Innholdsfortegnelse for 17-02-20 i The Big Issue

It’s full steam ahead for HS2… just don’t mention the cost. But where would you build a high-speed rail link? @robinprice1975 I welcome this decision as I feel it will cut journey times and increase passenger numbers. You only got to look at Scotland and what they have achieved with the borders line. But ye. Anywhere? Weston-Bristol so I could get my Big Issue mags to my customers quicker. Lol! @pilkingtonhale East-West pretty much anywhere in England, starting with the Pennines Carlisle to Edinburgh via Hawick and Galashiels #Waverley Margot Montgomerie, Facebook Penzance to Paddington, Christpher Burns, Facebook Westminster to Hell, Simon Whitehead, Facebook WASTE.... OF...... MONEY Rachel Harrington, Facebook…

Next time you see a DJ behind the decks, keep an eye out to see if they’re wearing this badge. It bears the logo of new collective DJs Against Street Poverty (DASP), created to ask DJs to commit to supporting a soup kitchen, homeless shelter, foodbank or homelessness charity of their choice. The idea is the brainchild of London DJs Mr Boogie and Dr Pudding, real names Goobi Kyazze and David Bryceland. The pair kicked off the grassroots movement with a launch party at London’s Vortex Jazz Club on February 1 and hope to follow that up with another event at Brilliant Corners in Dalston on March 5. Mr Boogie told The Big Issue he was inspired to create DASP last autumn following a meeting with a homeless man called…

The cat brought in a rabbit the other day. If a rabbit gets a meal any day of the year it has to work for it. The cat does not have to do a stroke of work to receive its daily fare. The rabbit may annoy the farmer or the gardener. But since I’m neither, rabbits are simply familiar characters in Beatrix Potter books. Why do we keep a little aristocrat in our midst, feeding its mouth two times a day? And then have to clean the carpets of offal and other innards? Pick up fur from under furniture? Why? Because we love the little fellow. We even gave him a name whilst still a kitten ahead of any evidence of how he would turn out: Maestro. Fortunately I was…

When I read a truly great debut novel my heart sings. When I read a novel that dissects race and class with scalpel-like precision, it gives me faith in the future of publishing – an industry once so reticent to acknowledge these issues that now publishes a book with those subjects at its core to great fanfare. Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid has come accompanied by a buzz and it is deserving of it all. Telling the story of Emira, a young black woman who is all too aware that she’ll soon have to give up her part-time position babysitting a child she loves in order to get a job with health insurance and Alix, her white employer, a life coach who gives talks and seminars on the…

Hey Girls is proud to be a social enterprise – a business that prioritises purpose over profit. We are lucky to be supported by Caitlin Moran, bestselling author, journalist and general badass feminist. Caitlin has written about experiencing period poverty when growing up. Now she’s backing social enterprise as a way to end period poverty. “If social enterprise didn’t exist, I’d like to think I’d invent it myself,” she says.“They are, in short, businesses that do good – ploughing profits back into the community, and always finding some new, brilliant way of just doing good and being lovely, and all those old-fashioned ideals we need so badly these days.” In October, Caitlin teamed up with Hey Girls and Social Enterprise UK for the ‘Buy Social for a Better World’ campaign…

PERIOD POVERTY NORTH CUMBRIA Carlisle Period Pover ty Nor th Cumbria is a project run by volunteers to support local people struggling to afford or access appropriate period products. They collect and distribute donated products through community-based services and other agencies. @PeriodNorth EVERY MONTH Manchester Every Month provides period products to people living in poverty across Greater Manchester.They create packs which include pads, tampons and a chocolate bar and distribute them through foodbanks in the area. @everymonthmcr THE HYGIENE BANK UK-wide Many people on low incomes or in crisis have to make the distressing decision to eat or stay clean, because they can’t afford to do both.The Hygiene Bank collects donated hygiene and personal grooming products and distributes them to a network of hundreds of grassroots charities across the UK…

ENTRY LEVEL Tell your friends... A surprising number of people don’t know pads and tampons contain plastic. Most commercial pads are 90% plastic with a pack containing similar amounts to five plastic bags. Switch to non-applicator tampons – they are cheaper and easy to use with a bit of practice. Never flush your period products down the toilet – always put them in a bin, even if you have to wrap them and carry them with you to find one. MEDIUM LEVEL Switch to plastic-free pads and tampons... Many brands, including Hey Girls, use alternative materials to create quality period products. No plastic, no chemicals – better for you and better for the planet. COMMITTED Switch to reusable period products... Menstrual cups, period pants, and cloth pads drastically reduce waste,…

