Innholdsfortegnelse for 10/29/2018 i The Big Issue

Welcome to The Big Issue birthday special. I started selling the magazine a few months ago after moving from Great Yarmouth to Cambridge to seek a fresh start. I’ve been a street vendor before, I’ve used the experience I’ve gained in helping to sell the magazine. I use a lot of puns and jokes to get potential customers interested, and it seems to work. A lot of my regulars tell me that it’s because of this that they come to me to buy a copy. Read more about my story on page 54.…

The Big Issue’s pioneering Rental Exchange scheme is using data to level the playing field for renters. Last week’s announcement by credit reference agency Experian revealed that 1.2 million renters now enjoy the same benefits as homeowners. Unlike mortgage payments, no data was kept on rental payments prior to the launch of the Rental Exchange in 2010. That left the 14.8 million renters in the UK with a thin credit file, severely reducing their access to fair credit. They were left with nowhere to turn but to rapacious high-cost lenders and their soaring interest rates, becoming trapped in a never-ending cycle of poverty. A total of 150 social housing providers, local authorities and letting agents have since reported data to the Rental Exchange which Big Issue Invest helped launch. This…

Vendors each run their own micro-business – they buy their stock of magazines for half the co ver price. Of the £2.50 you pay, they make £1.25 and £1.25 goes tow ards producing the next magazine so the cy cle of support continues . Around 1,500 vendors are getting a hand up from selling The Big Issue each week. Almost 100,000 people have sold The Big Issue to earn a legitimate income. Since the first edition in 1991, we have sold more than 208 million magazines, and inspired other street papers to launch in 120 countries. If all 200+ million copies were piled on top of each other they’d be 252 miles high – tall enough to graze against the International Space Station in orbit. The Big Issue Foundation is…

The Big Issue’s annual competition to design one of our festive magazine covers is now open! This year, as issues around homelessness and child migration – particularly into Britain – are ongoing, we are asking for entries around the theme of WELCOME. Designs can take any form, from drawings to paintings to digital art. As well as the winning design being on the front of a magazine sold across Britain, we will also be offering a special prize for the best group entry – from a school or nursery class, or any other creative group of youngsters who send in a bundle of entries. We’re delighted this year that our friends at The Week Junior are supporting the competition, open until November 28. HOW TO ENTER Anyone aged 13 or…

We’ve heard what the political leaders have to say about their plans to prevent homelessness this winter – but what about politicians in other areas? Winter is a perilous time for those on the margins of society. With the political climate focusing on Brexit, people living in poverty in our own towns and cities are being left out in the cold. This urgently needs to change. All parties of all stripes should be determined to help the vulnerable at this crucial period. Will they be willing to put their policies to the test and be held accountable by Big Issue readers? Join us in pushing for results. Challenge your own local authority to find out what they’re planning to do to support the disenfranchised and others in need in your…

The Big Issue is a community. Over the last 27 years this has been built on the bonds between our vendors, our readers and staff. The Big Issue exists to provide the poorest in society with a hand up, not a handout. And no part of the community could exist without the other. We give voice to those who frequently have no voice. And we become a means of amplifying great ideas that may otherwise be hidden. We want to do this more. And the only way we can do it is with our readers and supporters. As we move into the next stage of The Big Issue’s development we want to build a network of Community Champions across Britain. We want to hear from the areas that frequently feel…

THE WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD by Apsley Cherry-Garrard In my opinion the greatest adventure book ever written. A side story to the main event of walking to the South Pole, it makes my hairs stand on end. The second time I visited Antarctica we flew to the cape where the fated Scott expedition sought refuge. It was a wretched place. TRACKS by Robyn Davidson This is beautiful. It reduced me to tears but it is such a beautiful story of one woman’s determination and drive. She spent years working with her camels before setting out across Australia. It inspired me to take on the Empty Quarter. KON-TIKI: ACROSS THE PACIFIC BY RAFT by Thor Heyerdahl One of the greatest modern adventure books. It was an incredible adventure to set…

There’s a famous quote that speaks of ‘dancing like nobody is watching’. But what’s it like to dance when the entire world is watching? “It would be easy to say it was too much for me, but in truth, I just wanted more,” says Sergei Polunin of the events that led the greatest ballet dancer of his generation – the graceful, beautiful boy from the Ukraine with the world at his feet – to walk away from his position with the world-famous Royal Ballet. “The artist in me was dying.” Polunin stars in Disney’s adaptation of The Nutcracker and the Four Realms. In it, he plays the Nutcracker Prince in a version of the classic Tchaikovsky-scored ballet reportedly unlike any that’s gone prior, drawing heavily from the source material, the…

This year marks 100 years since the birth of Leonard Bernstein, the American composer, conductor, educationalist and pianist who is credited with increasing the reach of classical music through his television lectures. His music has been programmed widely this season – you can catch Three Dance Episodes from On the Town at Nottingham’s Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall on October 30, for example – but like all anniversary celebrations, there was a question mark over any real lasting legacy, post-centenary. Enter, BBC’s Our Classical Century, a year-long series of programmes broadcast across BBC Two, BBC Four and Radio 3. Although the BBC project hasn’t been explicitly positioned as a Bernstein-style pointer, it seems the varied content is aimed at improving access to classical music, offering helpful points of entry…

