Innholdsfortegnelse for 14-05-20 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.…

MY READING LIST I’m halfway through the new Hilary Mantel [The Mirror & The Light]. And there’s a new children’s book that a friend of mine, Alice Lickens, illustrated called Agents of the Wild: Operation Honeyhunt by Jennifer Bell. I rang them and said, “Guys, do you want me to read it?” They were thrilled. So I might film myself reading it and put it online. Like a bedtime story for kids. It’s a glorious story about a young girl who lost her parents and wants to look after every animal in the world. MY BINGE-WORTHY BOXSETS I’ve been watching the White House briefings. They are comedy gold. I’ve combined them all into a box set! I’ve also gone back to the start of Game of Thrones with my sons.…

As the Covid-19 pandemic began to grip the UK, we at The Big Issue decided to shine a light on the growing army of selfless people doing their bit for those in need. Stories of generosity and decency abound – whether from people taking up the 2.6 Challenge to raise cash for charities that need some help, or those making sure PPE makes it to frontline workers, or making thousands of people laugh with comedy straight from a virtual pub on a Saturday night (and raising thousands for foodbanks in the process). We are particularly glad to be able to thank the many who have even directed their efforts here at The Big Issue, keen to help us continue our work supporting vendors who, unable to sell on the streets…

We are living in unprecedented times. It’s a much-used phrase but sadly it’s true. When the pandemic started to have effect in Wales, supporting the most vulnerable in society was and continues to be one of our main priorities. The £10m I announced in the early days of the crisis has made a huge difference to the lives of people who were living on the streets or who were in inappropriate temporary accommodation. Increasing the availability of emergency accommodation, using B&Bs, hotels and empty student accommodation, together with the vital wraparound support services, has ensured those without a home have somewhere to stay, access to basic hygiene facilities and the opportunity to self-isolate. Simply providing people with a room to isolate in is not enough so I am very pleased…

The civil war in Laos, which ran in tandem with the one in neighbouring Vietnam, was not a conflict I knew anything about until I picked up Paul Yoon’s novel Run Me to Earth. An author’s note gives the reader the bare details: the Communist Pathet Lao were fighting the Royal Lao government, supported by the CIA, which trained and armed ethnic groups including the Hmong. From 1964 to 1973, the CIA also carried out aerial bombardments across the country. These totalled more than 580,000, or one bombardment every eight minutes, 24 hours a day for nine years. And that’s all you really learn about politics or military strategy. The beauty of Run Me to Earth is that it’s not about the specifics of this war; nor does it really…

With cinemas closed for the foreseeable future, both studios and venues have found themselves facing some degree of limbo. But in the absence of new movies to see on the big screen, the film industry is facing something of an inevitable battle, one that had been bubbling not far under the surface for some time. It’s the argument over theatrical release windows. That in the UK, an agreement is in place that for studio films of a certain size, they’ll have an exclusive period where they’re available to cinemas only. That there’s around 13 weeks after a cinema release before a film can arrive on DVD and on demand. Smaller releases – mainly arthouse movies – have been able to work on a model whereby they get a limited cinema…

Taking a ‘glass half-full’ approach, I’ve spent the last few weeks extolling the virtues of watching concerts online. You can go to the loo mid-sonata! You can eat and drink during the performance! Your sofa is much more comfortable than the venue’s seats! All of those things are true – and there are lots more positives besides, particularly wider accessibility. It’s also true that, like many others, I cannot wait to watch a live recital. To have an immediate connection with a musician and a composer – and to share that experience with hundreds of other people who all seek the same thing. It now looks increasingly likely that even when we are released from lockdown, it may well be several months – perhaps much longer – until public life…

