet Laureate, Liz Lochhead were enlisted by Edinburgh-based artistic collective and revolutionary…

I bought a Hermione Granger wand the other day for £34 at the Harry Potter shop at King’s Cross station. The shop was packed. Outside a luggage trolley disappears into the wall and a ceaseless number of people line up to have their photograph taken, in imitation of something that Harry did at the end of the last century. The wand is a decorated piece of toughened plastic presumably made as far away from the marketplace as possible, meaning that its costs with regard to wages would be minimal; unless of course in some rosy grotto deep within the hinterlands of Olde England elfin workers make them out of the scalding material in a giant wizard’s cauldron. The industry that is Harry Potter is most welcome to the people I…

“At this festive season of the year it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts.” These words first appeared in A Christmas Carol , written by Charles Dickens in 1843. They are spoken by a kindly man collecting for charity but this man has made the mistake of seeking a donation from the biggest humbug of them all, Ebenezer Scrooge. Scrooge’s reply to the charity collector is well known: “Are there no prisons? And the workhouses? Are they still in operation?” The collector assures him that there are plenty, then Scrooge adds: “The Treadmill and the…

In a recent Big Issue we highlighted the true scale of homelessness among young people in the UK. Official figures aren't telling the real story, and more young people than ever are now being forced to sleep rough or'sofa surf' because they're not getting the help they need from councils and local authorities. That's according to a new poll from Centrepoint, the leading charity for homeless young people aged 16 to 25. Centrepoint conducted a wide-ranging survey* into the reality of Britain's youth homelessness crisis and found that local authorities are seriously underestimating the problem, which is growing at an alarming rate. Often they can't secure a place for young people to stay - leaving them to resort to desperate measures. Centrepoint found that 26 per cent of young people…

Every day I walk over London’s Hungerford Bridge and a few months back I noticed a man standing halfway across it, calling out to passersby because he had lost his job. I don’t generally give to people begging on the street because I’d rather buy my weekly Big Issue or donate directly to a charity. But I began to see this man regularly and I could see he was feeling more and more desperate with his situation. I’m sad to say that, though I often thought I should go and talk to him and persuade him to look into being a vendor, I never approached him. Not sure why – I think sometimes people don’t act on thoughts as quickly as they should – but that’s no excuse. This morning…

I have a big collection of inflatables. You can get inflatables of everything: palm trees, ice creams, stag heads, everything. If you go on Google and search for inflatables, you’ll be surprised. I had inflatable women – and men as well, funnily enough. And inflatable sheep but that’s another story. I invented dolphin racing and it’s become very popular. I used to organise it in the swimming pools at my hotels. Children would perch on blow-up dolphins and parents would hold a rope attached to the dolphin at the other end of the pool. They’d wind them in, as it were, and the first jockey still on their inflatable dolphin to reach the end of the pool would win. It’s a different set of rules if you haven’t got a…

It’s that time of year when people are trying to avoid sitting next to the person on the bus who’s coughing and spluttering and looks like they should be tucked up in bed. No one likes being ill and everyone likes the reassurance of knowing there’s a medicine that will make them better. However, if you ask your GP for antibiotics when you don’t really need them, you could be contributing to a situation that threatens to undo many of the advances that have been made in medicine. Antibiotics have revolutionised healthcare; with the development of antibiotics common but frequently deadly diseases such as pneumonia and tuberculosis could be treated effectively, and the dangers of routine surgery and childbirth were reduced. But bacteria and other pathogens evolve to resist new…

The idea behind The Big Issue is a simple one: give homeless people the chance to sell a great magazine, earn a legitimate income and turn their lives around. What if selling a great coffee could do the same thing? A groundbreaking new brand called Change Please is based on that very principle: tackling homelessness through the power of a popular product sold on the streets. The venture – a partnership between the Old Spike Roastery and The Big Issue – has seen a group of homeless people trained as baristas so they can sell fresh coffee from mobile carts on the high street. Launching this week at eight locations in central London, the coffee carts will give Big Issue vendors another fantastic outlet to move forward in their working…

That’s why we’ve set up this revolutionary way to help some of the world’s poorest people work their own way out of poverty with dignity. It’s called lendwithcare.org – instead of a donation lendwithcare.org allows you to lend as little as £15 to fund a small business overseas. And this Christmas, if you buy a lendwithcare.org gift voucher, you can give your friends or family the chance to choose which business they want to fund, and then when their loan is paid back they can either withdraw the £15 or re-lend it again and again to other hard working entrepreneurs. Visit www.lendwithcare.org  today and give the gift of opportunity this Christmas. How does it work? 1 Buy a gift voucher at www.lendwithcare.org/gift_vouchers Vouchers can be printed or emailed.…