Food for thought For the last four years I have bought The Big Issue every week from our lovely Anna in Keynsham High Street. If I’m busy they can back up so I’ve only just caught up with the superlative Food Special [October 1-7]. At 82 I have always believed in the subtle power of sharing food, preferably a sit-down round the table or on the floor. With a family of three sons I hung on as long as possible to Sunday lunch. Now, with their own families, such get-togethers are very important. I run an afterschool maths club in a small community centre aimed at nine and 10-year-olds and I was delighted to find something I could use there – maths cookery with the samosa parcels. Then the piece…

“Libraries”, said Big Issue reader Wendy Errington, “are part of the threads that stitch us together.” We agree. And we are delighted that when we asked you to tell us what libraries meant to you and your communities we were flooded with responses. You told us that they are a place that helped form you when other doors were closed. You told us they remain a vital lifeline, a place where many people, especially the most marginalised, can access the services and connections needed to get by, or to lift themselves out of poverty. You told us that libraries provide access to cultural capital for those with no other means of growing it. We asked because we’re taking the fight to preserve – and grow – Britain’s libraries right to…

LOVE CERVERE BY CHRISTIE CASSISA Frequent Street Art contributor Christie came from an abusive childhood, and as an adult has struggled with depression, alcohol and drug problems and homelessness. She discovered art in school as a means of escape and expression. 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. BUY STREET ART! You can buy prints of some artworks featured in Street Art through bigissueshop.com  At least half of the profit from each sale to the artist.…

I slipped through the net at school. I wasn’t unruly, I didn’t misbehave, it just didn’t happen for me. I was never massively academic. It’s not that I’m not bright, it just never captured my imagination the way it should have done and I have always been disappointed about that. I wish somebody had taken me aside to say, actually you can do this, let’s work out how this works best for you. I floated through school. I needed someone to take the lead. The ethos in our house was hard work. The thing about my parents both being foreign – my father is Hungarian and my mother is Spanish – is that they are both very hardworking. They came over with nothing, they came to work and improve themselves.…

THE BIG ISSUE SAYS... Over the last year hundreds of people died while homeless in the UK. Some died on the streets, some died in hospital, others in temporary shelters or hostels. Some people were found dead in tents in woodland. At least 449 homeless people, but probably more, lost their lives. The shocking toll horrified Britain. When we broke the story of the Bureau of Investigative Journalism’s findings following its year-long study, the outcry was loud and understandable. The premature and preventable death count is a national tragedy. The causes of their deaths range from illness and exposure to starvation, drug overdoses, violence, murder and suicide, with an average age of just 49 for the men and 53 for the women. Following this investigation, the Office for National Statistics…

Like James Bond or Doctor Who, we’ve all got our personal favourite when it comes to vampires – whether it’s Christopher Lee, Gary Oldman, or Robert Pattinson. Vampires remain extraordinarily popular on the small and big screens, and with Halloween just around the corner you can expect to see hundreds of fanged and cloaked figures roaming the streets. Most of what we currently associate with vampires stems from Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula, first published in 1897. The story was soon adapted to film, and so began the career of one of popular culture’s most recognisable icons. But a few years ago I became interested in the earlier history of the vampire – not just in the century before Dracula, but in years that led to the first vampire tale published…

Opening at the aftermath of British victory on the battlefields of Waterloo back in 1815, Mike Leigh’s fourth historical movie – following Topsy-Turvy, Vera Drake and Mr Turner – immediately contrasts the aftermath of war. On the one hand, we have David Moorst as Joseph, a lone soldier cloaked in red, stumbling back to his home in north England, profoundly impacted by the battle he’s just fought. He walks back into poverty, and a life of a family struggling to make ends meet, under a government that keeps shifting the goalposts. On the other, peers in the House of Lords immediately reward the Duke of Wellington with £750,000 for his heroic efforts. Class division, and a very pronounced north-south divide, underpin much of what follows, as Peterloo sets about exploring…

I would like to wish Danny Collins every success as he begins university life. He has been my regular vendor outside Hillhead Library in Glasgow for the last eight years. He was a very popular vendor, always polite and friendly and very much part of the local community. I looked forward to seeing him and stopping for a chat. It has been lovely to be part of his journey over the years and to see him achieve so much. I’m sure he will have much success, we will all miss him. Ruth Mills, Glasgow…

This painting of Edmond De Belamy has sold for 40 times its asking price – but the artist won’t be spending the proceeds any time soon because it is an AI. We told you in last week’s magazine that this artificial intelligence-painted portrait, coded by French-based collective Obvious, was under the hammer at Christie’s for $10,000 (£7,810). It eventually smashed that figure and sold for a staggering $432,000 (£337,392). Take that, Banksy!…

