Innholdsfortegnelse for 30-04-20 i The Big Issue

A hand up... Proceeds from sales of this magazine are being used to tide over our vendors until they can get back to work on their pitches. Not a handout… In ordinary circumstances our vendors buy magazines for half the cover price and sell at full price, keeping the difference. They earn a legitimate income, and gain valuable social and employability skills. With your support now, we will continue to do so once the crisis has passed. 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.…

I know three people who got dogs during the lockdown. Legally, I should add. These are not dodgy under the cover of darkness deals. They’re all responsible people. All three were planning on this before the world changed and they were just waiting on the puppies to get their jabs and be ready. The timing is good for them. Not simply because they have a lot of time spare to get training in place. And puppies do like training attention. People are ready for the good company that dogs can bring. More ready than ever. We happily devoted a lot of space last week to our vendors and their dogs. In this time of isolation and separateness the dogs are incredible and true companions. I’m sure a lot of you…

If the late Malcolm McLaren’s sole contribution to popular culture had been his stage-management of the Sex Pistols, that in itself would secure his place in the pantheon. But as this painstaking biography makes clear, his pivotal involvement in the British punk scene was merely an epic chapter or three in the life of a polymath artist who never sat still. In The Life and Times of Malcolm McLaren , author Paul Gorman – who knew McLaren tangentially – fulfils his stated aim of presenting a rounded portrait of this oft-misunderstood eccentric. McLaren was a visionary showman who revelled in self-mythology, hyperbole and loquacious obfuscation. He was always ‘on’ in public, hence why he came to be seen as a caricature. When you hype yourself as an arch-manipulator, a spiv…

The Big Issue: Part of the proceeds of Lean On Me is going towards a mental health charity for NHS workers. Is there enough support for them? Dr Ranj: We’ve been looking at the wellbeing of our workforce more because the pressures on the NHS were growing before coronavirus came along. I don’t want to use the word unprecedented because everybody is saying that, but it’s an unusual time. We’ve never been in this kind of situation. Every stress is heightened. People are really struggling when it comes to physical and mental health. I work in A&E, which is one of the places that you really see that because it’s an intense, hectic environment. As time has gone on, extra measures have grown but coronavirus has put a magnifying glass…

EXERCISE 5: BURPEES When it comes to frying fat with zero equipment to hand, there are few exercises better than the burpee. Fun fact: the exercise was named in the 1930s after its inventor, American physiologist Royal H Burpee and was adopted by the US armed forces during WW2 as a way of assessing the fitness of recruits. 1. From a standing position squat down until your thighs are parallel to the floor and place your palms on the floor. 2. Kick your feet back as you can while keeping y extended. As soon as yo jump them back in towa hands, then jump up int Land and immediately to go into the next rep. 3. Do as many as you can in 30 seconds. Stand to attention, salute! Follow…

RE JOE WICKS [APRIL 16-22] Wendy O'Reilly Well done Joe, you are doing great things. You are incredibly inspirational and you have no idea how many lives you are changing for the better. I can’t thank you enough x Lisa Wetton Both you and Capt Tom Moore will deserve to be awarded with a UK honour when we get to the other side of Covid-19. You are both an inspiration to us all and deserve national recognition. Thank you x Philippa Gri›fin I subscribed to The Big Issue a few weeks ago. My kids were really excited when the latest copy arrived and you were on the cover. _laurenjack Thanks for sharing Joe. I donated in memory of my gramma, who became good friends with all our local vendors and…

HOTEL DONNY HILTON, 54 LONDON Last week homeless charity Groundswell revealed that the speed at which rough sleepers were moved off the streets and indoors meant that, initially, “there was a lack of basic food, limited medical support and challenges accessing prescriptions”. The situation has since improved but one of our London vendors, Donny Hilton, tells The Big Issue that he “feels lucky” to be accommodated during the crisis. Outreach workers from charity St Mungo’s offered him a room in a Holiday Inn not far from where he had been squatting, and he can stay in the hotel for at least three months. “They came and spoke to us and showed us pictures of the place,” says Donny. “It’s a lovely room. You’ve got a double bed, plasma television, a…

Be not surprised that something deep inside of you starts playing with your mind in this lockdown. I know I’m back at the beginning of time, the 1950s. Back then we were always running out of milk, bread, tea, margarine – butter on Saturday and Sunday – and eggs. And now it’s the first thing I think of when I wake. Have we got enough of the above, the staples of my diet? Yes, my diet is my prime concern. It’s also a variation on the ‘first up, best dressed’ thinking where you got choice if you were first on the scene. The sooner you arrived for breakfast the more you had of the disappearing eggs, marge and bread, and the mugs of tea. I am irritating those around me…

t the heart of lockdown is its biggest contradiction: while people are banned from moving, the world is changing faster than many have ever seen. What was presented as fact is turned on its head: “low-skilled” workers are in fact our most precious asset; the “magic money tree” exists; the Daily Mail welcomes Romanian fruit-pickers. Many of us welcome this recognition that ‘normal’ was a system of protections and choices for a privileged group. Many others want to return to it. On March 31, journalist Charles Moore argued in a Radio 4 interview that “an emergency is not the same as normal life”, oblivious to those for whom every day pre-pandemic felt like an emergency because policymakers didn’t see them. A recent tweet I received read: “We have to end…