NEED HELP? Why not get together with other Big Issue readers @BigIssue; @bigissueuk; facebook.com/bigissueuk Get the answers in next week's mag! Good luck 1. In which European city would you find St Vitus Cathedral? 2. What was the last UK Number One single of the Seventies (artist and song title, please)? 3. What is the capital of Cambodia? 4. According to the Bible, what was Noah’s dad called? 5. In Star Trek, what colour is Spock’s blood? 6. How many eyes does a bee have? 7. What was the first product to be advertised on British TV in 1955? 8. Which team was the last to win consecutive FA Cups? 9. What has a face and two hands, but no arms or legs? 10. What is the next number in…

EXERCISE 7: SUPER STAR JUMPS Everyone knows how to do a star jump – but does everyone know how to do a star jump with perfect form? Get this plyometric move right (that’s a fancy word for exercises that involve propelling your body off the ground, by the way), and you’ll work five muscle groups hard all at once. To make them tougher, try holding a small dumbbell in each hand – or putting something heavy in your bumbag. 1. Start in a quarter squat position with your back flat, feet together, and palms touching the sides of your lower legs. 2. Jump up, raising your arms and legs out to your sides (your body should form an “X” in mid-air). 3. Land softly with your feet together and immediately…

On July 6, 1957, Philip Larkin did something remarkable. He “yielded to the temptation of buying an anti-perspiration atomiser”. The bard of Hull did so “partly for the fun of squirting it about.” He was unsure, though, of whether it would be of any use. The fact that he, at 34 years old, finally succumbed begs some questions, not least what was he using before? And was he using ANYTHING before? Still, the folks on the train to the Whitsun weddings will at least have had one less thing to contend with. I know this of Larkin because of David Kynaston. He is, in many ways, the peerless historian of Britain’s recent past. One of Kynaston’s mammoth undertakings was a series recording the nation as it emerged from World War…

Power to Change is an independent trust set up to support community businesses – locally rooted, led by local people that trade for the benefit of their community. We’ve been fortunate to support many community businesses playing an active part in the revival of their high street and shaping the future of town centres. I was lucky enough to be part of the government’s High Streets Expert Panel in 2018 that led to the creation of the High Streets Fund and the High Streets Taskforce. Concern about town centres was already high then. It’s hard to underestimate how challenging the situation now is and will be as we emerge out of lockdown. Unsurprisingly, given lockdown and social distancing, there are falls in consumer spending across the country. But some places…

Outside brief periods of wartime and pandemic, the global rates of population growth have exceeded one per cent every year since 1901. However, according to the latest UN estimates they will now almost certainly fall below that level by 2023, then quickly drop to below 0.9 per cent annual growth around the year 2027, and then fall not quite as rapidly. The current pandemic is unlikely to alter these figures. By late-April, approaching 0.003 per cent of the population of the world had died due to Covid-19. If the numbers we collect about ourselves could speak, perhaps they would say: “We have given you all the information we have and given you all the options; if you humans don’t slow down, you are finished.” We should now mostly know what…

When Sarah Gordy was awarded an MBE by Prince William in 2018, she became the first woman with Down’s syndrome to be given the honour. She’s now joined the cast of The A Word – the BBC One series written by Peter Bowker, focussing on the community around a boy with autism – playing Katie Thorne, who plans to marry boyfriend Ralph (played by former Big Issue cover star Leon Harrop). Currently on lockdown at home in Lewes, East Sussex, Gordy, 43, joined The Big Issue on a video call, along with her mother and acting coach, to tell us more. The Big Issue: How are you faring during the lockdown? Sarah Gordy: I am lucky as I have woods next to where I live so I can walk safely…

Gramophone magazine has organised a fundraising drive to support classical musicians and ensure the future of live music after the crisis. An online gala, held on May 10, featured former Gramophone Classical Music Awards winners including Lise Davidsen (pictured), Boris Giltburg, Sir Antonio Pappano, Rachel Podger, Sean Shibe and Jean-Efflam Bavouzet. Each artist was invited to introduce and perform a short programme from their home, with viewers making donations to support the charity Help Musicians. Editor-in-chief of Gramophone, James Jolly, said: “Music is one of the most spiritually nourishing things humans can share, and when the musical world falls silent, we feel its loss. To ensure that the music will play again when this crisis eases, we are encouraging music-lovers to dig deep and help the musicians who enrich…