The incredible movement of money and goods and the repatterning of trade and sales are going on at a quicker and quicker pace.High streets are disappearing in their old form. We mourn their passing. Yet it is all about the incredible becoming commonplace. Likewise, the exportation of wealth towards China and the East disrupts traditional world commerce, creating new tensions. All the result of back and forth trades and the making of stuff thousands of miles away from where they are bought and sold. On holiday in Ireland last week I talked to a cousin who has a dairy farm. He keeps a constant eye on the movement of prices globally, as whether he gets a liveable price for his milk depends on world prices. We are going through such…

TOP TIPS from illustrator Helen Oxenbury The Big Issue is delighted to have the support of renowned illustrator Helen Oxenbury for this year’s cover competition. Oxenbury revolutionised children’s literature, pioneering board books for children in the 1960s with her deceptively simple, naturalistic pictures full of life. Her illustrations for Michael Rosen’s We’re Going on a Bear Hunt are etched on the memories of generations of children who grew up with the classic story. A new book, collecting some of her best illustrations, Helen Oxenbury: A Life in Illustration, is published this week. This year’s cover competition asks young artists to produce a picture with the theme of ‘Welcome’ so we asked Oxenbury to share some advice… 1. Absolutely anyone can draw – even monkeys have been known to draw. 2.…

Readers often ask us what they can do to make life easier for people on the margins. For our vendors, the answer’s simple. Buy a magazine. By taking the mag, you’re helping them to earn a living. Chat for a while too. But of course not everyone in poverty is selling this great magazine, so there are other important ways to make a difference. IF I’M WORRIED ABOUT SOMEONE’S WELLBEING, WHO CAN I CONTACT? To connect rough sleepers with services that can help in England and Wales, send an alert to StreetLink – an organisation that connects people living on the streets with local authority and outreach teams to get them support. In Scotland, services provided by charities such as Turning Point and Shelter Scotland also go a long way…

MAKING PERIOD POVERTY HISTORY WITH HEY GIRLS Hey Girls was founded just 10 months ago but has already changed the national conversation on period poverty. The brainchild of Celia Hodson with the help of her daughters Kate and Becky, Hey Girls sells sanitary towels on a ‘buy one give one’ model – meaning for every pack purchased another is donated to a woman in need. The team took a giant leap forward in their fight this summer as their products hit the shelves of supermarket giants Asda and Waitrose, and a £50,000 investment and mentorship from Big Issue Invest’s Power Up Scotland programme helped bolster the social enterprise’s growth and allowed it to purchase the stock needed to supply the stores. “We wouldn’t have been able to scale up Hey…

The UK Social Enterprise Awards are all about recognising businesses that give back, enrich communities and make a contribution to society. They’re also about those who lead them – the social entrepreneurs who use their business acumen to make a real difference, tackling social and environmental problems both in Britain and abroad. We are delighted to once again partner with the UK Social Enterprise Awards for the Consumer Facing Award, which you, our readers, will vote for! The Consumer Facing Award acknowledges a successful, growing social enterprise with a clearly defined brand and social mission that delivers a product or service to the public. You can have your say in who claims the prestigious award – but you’d better be quick, as voting closes at midnight on Wednesday October 31.…

Pushed to reveal themselves with urgency, short stories often serve as time-saving showcases for new authors. Capsule storytelling which has to set a tone, lay down its moral/political/ emotional agenda, and draw intriguing characters in just a few pages is not suited to every writer. But some readers are overwhelmed by the mountain of alluring options, and don’t have the time or inclination to be slowly seduced by the gradually revealing novel. For them, hoovering up a good short story is the answer, the literary equivalent of speed-dating in a room full of highly articulate salesmen. In the case of Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah’s debut collection Friday Black, the impression is even more intense, closer to being locked in a room with only coke-addled American Psycho Patrick Bateman and his fridge…

A slice of utter cinematic joy this, and lord, could the world use it. Bundling together comedy, music, a daring escape from the mob, and a cast led by Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe, Some Like It  Hot is getting a cinematic reissue. The beamingly brilliant 1959 tale of Lemmon and Curtis disguising themselves as women to escape mobsters is a catch-it-whenever-you-can classic. It’s heading to over 25 screens around the UK. There’s not a chance you won’t get your money’s worth.…

While seeking sponsorship for running marathons, giving up booze and growing a handlebar moustache are all perfectly valid ways of raising money for charity, some of us prefer a more leisurely (easier) approach. Such as attending the upcoming Night Under The Stars concert (November 6), held at London’s Royal Festival Hall. As well as offering an enticing programme of music inspired by Nordic countries, the event will raise money for The Passage – a charity based in Westminster that provides services that aim to prevent and end homelessness. Since it launched in 2001, Night Under The Stars has raised over £1.6m for The Passage. “The arts can contribute to positive change” The ‘Northern Lights’ concert features Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson, whose glorious recording of Philip Glass’s Etudes bookended by two…