We don’t value the people who deserve it enough. And that means they don’t get paid enough. In London last week, the Supreme Court convened to rule on a long-running dispute over whether care workers who stay overnight with those they are looking after should be paid minimum hourly wage. At present, some of these care workers receive a flat rate of less than £30. And for that, they need to be in attendance and ready to supply whatever help and support is needed from 10pm to 7am. They do not have to be awake all the time, but those who do the job say it is impossible to sleep as they have to keep a “listening ear” at all times. They are looking after people with frequently severe physical…

What people need to escape homelessness is usually tangible: money. But buffeted between hostel and job centre, saving cash is near impossible. That’s why Meg Doherty launched Fat Macy’s, a London catering social enterprise with a difference. As well as giving homeless people the experience they need to get back on their feet in the job market, it centres on a housing deposit grant scheme that removes the biggest barrier for people locked out of getting a home of their own. After getting a degree in French and English literature in Edinburgh, Doherty took on social innovation and entrepreneurship course Year Here. At the same time, she started working in a north London hostel and was immediately surprised by the reality of homelessness for so many. “The main thing I…

With his latest film, Steve Coogan wants to start a big conversation. Greed is the tragi-comic tale of an obnoxious, super-rich retailer who has made billions on the back of paying poverty wages, aggressive tax avoidance, bullying, bribery and basking in the vicarious glow of paid-for celebrity friends. The character of Sir Richard McCreadie is a sleazy, macho dinosaur who peddles a public image of a self-made man despite a private education and huge privilege. He’s known – affectionately – by the tabloids as Greedy McCreadie. In the film, directed by Coogan’s frequent collaborator Michael Winterbottom, after draining more than a billion pounds from his company into his wife’s bank account, McCreadie prepares for his 60th birthday party, complete with bespoke Roman amphitheatre, performing lion and expensively procured celebrity guests.…

Rene lives in London and submits her artworks via the 240 Project, a health activity centre for people affected by homelessness and exclusion. She is in her 90s. Arthritis and a degenerative eye condition made it hard for her to continue submitting the same intricate magazine collages she used to enjoy making, so she found a new approach. “I’m using coloured paper these days, ” she explains, “cutting my own, simple, shapes. I got inspired by a Matisse exhibition. Ill health made him have to change his approach. I don’t rush it, I take my time. “I remember my first collage, it got exhibited on The Strand, and all these young artists were coming up to me saying ‘Did you do that?’ I nodded and they put their thumbs up.…

01 The Ends of Collage byYuval Etgar(editor) A collection of writings running from practitioners like Max Ernst and Hannah Höch right up to Sherrie Levine. It’s a collage of collages about collage, possibly? 02 Because She Never Asked by Enrique Vila-Matas (translated byValerie Miles) No contemporary artist has been fictionalised more than Sophie Calle, perhaps because her artworks appear like unwritten novels. This is the best of the bunch: short, sharp and thoroughly disorientating. 03 A Series of Utterly Improbable, Yet Extraordinary Renditions by Arthur Jafa If it wasn’t so ridiculously huge, this would be my handbook. Filmmaker and artist Jafa interpolates images between specially commissioned and ‘found’ texts from a dizzying selection of thinkers and theorists. 04 Life: A User’s Manual by Georges Perec In the central strand of…

I recently introduced my 12-year-old daughter to the magnifcent mid-Noughties comedy drama Ugly Betty. In case you never saw it, the show is about smart but unstylish Betty, a Mexican-American from working-class Queens who manages to land a job at a high-class fashion magazine. It is an underrated gem. The script is razor-sharp, the stories are funny and moving and all the performances are brilliant. “Didn’t you used to work in magazines Dad?” my daughter asked me while we were watching. I did, I told her, but not ones like this. The mag in Ugly Betty is called Mode where everyone is beautiful and rich. I cut my teeth on what we used to unashamedly call lads’ mags in the Nineties and Noughties where, for a while, the sales were…

