Innholdsfortegnelse for 25-02-19 i The Big Issue

01 BACK OF THE NET! This Time With Alan Partridge Alan finally gets his long-coveted “second series”, as he returns to the BBC for the first time since 2002. Steve Coogan’s comic creation is back as temporary co-host of a teatime magazine programme not unlike The One Show, and he’s desperate to seize his chance. On-screen we get Alan’s awkward interactions and one-upmanship with co-presenter Jennie Gresham. When the cameras stop rolling, Partridge and his unfathomably loyal PA sidekick Lynn plot to ensure that, needless to say, he has the last laugh.BBC1, from February 25 02 JUST ANNOUNCED Conversations with Nick Cave: an evening of talk and music Since opening up his Red Hand Files one-to-one online correspondence with fans, Nick Cave has introduced a whole new side of himself…

I’m writing this email and holding the last Big Issue I will ever buy from the lovely Tony Wood at Cardinal Place/Victoria in central London as today’s his last day selling the magazine. Although we have many other vendors around Victoria to supply us with the weekly Big Issue (which is a sad thing, really), I will miss seeing him there, always playing classical music for us stressed commuters. Tony, I just want to thank you for all the times you were there for a quick chat (and some laughs!) and wish you all the best in your next venture. You are a great human and a brave, focused professional, and hopefully more people will be inspired by you along the way. Good luck and please do keep in touch!…

A nice thing: stopped to buy a @BigIssue at the train station this morning & the seller proudly told me he was the featured interview on the back page. What a journey he’s had & what a lovely guy he is. Temple Meads commuters, make sure you stop by Michael @Lyndsey_Fineran This fantastic person is one of the many reasons we are exploring partnering with the @BigIssue! Also, why not buy a copy today and read how Michael turned his life around through his work. He is a star! #StoppingHomelessness #employability #partnership @Camer0nKinsella…

The sister of late Big Issue seller Dianne Cumper is taking on the challenge of The Big Issue Foundation’s Big Night Walk to give something back to vendors after they rallied around her grieving family. Former paediatric nurse Dianne died aged 45 on August 14 just a few weeks after she began selling The Big Issue in Barnstaple, Devon. Sister Joanne, 48, was inspired to support our charitable foundation’s annual 13-mile walk through the streets of London on March 8 after vendors made a shrine on Dianne’s pitch and even stepped in to support her at the funeral two weeks later. “I was so touched that Di’s fellow vendors put up a shrine on her pitch,” said Joanne. “We saw it while we were on the way to her funeral…

It’s interesting that the sense of threat hanging over the country isn’t new to me. The threat from not knowing what’s coming down the line seemed eternal when I was growing up. I sat in the back of a car passing through places that, as I grew older, became familiar to me. A bridge, a shop, a pub, a high street. I was on my way to places that, over the decades, would become the backdrop of my life. As I passed them, I watched people going about their lives and was astonished that they weren’t in a suspended place of not knowing what was coming next. Why were they not suspended, like me? Because they were not me. My world was me. And increasingly, it’s become me and billions…

As a rule I favour short books over long ones but sometimes, just sometimes, the subject matter demands a grander approach. So it is with Don Winslow’s phenomenal The Border. It is 716 pages and the final instalment of Winslow’s Cartel trilogy, following The Power of the Dog and The Cartel. Taken together, the novels are a towering narrative achievement, as Winslow delves deeply into the machinations of the Mexican drug cartels, alongside the United States’ catastrophic war on drugs, the combination of which has now lasted half a century and killed countless thousands of people. Winslow has spent years fully immersed in his subject and his knowledge and passion ooze from every page. Previous books have concentrated on the cartels’ operations, as well as digging into the hypocrisy, corruption…

Back when I was a carefree twentysomething with brown Nineties lipstick and a Rachel haircut, my job was a joke (I didn’t have one) and I was broke (see previous predicament). So broke I couldn’t afford a lightbulb because I only had 13 pence. I lived on instant chicken-flavoured noodles and cheap cider, I was a deeply unemployable university dropout and the previous tenant of my condemned bedroom was an artist whose project was to er, recreate the smell of her vagina. Yep, things were bleak. Since it arrived on Netflix Friends has become the most watched show for under-16s So I needed a weekly fix of Friends to protect me against the harsh realities of the world. These crazy characters lived in Manhattan despite working as baristas, they had…

