Innholdsfortegnelse for 6/18/2018 i The Big Issue

I’m a nature lover, and watch all the wildlife programmes on TV, so I’m disturbed to hear our insect population is at risk. A wee spider has as much right to live as any of us. You can read more about this on page 20. Bob Mortimer has taken to fishing, and has even joined forces with his pal Paul Whitehouse to make a TV show about it, which he talks about on page 24. I love fishing, but it’s been a while since I did it. I’m also a football fanatic, and a big Celtic fan. I see buying a programme as a big part of the day. When I go to Celtic Park, it’s the first thing I look for. But they may soon be gone – read…

Years ago I used to work on the newsdesk of the NME. It was very good fun. Much of the brief was as you’d expect – ‘Make sure we get the news of that Oasis single FIRST!’; ‘What do you mean Granddaddy have given Melody Maker an exclusive?!’ But there was always the chance of a tip and a lead that could generate something more. One of the people who rang me frequently was Peter Tatchell. He rang more or less every week. He was a tireless voice for gay rights a long time before the mainstream press were listening. Initially, he was great. He could be relied on to deliver a useful line or two. But as time went on, he became more and more of a pest, increasingly…

Earlier this month we brought you a story About A Boy called Hugh Grant and his generous donations to foodbanks. Since then, the Hollywood star has been busy keeping the #foodbankchallenge rolling by visiting his local site in Hammersmith and Fulham, before following that up with another donation to the Airdrie foodbank where he started out and getting former Inbetweener Blake Harrison and Gary Lineker involved (right). More big names should be following in Hugh’s illustrious footsteps, so we want you to keep an eye out for him or other stars helping out. Get in touch!…

After a long cycle, we got to Cambridge and, over porridge, discussed with the cafe owner the disintegration of Cambridge. The colleges that (when lumped in with their Oxford counterparts own property worth £3.5bn) own much of the city centre, and are intent on upping rents – seemingly randomly. The cafe owner is astonished as he watches bigger rents drive out smaller traders, with only chains and posh shops able to absorb the increases. The local council seem equally intent on making life more unliveable and unprofitable for the small trader. Is this a conspiracy to produce a lifeless, stress-laden cityscape where kindness, ease and civility are dumped for the needs of money? Of course, we know that ‘austerity’ looms like a T. rex over the finances of the local…

IN 1972 THE YEAR DON LETTS TURNS 16… Bobby Fischer becomes the first American chess world champion / Arab terrorists kill 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics / The bestselling manual The Joy Of Sex is published What were my interests at 16? The same as every other 16-year-old boy – music, clothes, girls, girls and girls. I was living in South London and loving it. I was a soul boy, doing the whole black and beautiful thing. Big afro like Michael Jackson. I was working on the King’s Road, Chelsea. To be quite honest, I was a flash bastard. If you’d met me then you’d probably think I was an arrogant dick. Or at least, if I met the young me now that’s what I’d think. But the…

Check it out I was interested in the article about Hugh Grant’s donation to the foodbank [News, June 4-10]. I shop online and have for years. I would really like to be able to add extra items to my shop each week for the local foodbank but there is currently no way to do this. I have suggested it to my supermarket but they said it was too hard to arrange. I think it would be a great way of increasing foodbank donations as an extra few pounds on tins of fruit or toiletries is small compared to the average online shopping cost so why shouldn’t online retailers take advantage of this? Surely someone in the big online supermarkets or working in the computing industry can come up with a…

The troubled Universal Credit rollout was slammed last week by an independent audit that described the system as “no value for money and uncertain it ever will be”. The National Audit Office revealed that the DWP has spent £1.9bn on the project so far – just short of the £2.2bn promised when it was announced in 2011 – to get 10 per cent of total caseload (815,000 claimants) claiming Universal Credit. It’s costing £699 per claim, four times more than anticipated, while the NAO estimates that between 270,000 and 338,000 new claimants will not be paid throughout 2018. The DWP remained defiant, however, calling Universal Credit a system “fit for the 21st century”. But these issues have not deterred Finland. The progressive Scandinavian nation, frequently a beacon for new social…

“I did these in a recovery unit that does art therapy,” comments Chris, a prolific and longtime contributor to Street Art, regarding his latest batch of artwork. “I suffer from mental health problems. My art is part of an attempt to survive and make a contribution. I believe in equality and diversity and hope.” Street Art is created by people who are marginalised by issues like homelessness, disability and mental health conditions. Contact streetlights@bigissue.com  to see your art here.…

CARL FELLOWS SELLS THE BIG ISSUE IN MIDDLESBROUGH I find fishing very special. It’s great to catch a fish but you don’t have to, it’s just a good way of killing a few hours. There’s always one or two people about and even if you don’t catch anything you’ve still had a good time. I fish with a few of my friends in a park in Middlesbrough where there are koi carp. Catch and release! My friends are people I’ve met through fishing. I didn’t know anybody to begin with, then people come up and start talking to you. They’d come up to me and say, ‘You’re doing it wrong!’ Or they’d give me tips and you just get talking to them. It can be a relatively cheap hobby. It…

