Innholdsfortegnelse for 25-03-19 i The Big Issue

01 Support The Teenage Cancer Trust at the Royal Albert Hall  Stars of music and comedy come together to show their support for young people suffering from cancer. Rudimental, Kevin Bridges, Tom Grennan, Take That, Doves, The Script and Levellers headline, each with big name supports and special guests. Royal Albert Hall, London, March 25-31; teenagecancertrust.org 02 Visit the new van Gogh and Britain exhibition The largest collection of his works to go on display in the UK in a decade features 45 pieces showing how the artist was, believe it or not, deeply inspired by British art and culture – from Dickens to Constable. It’s not all EastEnders and sausage rolls here, y’know. See page 33 for Graeme Virtue’s review of van Gogh biopic At Eternity’s Gate. Tate…

I was recently prescribed Betamethasone, a steroid, for recurrent mouth ulcers. It is not licensed for this use, but is more commonly used to stop organ rejection following on from transplants. The chemist was unable to get any but didn’t really elaborate. I mentioned it to my GP a few weeks later and he seemed to suggest stockpiling was a likely cause of this. Although the reasons I was prescribed this drug are fairly unimportant, it is critical in the support of organ transplant patients, so would be pretty scary is there were to be a shortage post-Brexit! Name withheld, email…

I spent some time last week with schoolkids who were selling The Big Issue. This isn’t some Victorian-era style new sales wrinkle, incidentally. They were involved in a project between The Big Issue and the Social Enterprise Academy to shine a light on the small businesses some school pupils in more than a dozen schools are running. As part of it, we worked with the pupils to produce an edition they could sell in schools and their local communities. And so, last week I was at the council office in Paisley as Mary Russell School pupils sold their editions (see page 9). They flew through them. They also upsold by adding in the school magazine they produce. They were spectacularly good. The money they made they will reinvest into buying…

HOW IT WAS TOLD Driverless cars are the future. That’s what all the big tech companies want us to believe. Uber, Google, Tesla and more are all testing the next generation of vehicles that will render the human behind the steering wheel just a passenger, free to lap up their view of our sci-fi-esque utopian future. But the road to progress was never going to be without the odd speed bump – and last week the newspapers reported a new study that sounded like more of a three-point turn than a mild diversion. The reports centre on a Georgia Tech study that assessed whether the cameras on self-driving cars make them less likely to spot people with darker skin. Cue the stories that classed the cars as racist. The Mirror…

What do you do with your old copies of The Big Issue after reading them cover to cover (several times), solving the Sudoku, and telling all your friends and colleagues about the marvels it contains? Well, artist Bartu Ahiska chops them up as material for a unique painting series. Big Art uses up to 1,000 clippings from Big Issue magazines to create city landscapes. “The mixed media technique adds colour, intrigue and – at times – comedy to a scene,” Ahiska says. “I then manually add further depth and dimension through the use of digital oil painting with a graphics tablet.” Ahiska hopes to raise awareness of homelessness with the artwork. To see more visit bartuahiska.com…

It’s not surprising that I’ve written a book about a poltergeist. I grew up on Tyneside in the Sixties. The slums were being cleared. Brand-new pebbledash estates, the kind of estate that I grew up in, with parks, swimming pools, churches, community centres, were growing all around me as I grew. Harold Wilson’s fabled white heat of technology was carrying us into a brave new world. Tomorrow’s World predicted jetpacks, paper underpants, driverless cars, cures for cancer. The Apollo programme was leading us towards the stars. All was changing, but the past remained. Ancient superstitions and beliefs endured. Old ladies read tea leaves in Dragone’s coffee shop by Felling Square. There were mesmerists and quack doctors and escapologists in Newcastle’s markets. My first school, St John’s, was an ancient spooky…

It started with the invitation. We were to enter the event ‘via the Middle Drawbridge’ – no, this wasn’t an immersive opera or some sort of cosplay, it was the Odyssean Ensemble’s concert of music by William Byrd. Then, upon asking for directions to the loos, we were told (with absolutely no hint of innuendo, you understand): “go behind the back of the crown jewels”. Still, when the performance (musical, that is) takes place in the Chapel Royal of St Peter ad Vincula – based in the Tower of London – everything is out of the ordinary. The newly formed Odyssean Ensemble – a vocal group conducted by Colm Carey – is on a mission to bring Byrd to a wider audience. The ensemble has just been commissioned by the…

It smelled good; like fresh coffee, like a sweet malt. Cuba. Close your eyes and say it slowly. Even the sound of the word cheers up the soul, and stirs up all five senses. How many times have we seen terrible biopics about fascinating lives? Biopics you might think should be easier, as it’s all there after all. One damn thing after another, no matter how fascinating, is like quicksand, swallows you up before you know it, and you begin to suffocate as one more intriguing incident squeezes the life out of a life. Cinema is hungry for relationships, and that takes time. How to manage time is a critical question in any story, but especially a biopic. I had always studiously avoided biopics; much less hassle to have characters…

