Innholdsfortegnelse for 27-01-20 i The Big Issue

As a vendor in Sydney it has been very hard. The heat in itself was brutal but the effects of all the smoke haze was far worse. Hopefully the rain forecast comes. Marcus Prentice, Facebook @bigissue @yogaatplay #bigissue – what’s not to love? A hand up not a handout, a business, a social enterprise, a poverty prevention device (@pauldmcnamee). There is always an interesting article, a different view you hadn’t considered, a thought you hadn’t had or heard on a subject. This week’s issue is great, an #odetojoy with an optimistic interview with #richardlayard – he studies happiness (what GSCEs do you do to get that career?!) @CliffeLights In #plymouth and chatted with three @BigIssue vendors. They want to thank customers for purchasing lots of copies in December, but would…

A pair of artists are doing their bit to tackle food insecurity, the climate crisis and library closures all in one – after they opened a library dedicated to food in their living room. Michael Mayhew and Laura Elliott, from Northampton, say their collection of more than 400 books on growing, finding and preparing food will be available for anyone who wants to join. They have also kitted out their kitchen so locals can try out some of the recipes. It is hoped this will allow those with limited means to boost their skills and their diet. “Restaurants are closing down because no one can afford rent on the high street. Then they started shutting libraries down. We should really value those spaces – they’re little windows into our existence,”…

I listened to Nick Clegg, now working for Facebook, on the radio talking about the need to do more so that our children are not damaged by the social platform revolution and the digital revolution that has over-swept the world. Nick Clegg you will remember was the junior partner in the recent coalition government that brought austerity and a hollowing-out to our communities, through cutting local government support. The precursor you might say to the politics of Brexit. That sense of that local austerity-engineered emptiness produced the rejection of Europe by the majority of those who voted in the referendum. You reap what you sow. Of course, Clegg may have tried in the coalition to modify some of the excesses of cuts, but now he is off with Facebook, and…

At 11pm on January 31, Britain will leave the EU. Or the country will actually start a transition period running until December 31. That’s the REAL crunch date. While much of the triumphalist rhetoric from the Leave side, topped by the Big Ben bong banter has been hard to stomach for a huge percentage of Britain – almost half – the event is a reality. And there are two ways for us to face up to this reality. Either we can step up to resist it, or we can accept it and work out ways to chisel some success from it. The latter is the only reasonable and pragmatic approach. Rather than being fearful, it’s time put our collective energy into looking ahead. This is where the thinking around Big…

A bout a third of the way through her multi-layered masterpiece, The Shadow King, Maaza Mengiste takes us inside the head of Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie. It is 1935. His country has been invaded by Italy as Mussolini pursues his policy of expansionism. He should be inspecting troops in advance of the following day’s offensive. Instead, he is playing Verdi’s Aida – the story of a treacherous Ethiopian princess who abandons her country for love – to fire him up. Yet his obsession with Aida is also linked to his own daughter, Zenebwork, married off to a cruel husband to bind two families. Selassie ignored her pleas to come home and she died, possibly at her husband’s hands. Zenebwork’s ghost stalks Selassie in his darkest hours, reminding him of his…

An Adam Sandler movie that begins with the star having a colonoscopy sounds like one of his usual lowbrow comedies. Uncut Gems – which received a limited cinema release earlier this month and arrives on Netflix this week – is actually a totally different beast: a scuzzy, sweaty, street-level thriller set in New York’s bustling Diamond District featuring Sandler as a loquacious wheeler-dealer burning through the patience of some very dodgy heavies. It rocks. Uncut Gems is on Netflix from January 31…

Set to be launched this week with a one-off concert in Glasgow as part of the Celtic Connections festival, Return to Y’Hup: The World of Ivor Cutler is a fun, fitting and surprisingly very first album  tribute proper to one of the great nearly-forgotten cult heroes of Scottish and British music history. Born in Govan, Glasgow and based for much of his career in London, glowering bespectacled humourist, poet, philosopher and surrealist Cutler (1923-2006) was an inspiration for The Beatles, who cast him as Buster Bloodvessel in 1967’s Magical Mystery Tour. He played more Peel Sessions than anyone except The Fall, and released material across six decades on labels from EMI to Harvest, Rough Trade and Creation. Never heard of him? That’s maybe not surprising given that Cutler – a…

Brush strokes I am an amateur artist who lives way down the bottom of the country in Cornwall. I actually have a hair salon where I work full time but do my artwork in my free time as I find the contrast very rewarding and it helps me unwind. I was persuaded by a client (a retired art teacher) to contact you after telling them I use my old copies of The Big Issue in my mixed-media paintings. We have several sellers in the town and always have a current copy on my coffee table in the salon, but after they’re read I use them as collage detail. Alan Butler, Penzance Everyone should get their share I get my weekly Big Issue from a gentleman called Martin outside the BMA…

There is a moment in the Sir Nicholas Winton That’s Life special that always knocks me sideways and chokes a tear in my throat. I know I’m not alone. Winton, remember, was a remarkable man. After witnessing the horror faced by Jewish people in Nazi-occupied Prague at the end of 1938, he resolved to do something. He organised the evacuation of children. In what became known as Winton’s Kindertransport, he organised safe passage, and homes and places of safety in Britain, for 669 Jewish children who otherwise would have been taken to concentration camps and slaughtered. Many of the parents of those children were killed in Auschwitz. Winton’s selfless act was all the more remarkable because he didn’t seek any recognition, or reward. Famously, it only came to light when…