The Big Issue – changing lives since 1991 Given that your publication has a significant impact on changing the lives of its vendors, I thought you might also be interested in hearing how it’s changed mine. In addition to informing and entertaining me through its articles, as a result of an advertisement some years ago, my energy supplier has been Good Energy ever since. I get the very informative update from The Conversation every morning, I love going to the Victorious Festival whenever possible, also spotted in BI, and my youngest daughter and I took part in The Big Sleep Out at The Oval a couple of years ago, giving us a lovely memory of doing a good thing together. Most recently, Graeme Virtue’s ‘Eye of the beholder’ review [Film,…

I wanted to reach out and send a message to Wayne who sells The Big Issue at the corner of Aldwych and Houghton Street, near Holborn station. Hope this message finds you OK at this very difficult time. Sending my greetings and best wishes and good luck from Oxford (I'm just working from home). Thinking of your Dad and family too, I know they have some health conditions. You always managed to find a way to look out for people when they are struggling even when you are facing tough times yourself. Stay strong! When this is all over hope to say hi when I next come to London (who knows when it will be! Fingers crossed!) All the best. Portia Roelofs My husband and I have taken out the…

Since last week there has been a loosening of the lockdown. German federalism is now ensuring that different rules apply in 16 states. In addition, cities can decide their own restrictions. Here in North Rhine-Westphalia, many shops have been allowed to reopen since Monday, with relatively strict hygiene rules. Public opinion is divided on whether this is the right step or whether it increases the likelihood of another lockdown. We have decided not to start selling on the street again yet. Our financial means are sufficient for six more weeks, we get so many donations that we can provide our vendors with supermarket vouchers. We have expanded our street work and in addition, with partners from our network, we have opened a hygiene centre with showers and a clothing store.…

MY SOUNDTRACK I’ve managed to source from Japan a boxset of Soul Train, which was this massive black American music programme in the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties. You’ve got people like Marvin Gaye, Al Green and Curtis Mayfield performing in the studio with the Soul Train line dancers, and during these times that is tremendously uplifting. Like the box set of The Old Grey Whistle Test, it functions both as a provider of musical gems, but also a social document. I’ve always been fascinated by the music’s social and cultural impact. MY EXERCISE REGIME I’ve been going out running for an hour a day and doing weights for an hour as well. So exercise has been massive for me. I’m trying as hard as I can to complement that training…

Hope is everything… I've always thought that. A you can work towards something. It's a medicine and a shield. I'm an optimist, I always see the good in people.” Although this does not sound like Ricky Gervais, the 56-year-old actor, writer, director, controversial comedian and awards show roaster is an unlikely source of encouragement in these troubled times. Running through his cringe-inducing humour there has always been a streak of sentimentality. While painful-to-watch impressions, motivational speeches and even more excruciating dance moves were the teeth and claws of The Office , the blushing romance between Dawn and Tim were its heart. It’s also the relationships between characters in Extras and Derek that linger in memory longer than individual episodes. This year Gervais is still riding a wave of notoriety after…

“I suppose on the day I was angry,” explains frequent Street Art contributor Mary of the fairly straightforward inspiration behind this work. “He looks like he’s smoking and I gave up in October,” she adds. “It’s crazy giving up, it makes you feel more sick.” Everyday life in London at the moment gives Mary “a weird feeling,” she says. “Everybody wearing masks and crossing over in front of you like dodgeball, long waiting in shops. “I am still painting and have lots of time on my hands to create. After the lockdown I would like to have a solo show and maybe next year think about going back to study, start at the beginning again, which would be a BTEC in art.” The work on this page is created by…

01 Dublin Murder Squad series by Tana French An unusual series, in that each book has a different narrator and is as much about that narrator as it is about the crime. Incredibly strong character voices, stunning writing and social commentary make these books stand out. 02 Manon Bradshaw series by Susie Steiner This series includes wonderfully drawn characters with little details that make them leap off the page. Some of the main character’s observations have me laughing out loud, and the crimes are current and intriguing too. 03 Cat Kinsella series by Caz Frear These are fresh, modern, character- driven procedurals which again have a wonderfully funny and real main character who I love spending time with. The books are packed with tension, humour and irony. The plotting is…

I’m finding muscles that I didn’t know I had’ EARL JOHN CHARLTON, 42 PITCH WAS: Central Station, Newcastle Earl is coming through the Covid-19 lockdown fighting. The popular seller had been due to head into the ring for a charity boxing match to raise £775 for Cancer Research UK in memory of his dad and uncle on March 21. The fight is now on hold until a later date after organisers were forced to call it off. But that doesn’t mean that Earl has taken the opportunity to relax while in lockdown. He’s been throwing himself into a training regime while he is stuck in self-isolation to ensure he is ready for the rescheduled bout. He’s been participating in online sessions with event planners Ultra White Collar Boxing, and insists…