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.…

An office wouldn’t allow staff to go without pens, paper, or loo roll… So why don’t they provide period products? Allow us to introduce you to the Hey Girls Period Dignity Movement. Professional women are not necessarily living in poverty – for many, the high price of period products is annoying, but not prohibitive. But that’s not what Period Dignity is about.We’re asking employers to provide pads and tampons in their toilets – a simple and affordable policy to support staff. The Period Dignity campaign is part of a wider mission to tackle gender inequality in the workplace. Periods can be a barrier to fully participating in the working day – especially for women struggling with money, with heavy periods, with a menstrual health condition, or experiencing peri-menopause. Fifty per…

Whether you’re a regular cup user or you’ve never seen one before we think you’ll LOVE the cup. For many years, the cup has been a well-kept secret, but here at Hey Girls we think everyone should be familiar with this handy tool for managing periods. Menstrual cups are bell-shaped devices that sit inside the vagina and collect blood. Unlike a tampon, which is discarded after a few hours, a cup is emptied and reinserted again and again.They are folded to insert and then ‘pop’ open, forming a light suction to hold them in place – this can take some practice! Cups can hold more fluid than other products so don’t need to be changed as frequently.They are a cleaner, greener, cheaper, more comfortable alternative to tampons.And if you look…

@missypoops This is a fantastic #thebigissue, all about libraries and how important they are. One of my most favourite memories from childhood was being taken to get a library card and borrowing as many books as I liked. Now I do that for my own son. #saveourlibraries @LibrariesIre “So, what’s so special about a public library? Well, for starters they are a free and accessible community resource – something that is becoming ever more scarce” @BigIssue goes big with love for libraries this issue. What a cover! #WhyBooksMatter #TakeACloserLook #LoveLibraries @RealGeoffBarton “Libraries are more than just books; they represent what it means to be truly human. They contain the minds of our ancestors as well as the latest thinking of contemporary minds”: well said @Bobby_Seagull in this week’s @BigIssue ‘Love…

When it comes to racism, I know what I’m talking about, me.* That’s enough to make you lock yourself in your car. Let’s start again. I’ve heard early readers say my novel The Treatment is about racism, its source a notorious race crime of the 1990s. People talk about racism, race, diversity and identity much more than they used to; they talk appropriately. This is a good thing; though when you take stock, you may doubt whether it’s an absolute good for the novel. Why? What if it blocks the view of other issues? Or forgets that valuable being, the ‘individual’? Or makes readers feel that they’re wrong to pay attention to the novel’s variety? Let me consider the first two points here. In a failed book, I wrote about…

Steve Coogan appears in Greed , a brash, funny satire with a conscience from Michael Winterbottom, playing a bullying billionaire tycoon, Sir Richard “Greedy” McCreadie. A tabloid celebrity with a barrow-boy persona, Sir Greedy has wheeled and dealed his way to the top of retail, the King of the High Street, stashing his dosh away in tax-free Monaco where he keeps a $100m superyacht. Any resemblance to an actual person here is entirely intentional. Greed seems to be a thinly veiled portrait of Topshop boss Philip Green. It begins hilariously, the script written by Winterbottom with additional material, presumably the one-liners and acid burn insults, by The Thick of It and Veep’s Sean Gray. We meet McCreadie on the Greek island of Mykonos where he is throwing himself a lavish…

One in eight people in the UK now listens to podcasts on a weekly basis, according to regulator Ofcom – and that figure has more than doubled over the past five years. There are plenty of classical music options, of course: That Classical Podcast, Aria Code and The Open Ears Project are good starting points. What’s more intriguing is the impact the format is having on music itself. The Missing Cryptoqueen – a brilliant investigation into the murky world of cryptocurrency OneCoin and its lost leader – commissioned an original soundtrack for the show, written and performed by Phil Channell, Dessislava Stefanova and the London Bulgarian Choir. Hit podcast This American Life regularly uses bespoke music, featuring composers such as Christina Courtin and Larry Goldings. Similarly, audiobooks are becoming increasingly…

“My mum always says,‘Look at what a can of worms you’ve opened!’” Celia Hodson is leading the charge to end period poverty and is on a mission to change the conversation around menstruation. She launched Hey Girls, a pioneering social enterprise based in East Lothian, with daughters Becky and Kate in early 2018. Now a team of 13, they manufacture and provide a range of sustainable, reusable and biodegradable period products, from pads, tampons and menstrual cups to period-proof underwear that won’t break the bank. And their buy-one-give-one model means for every product purchased, the social enterprise will donate one to someone in need in the local area. More than seven million products have been donated so far. In 2018 charity Plan International UK found that one in 10 girls…