THIS WEEK WE ASKED YOU... Brexit is sucking the oxygen from everything. If you were PM, what would you do (that’s NOT Brexit) to make a real difference in people’s lives? @ex_ziggy More affordable housing. @OpenMindMH Properly fund mental health services and introduce target waiting times for adults’ and children’s mental health services. @storiestravel Resign. End poverty! That would solve homelessness, improve the nation’s health (physical/ mental) and increase educational attainment. Derek Tschemerys, Facebook I would hold a press conference and expose the Deep State Operative then tell the world about consciousness and how it works and how it is hidden from you. Daven Oakford, Facebook…

While endorsing John Bird’s analysis regarding prosperity [March 11-17], I was nevertheless disappointed not to see him mention the word austerity once let alone any narrative of the single-minded Tory pursuit of rolling back of our welfare state provision, leaving a minimalistic level for those poorest in society. Clearly this has underpinned Tory and Lib Dem policy from 2010-15 and subsequent Tory policy from 2015-current day. Until we start to collectively challenge that, something I know John and The Big Issue have consistently done over the years, we will never realistically begin to address prosperity. Tim Wright, email…

As a part of the fourth year of the Penned Up literary festival, I went and did a talk. Much of my life is given over to raising people’s aspirations, spirit, sense of wellbeing and direction. It’s as though I only truly got it wrong in the first part of my life, surviving grief, only then to spend the rest of my time offering it up to people willing to listen. My product, which I bring to the marketplace, is showing survival and flourishing when in, or after, the sticky stuff. Bookshops are full of guides to survive. I do a cheap, on-the -spot, no-quibble survival guide, improvement guide, aspirational guide; but in real life. I have yet to tire of it because I can see how good it is…

At 16 my passions were girls, a half-hearted attempt to learn karate and an equally half-hearted interest in punk rock. I liked The Stranglers very much. I went to one of their concerts in Southampton when I was 15 or 16, but I wasn’t a fully fledged punk. My mum sewed my jeans über-tight and I had a scraggy haircut that wasn’t a mohican, it was a weird mess of a crop. I didn’t know what I was doing. I straddled somewhere between The Stranglers and David Bowie. I was a bit of an outsider. Like many adolescents, I was slightly unformed and eager to find out where the next party was, when the next disco was and who I fancied. Out of all of the hormonal tempests of adolescence,…

The Migration Advisory Committee concluded that a minimum £30,000 salary for skilled migrants would be a suitable threshold. The MAC is an independent, non-departmental government body made up of leading academics chaired by Professor Alan Manning of the London School of Economics. But that amount is quite a lot given that the average salary in the UK is £29,588, and given that it varies widely across the country and by sector. The average salary of a nurse in the UK is around £23,000 (though the wage threshold already exempts NHS employees). The salary requirement has been criticised for not reflecting labour needs in different parts of the UK. For example, Professor Jonathan Portes of King’s College London, who was asked by the Welsh Government to look at what the impact…

Those of us who have been waiting excitedly to flag up the eccentric charms of German writer Marion Poschmann’s The Pine Islands received a little fillip last week when the novel was nominated for the Booker International Award. One hopes that many more will now read it, and laugh out loud on trains, as I did. Fans of oddball European literature will get an instant hit from the very first paragraph of Poschmann’s strange and endearing novel (“He’d dreamt that his wife had been cheating on him… She denied everything. This only confirmed his suspicions.”) There are immediate hints of Kafka, Kundera and Dorthe Nors in this story of a beard-specialising lecturer so incensed by his wife Mathilda’s imaginary infidelity that he drives to the airport and gets on the…

Is it ever anything other than a delight to see Willem Dafoe? A tireless work ethic means that the man with the crushed velvet voice and endlessly equivocal grin pops up all over the place as a supporting actor, recently bringing a welcome aura of ambiguity to overstuffed blockbusters like Murder on the Orient Express, The Great Wall and Aquaman . Audiences are now primed to expect some unexpected shift in loyalties from the moment he sidles into the frame: this time, will he end up being Willem Dafoe, or Willem Da Friend? You might think taking a lead role would give the chameleonic 63-year-old a little less room to manoeuvre, especially going Dutch as Vincent van Gogh, a notable historical figure we’ve already seen embodied on screen by everyone…

Should you be sat in the front of a comedy club and be asked “Where are you from?” by the comic, you will probably expect to reply and briefly be berated for coming from a rubbish place, a posh place or a place rife with either incest or livestock fondling. Should you be asked by Mark Steel, you may well then receive a warm, witty and highly informative 30-minute lecture on the statues, statistics, infrastructure, history and drinking habits of your hometown. Mark Steel’s in Town has just finished its ninth series. He has now visited 55 destinations. Its longevity is tribute to his relentlessly energetic curiosity and sharp eye for human absurdity. Series One began with him playing Skipton’s cattle market that is “hosed down to become the town’s…

Outside Malletts, Victoria Square, Truro On pitch 9.30am-2.30pm daily As a young man I travelled around Europe a lot, grape-picking and stuff like that. Then I came back and lived in Ireland for 10 years and went up to Scotland in the Eighties. I had gone there for an interview to get on the oil rigs but didn’t get on them. I ended up going to Peterhead and getting a couple of trips on a fishing boat. When I came to Cornwall in 2000 it just seemed the natural thing to do, to go to sea. I’d worked out of Newlyn from 2002 until 2013. I still go out now as emergency crew if someone is ill or on holiday. I became homeless when my relationship with my partner ended…