There’s a new exhibition opening at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh this week titled Rip It Up: The Story of Scottish Pop. It’s the first major exhibition dedicated to exploring the musical culture of the Scottish nation over more than half a century, from influential indie pioneers like Franz Ferdinand and Belle & Sebastian to global superstars such as Simple Minds and Lulu. In the interests of appealing to a general audience, I suspect more space might be given over to the Bay City Rollers’ baggy tartan trews than, say, Glaswegian post-punk cult heroes Orange Juice – whose biggest hit lends the exhibition its name. But with the broad backing and input of the Scottish music community, Rip It Up sounds well put together and I’m excited to…

I’ve had a few near-death experiences in my life. The last time was when I moved house. There I was, unloading my football programme collection out of the removal van, and an enormous box of them fell upon me. I distinctly remember thinking, “This is not how I imagined going. Please don’t let me die with a Grimsby Town programme on my face.” Thankfully I pulled through, but for a time there, things got pretty ridiculous between me and football programmes. I have mixed views on change. Slavery? Same-sex marriage? That’s the sort of change I can get behind. But I’m struggling with this digital world, I really am. I like things. Stuff. Sometimes I think about the opening 20 minutes of the film WALL-E, and worry that one day…

MY PASSION Celtic FC. I go to quite a lot of games thanks to my customers. I save up my money in a coin bottle. My favourite players are Kieran Tierney and Callum McGregor. MY TIPS FOR VENDORS Communicate. I speak to everybody who walks past me. You don’t know the last time they talked to someone. That’s the nitty gritty of it. Smile and say hello, and help them if they need it. I gave an old lady a hand with her shopping trolley earlier, and when she came back out she bought a magazine off me.…

John Bird has given me a new perspective on the NHS crisis [June 4-10]. He’s right that the idea was that the creation of NHS was intended to improve our wellbeing to the extent where we need less healthcare. He’s also right that consumerism and our consumption of sugary and fatty food is putting a strain on the NHS, particularly for those in poverty. This great organisation needs to be allowed to return to being a bastion of preventative education, as well as world-class care.…

The Big Issue has been backing independent bookshops as they take on the big boys. We are fully behind the Independent Bookshop Alliance – the “social Amazon” launched by Big Green Bookshop’s Simon Key (pictured) with the help of Big Issue founder John Bird earlier this year – and you can show your support during Independent Bookshop Week, running this week until Saturday. There are scores of events across the country, whether it’s Philip Pullman’s fantastical book signings, Carol Ann Duffy’s renowned Shore 2 Shore tour or kid-friendly events at the Mainstreet Trading Company in St Boswells in the Scottish Borders. Get involved and support these pillars of your community!…

Honey bees: we all know that without them sticking their noses into plants and spreading the love/pollen, humanity would cease to exist. But they’re not just promiscuous pollinators; scientists recently discovered that they are also busy little mathematical whizzes, for not only do they have some facility with numbers – possessing the ability to count landmarks as they forage – they also have a rudimentary understanding of numbers including the concept of zero. Only relatively recently grasped by humans (the earliest evidence probably dating to Babylonians), the idea of ‘zero’ is understood by primates, dolphins, birds and humans beyond nursery age. And, we now know, bees. Insects are a mighty, complex universe of wonders, one in which entomologists are immersed and the rest of us swat, squish and squirm our…

ROCK OF AGES Poor Stonehenge, always the heart of midsummer madness, whether at the hands of modern-day druids or the current battle over a massive tunnel being built next door. For millennia the heritage icon has been fiddled around with, tolerating revamps and reinventions. Spoiler alert – this image is not the original construction of its Bronze Age trilithons, it is the 1950s Ministry of Works improvements, which rejigged it to present the Historic England superstar we see today. The midsummer sunrise hits Stonehenge at 4.52am on Thursday. NB: other astronomically aligned stone circles are available. Midsummer, June 21; english-heritage.org.uk…

MORALITY PLAY by Barry Unsworth During a harsh winter, an impoverished group of travelling players arrives in an unknown town, hoping to perform. Instead they become entangled in a real-life drama involving a murdered boy. So beautifully written you can feel the snow crunch under your bare feet. MEDIEVAL COMIC TALES by Derek Brewer Like The Canterbury Tales, but without the tedious chivalry. This bawdy collection includes a cruel stepmother punished with uncontrollable farting, a talking dog promoting adultery, and a stupid new husband trying to exert his authority. The Holy Grail meets Benny Hill. THE HANGED MAN by Robert Bartlett True story of a convicted Welsh rebel who died on the gallows and was later resurrected. But was it miracle or machination? With all the verve of courtroom drama,…

I forced myself to watch Love Island last week, telling myself it is now an important modern phenomenon. A phenomenon akin to a mountain of plastic in the sea, but important nonetheless. I watched it because I am weak and impressionable and young people at work were talking about it as if it was a brave, unheralded, innovative tour de force. I resisted at first, but the pressure was relentless. “It’s addictive!” they cried. (Like cheap synthetic drugs bought off the internet?). “It’s brilliant!” (Like Trump’s 400-watt dog teeth?). “It’s so funny!” (Like a comedy night compered by Lee Hurst?) “You have to watch it,” was the battle cry, and I didn’t want to seem like a desiccated fuddy-duddy, so I thought I’d give it a bash. Now, I know…