Universal Credit has been slammed for “driving people to loan sharks” after a debt charity revealed more than half of its clients have gone without two or more essentials in the past month. A further 27 per cent of StepChange’s users had recently visited a foodbank, while 10 per cent said they’d had to use a loan shark or turn to high-cost credit to make ends meet. A quarter of those receiving Universal Credit are in problem debt – three times the rate among the general population. StepChange cited unaffordable deductions from benefits to repay debt and design features of Universal Credit like the five-week wait and unpredictable payment swings. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation agreed. Policy and partnerships chief Iain Porter said: “It is indefensible that anyone is going without…

Jonny Miree, along with wife Carol and daughter Jessie, are behind TheRockinR, a charity that provides gaming equipment to children in hospitals and hospices. Driven by the tragic loss of their 11-year-old son Reece to an incurable brain tumour, the family saw the comfort that games brought him during his illness and decided to pass the experience on. Now dozens of hospitals across England have TheRockinR gaming carts, which are making a difficult time a little bit easier for sick kids and their loved ones. Miree, from Wakefield, was in the Royal Marines for around eight years and now does counter-terrorism training part-time. That, he said, oǽten doesn’t square up with the kind of charity he runs in the minds of many; but he and Reece “were always gamers”. In…

After years spent travelling and squatting, Michael ended up homeless in London with a drug habit. “I got into a hostel and eventually got myself clean,” he says. “Now I’ve got a Peabody Flat and things are cool.” He likes there to be humour in his work. “The more ridiculous the better,” he says. “I loved Monty Python and the whole silliness thing. I think the world is a very silly place and hopefully this comes though in my pictures.” The work on this page is created by people who are marginalised. Contact street.lights@bigissue.com to see your art here. To see more and buy prints: bigissueshop.com At least half of the profit goes to the artist.…

01 The Body by Stephen King “I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was 12 – Jesus, did you?” As a teenager, I was obsessed with the 1986 film Stand By Me and its depiction of the loyalty and intensity that makes adolescent friendships so special. The novella on which it is based adds extra meat to the timeless story. 02 Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein This World War 2 drama unravels the intense and ultimately tragic friendship between pilot Maddie and Queenie, a spy who is caught by the Gestapo while undercover in enemy territory. Utterly gripping. 03 Piglettes by Clémentine Beauvais When Mireille, Hakima and Astrid are awarded the bronze, silver and gold ‘trotters’ for being the ‘ugliest’ girls in…

A hand up, not a handout... Our sellers BUY 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.…

Going, going, bong. But will Brexit bring any pluses? Nathan Thompson More wealth and services for the working classes and them who have experienced hard times enabling them to achieve a standard of living, not just forgotten about. Andre Rostant Rejoining. Nick Mitchener Our return. Though we will never get a deal as good as the one we threw away. Julie Ramsden Government having to take responsibility for issues instead of trying to make people think they are caused by the EU. What excuse will they use going forwards? Lilian Gornall Surely we are all really looking forward to the chlorinated whiff of chicken? Mick Taylor Tory MPs will be obliged to stop blaming the EU for the nation’s ills. Gary Holroyd Blue passports. Gary Knaggs The chance to rejoin…

Ahmed does not appear to understand how it was decided that he should travel to the UK, however he knows that his parents had concerns for their safety in Afghanistan, which is why they made the decision to pay his paternal uncle to help him travel to the UK. He has said little about the journey other than there was a lot of walking. He has no contact with his family and does not know whether they are still in Afghanistan or whether they too left the country to seek asylum elsewhere. Ahmed started at London’s Chelsea Academy in January 2017 where he thrives on all levels of school life. Ahmed lives in foster care and is now settled. His school describes him as hardworking, focused and attentive. He has…

My friend Eileen, 84, went to her doctor with a minor ailment. She happened to be accompanied by her daughter as they were going shopping afterwards. Once seated, the doctor – male – turned to her daughter and said soothingly, “So how has she been lately?” Eileen raised her arm and said ‘Hello doctor, I’m here! I’m not deaf or senile, I can answer for myself.” The doctor had the grace to look slightly abashed. On a recent episode of Have I Got News for You, a comedian gave his impression of an old person eating ice cream. Hunched over, he screwed up his face and mimicked licking an imaginary cornet whilst making slurping noises. This was spiteful and demeaning. I know this comedian is the father of two young…

War. Legs blown off in the blink of an eye. Severe facial burning. Entire villages wiped out by men controlling drones from the other side of the globe. Tears, grief, destruction, madness. What an absolute bastard. War has been on my mind lately. First I started rewatching Band of Brothers, an epic series I never completed when it was originally released almost 20 years ago (but is currently available on Sky as a box set). It’s a genuinely harrowing depiction of the hideous mania of armed conflict. There is poetry written about war; there are spine-tingling tales of heroes and adventures; there are the cool uniforms and sexy artillery for people to fetishise. But Band of Brothers is more brutal than any of that: it tells the plain truth about…