Many will agree with John Bird [March 18-24] that Churchill did get Parliament behind him in our hour of need. However, he did not have an inconsistent Speaker of the House like John Bercow. Bercow may well be constitutionally correct in not allowing PM Theresa May a third vote on her Brexit deal that is similar to the last two humiliating votes. But at the 11th hour was it morally right for Bercow to throw a spanner in the Brexit works? George Robert Dunning, Middlesbrough…

@avnishgoyal Listening to the animated Lord John Bird who started the @BigIssue – fantastic to hear about his challenging childhood, his life lessons and making a difference – “don’t give handouts give hand ups” is a business response to a social crisis @bocks1 A Victorian doctor wouldn’t cope in a modern hospital because of the changes in practice and equipment but a Victorian teacher probably would cope in a modern school. Should we move on from the traditional and incorporate deep learning, systems thinking, independent research? @FortroseVenture Selling our batch of our @BigIssue Schools Edition right at the heart of the community! Available to buy at Fortrose Academy and in other local shops soon! @SEA_Edu…

The 52-year-old died on February 25 after experiencing health issues following an epileptic seizure on his pitch outside Tesco in the Devon town. Hundreds of tributes poured in from all corners of the community. His customers and well-wishers gathered outside the shop and lined the streets as the hearse taking his coffin to Torquay Crematorium went past the place where he had sold the magazine for the last 11 years. Tony’s family ran a collection at the service for The Big Issue Foundation, our charitable arm. Local BBC and ITV news stations also covered the funeral. “Tony’s always been a great ambassador for The Big Issue,” said Big Issue Devon and Cornwall team leader Steve Carter. “I couldn’t praise him enough. Today I’m absolutely gobsmacked by the amount of people…

NAME: Daniel Freeman PROJECT: Oxford VR IN BRIEF: Freeman qualified as a clinical psychologist and began researching how technology could be used in mental health care. He spent the next 20 years researching paranoia and the possibilities presented by virtual reality, until the tech caught up and he could launch Oxford VR. Now the project has spread to NHS clinics across England and he is using groundbreaking methods to help people with everything from social anxiety to a fear of heights. Between soaring poverty, cuts to services and worsening NHS staff shortages, the UK is gripped by a mental health crisis. But London’s Daniel Freeman, 47, has been working on a solution and proving that virtual reality is not the preserve of gamers. Patients of his pioneering project Oxford VR…

Donald Trump looks confused as Kim Jung-un laughs beside Steve McFadden from EastEnders and a Fray Bentos pie tin is lobbed in the air. Jacob Rees-Mogg may well be nearby. So will Cilla Black. And Danny Dyer. The cut-and-paste commentary of Twitter sensation Coldwar Steve (real name Christopher Spencer) is harsh, cheap, absurd and, inexplicably, laugh-out-loud funny. He is, said writer Jon Savage, the Hogarth of our times. Spencer, with an iPhone and an app, has found a way to skewer the absurdity of the times we're in as Armando Iannucci did previously. In this week of weeks, he was the obvious person to create a cover that summed up the state we’re in. Here, Spencer explains how he became a new British institution and talks us through his State…

Frequent and long-time Street Art contributor Rene is a sprightly 90-year-old, who enjoys sketching nature and wildlife, but finds herself instinctively returning to abstract geometric patterns and collage. She lives in London and submits her artworks via the 240 Project, a health activity centre for people affected by homelessness and exclusion. Arthritis makes the intricate cutting of her earlier, photography-derived compositions inspired by Matisse’s Cut-Outs difficult these days. So she has taken to working with simpler shapes, using coloured paper or painting on white paper to create her joyful, spontaneous, playful pieces. “Maybe that’s where the idea for It Takes Time came from,” says Rene. “The patience you need as you get older, and not just for art, for everything! Even just getting up to make a cup of tea,…

01 Tell Them of Battles, Kings and Elephants by Mathias Énard (Fitzcarraldo Editions) Michelangelo is in fear of his life and without a commission. A letter arrives inviting him to Constantinople to build a bridge over the Golden Horn. This much we know is true. What happens next is the subject of this novella from France’s greatest living writer. 02 Love Notes from a German Building Site by Adrian Duncan (The Lilliput Press) A meditation on the architectural structure of a city and the emotional structure of self. What did you expect from such a title? The writing is precise and riveting. What did you expect from a writer who trained as a structural engineer? 03 Elsewhere, Home by Leila Aboulela (Telegram Books) Short stories of exile, displacement and culture…

Cult entertainer Frank Sidebottom had an optimistic worldview seemingly as wide-eyed as the peepers on his oversize papier mâché mask. Heartfelt documentary Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Story digs into the rather more complex headspace of the struggling songwriter behind the character, enriched by archive footage shot by Sievey himself and featuring moving testimony from family, friends and famous fans, including Johnny Vegas, Mark Radcliffe and John Cooper Clarke. Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Story is in cinemas from March 29…

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.…