THIS WEEK WE ASKED YOU... As schools are being urged to revive the wartime attitude of ‘make do and mend’ we’re asking what one life skill you wish you’d learned in your school days… Child development and parenting. Should be mandatory. @Doreen_Samuels, Twitter What is pensions? How do benefits work? How to budget? Dealing with HMRC? @DrEmmaHorrigan, Twitter Learnt all the best skills from my Mum in the kitchen & by following my Dad like a puppy! Time to stop dumping it all on teachers. @Cbh57, Twitter Emotional intelligence @futuski, Twitter Budgeting, nothing mentioned at school about finances at all @lordo1000, Twitter Critical Thinking @Allchanges Being able To See Into The Future, for then, I’d have realized I’d have no State Pension for SIX YEARS like millions of other women…

While Matt in Bristol makes every other pronoun female in Dear Zoo [Fact/Fiction, January 28-February 3], I make EVERY pronoun female to my toddler girl (in all her books!). Reading to her shone a torch at the gender discrepancy, and this is in pre-literacy! A 2011 US study showed male animals are central in more than 23 per cent of books, compared to 7.5 per cent female. Even where the animal’s gender was not explicit, readers assumed the animal was male. Janice McCabe, the author of the study, says this contributes to a sense of unimportance among girls and a sense of privilege among boys. I see it everywhere, the nursery rhymes we sing, the fairytales we tell, the expressions we use (cut out the middleman, it’s good for mankind,…

We’re really hard to please. For the longest time, we (that’s you and me) have banged on about politicians being careerist and following party lines rather than standing up for what they believe in, or speaking first and foremost for the people who elected them. And then, whaddayaknow, when a number of them make a stand, for reasons that they say are to do with personal belief and what they feel is right, we have a go at them. The Independent Group of 11 MPs are (and you can insert/delete according to need) just what Britain has been aching for/careerists who put personal desire above party unity/going to make a No Deal Brexit happen/going to stop Brexit happening/going to destroy the Labour party/going to destroy the Conservative party/going to make…

The government should reform tax policies to target online giants like Amazon and avoid turning UK high streets into ghost towns, according to MPs. The Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee is calling for a shake-up in business rates to take the pressure off shops, which are closing in droves, and also suggested an online sales tax. Acknowledging that the days of retail ruling the high street might be over, the MPs said councils and businesses should team up to regenerate town centres. Committee chair Clive Betts said: “Local authorities must get to grips with the fact that their town centres need to innovate.” Big Issue sales director Chris Falchi-Stead said there were implications for our vendors too. “If we see a continued decline it will become increasingly difficult to…

01 Kill The Black One First by Michael Fuller This provocatively titled memoir is one of a kind and offers up a perspective that is lacking in the current discourse surrounding race in Britain. 02 Prisoner To The Streets by Robyn Travis Travis is the voice of a generation whose adept use of language is without equal. Prisoner To The Streets is a book we need to put into the hands of so many young black boys in Britain. 03 Hold by Michael Donkor Michael Donkor is the freshest new voice in Black British literature, and Hold crosses borders and brings Ghanaian culture to life in Britain. 04 Think Like A White Man by Boulé Whytelaw III, as told to Nelz Abbey A satirical work of non-fiction in the same…

When composer Rebecca Saunders was recently announced as the recipient of the prestigious Ernst von Siemens Music prize, it was inevitable that her gender prefaced the coverage. Saunders is the frst female composer to receive the notable 250,000 euro award, following in the footsteps of the likes of Benjamin Britten. It’s a recurring theme: earlier this month, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla made history as the first female conductor to sign with iconic classical record label Deutsche Grammophon. Gražinytė-Tyla, who is music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, will release a collection of orchestral works by Polish composer Mieczysław Weinberg, whose centenary falls this year. Last week, I spoke to conductor Valentina Peleggi, the first female conductor to become a Mackerras Conducting Fellow at English National Opera (ENO). Peleggi has just…

Tesco Metro, Tavistock Street, Leamington Spa Daily, 10am-2pm, then 3pm-4pm I’m a mechanic by trade, tyres and exhausts and things like that. But I lost my job and did what I could to make ends meet, but I was left with a lot of payday loans. I just couldn’t pay them back and it was all getting a bit too much for me. I didn’t have to go bankrupt, fortunately, and I ended up getting rid of about half of it. There’s still a few cards left but I’ve got them right down to about £200 or £300. I feel like I got a fresh start though. When things were bad I was suicidal. I was so low, and people kept saying ‘Why don’t you go and do the Big…

I think we need to think more deeply about young children using mobile phones, iPads etc, listen to our own inner wisdom and take action on that [Are We having Fun Yet?, February 4-10]. What is it that children truly need for a healthy happy childhood? We do have a choice and a responsibility to the future to get it right. We shouldn’t kid ourselves that it doesn’t really matter, that it’s a part of our culture now. What’s important is that we think things through, thoroughly. Is it confusing for a developing child to have access to a virtual world, as compared to the real world that builds up all the senses? Is it good to sit passively in front of a screen when a young body needs healthy…

I would suggest to John Bird [Only unity can heal Brexit rifts, February 18-24] that a greater consensus is needed with regard to Brexit and unity cannot be achieved. Several years ago, on one day, 37 per cent of the registered electorate wished to leave the EU and it would seem that many chose to do so because of the effects of austerity imposed by the Tories over many years. Since 2016 Theresa May has not sought unity but has pandered to a very small minority in her party. Let us go for consensus – but only after asking the people again what they wish for regarding membership of the EU now that the misinformation has been exposed.…

I have sewn for most of my life. My mother taught me when I was young and the repetitive rhythm of hand embroidery and machine sewing seemed to suit my temperament. It calmed me. It wasn’t however, until the 1980s, when I was in my thirties, that I realised that there was much more to needlework than decoration and dressmaking: that sewing could have social, emotional and political purpose, used to campaign, commemorate, celebrate and protect. I went to Greenham Common where women in its anti-nuclear peace camp covered the nine-metre perimeter fence with sewn petitions, many of them made from materials found at home: old sheets, cast-off clothes, cleaning cloths. During the miners’ strike of 1984 I was in Nottinghamshire running a community arts project involving local groups making…

There’s little fresh to the idea of the Rocky story, of a sporting underdog attempting to triumph against seemingly insurmountable odds. Depending on which Rocky sequel you happen to be watching at the time, they sometimes succeed too. What’s not been done to date is the tale of a family of wrestling fanatics from Norwich, from which a teenage girl attempts to scale the heights of WWE wrestling in the US. And, as with many unlikely stories of its ilk that make it to the big screen, this particular story is based on a true story. In Fighting With My Family, then, the terrific Florence Pugh and Jack Lowden take on the roles of the pair at the heart of the story, sister and brother Saraya ‘Paige’ and Zak ‘Zodiac’…

Intrigued by classical music but don’t know where to start? Try David Walliams’ Marvellous Musical Podcast , courtesy of Classic FM. Walliams introduces key historic figures (Liszt, Mozart, Clara Schumann), instruments and types of music in an accessible and Walliamsish way. The idea of Mozart playing practical jokes with a whoopee cushion isn’t for everyone, but eight-year-olds will love it (remember: ‘farts are never not hilarious’, according to the podcast Mozart). There are also plenty of musical examples to whet your appetite. Classic FM has managed to share a wealth of information in nicely paced, 15-minute chunks.…

A hand up, not a handout... Our sellers BUY every copy of the magazine for £1.25 and sell it for £2.50. 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. Poverty is indiscriminate… That is why we provide ANYONE whose life is blighted by poverty with the opportunity to earn a LEGITIMATE income. The right to citizenship… The Big Issue Foundation, our charitable arm, helps sellers tackle social and financial exclusion. Prevention… Big Issue Invest offers backing and investments to social enterprises, charities and businesses which deliver social value to communities.…