‘I can’t wait to get on the rowing machine!’ AMANDA HILL, 42 PITCH WAS: Waterstones, Cardiff Coronavirus lockdown is taking its toll on Big Issue vendors’ physical and mental health – that’s why the vital help we’re offering extends beyond food and cash. Popular Cardiff vendor Amanda Hill’s wellbeing has been significantly impacted by months of ill physical health that has limited how often she was able to sell the magazine before lockdown began. It had also led to anxiety and depression. So The Big Issue bought her a rowing machine to enable her to work on her health and fitness while she is in lockdown. As well as acting as a carer for her husband, who has sight problems and mental health issues, Amanda has been struck down by…

Home truths George Clarke’s article about the need to build safe, sustainable and affordable housing for all in the aftermath of Covid-19 [April 30-May 6], is spot on. Housing homeless people in empty hotels shows short-term measures are perfectly possible, and the crisis offers an opportunity to take a more humane approach for all citizens in future. The virus is indiscriminate on the one hand, but we now know that mortality is twice the level in poorer areas where many of our hero frontline workers live. So, we cannot return to business as usual where the poorest pay the debt as they did following the 2007/8 financial crisis. The cost should be borne by properly taxing huge corporations like Virgin and Amazon, who profit by trading in the UK and…

Once upon a time, just after the coronavirus curfew ended, virtually everyone had been changed by the spirit of social support it created. People in their neighbourhoods were now friends; delivery drivers, now cheered, joined postal workers as symbols of social goodness and kindness. And everyone valued every last health worker, from the people who clean and porter, to the people who operate, tend and care, and support all our health needs. Care homes became rallying points in the community. Old people were seen as an asset and not a liability. As if by magic people put community above their own selfish needs. And everyone realised that only in community do you have true humanity. Of course the government also registered this change. They could not simply rule on the…

Anyone sleeping rough or in emergency accommodation, where physical distancing is impossible, is particularly exposed and at greater risk during this pandemic. In addition, rough sleepers are statistically more likely to have pre-existing health conditions which place them at greater risk from becoming infected. We have therefore worked closely with local authorities and frontline partners to put in place an effective and swift response to protect people and ensure they are safe during this crisis. Fortunately, Scotland already has some of the strongest housing rights in the world. Unlike elsewhere in the UK, all homeless people have the right to accommodation and that has allowed us to respond very quickly. In March, we announced £350m of funding to help those most affected by the pandemic. That money has enabled third…

01 Forest Song by Lesia/Lesya Ukrainka The only woman pictured on Ukrainian currency, yet still underestimated internationally: of her 22 plays only a few are available in English. Once in New York, I admired her Forest Song, staged by the Yara Arts Group at La MaMa Theatre, a nice memory now when New York is unattainable: yaraartsgroup.net/forest-song 02 Maklena Grasa by Mykola Kulish One of the most innovative playwrights of the 1920s, and, like most Ukrainian writers of his generation, executed by Stalin. Kulish had a perfect sense of humour in view of an approaching global madness, something we can all use now. His drama Maklena Grasa was staged in London in 2018 by the Night Train Theatre Company. 03 Icarus with Butterfly Wings by Vasyl Holoborodko A poet, a…

The brilliant and eccentric artist Stanley Spencer used to start the day by listening to Bach. He felt that if you started the day with a magnificent human creation it would inspire you to try and achieve something wonderful. His vivid paintings of the Glasgow docks during wartime and of Jesus doing his work in the Berkshire village of Cookham, as well as his vividly fleshy works of himself and his second wife Patricia Preece, may have come into existence without the aid of Bach, but if he played the remotest part in Spencer’s brushwork then it might be worth picking up the habit. During these days of isolation, where you can go straight from waking up to feeling deadbeat, it may be best to try to avoid the news…

Bath Big Issue vendor Ian Duff ’s past has seen him spend a lot of time kitchens the world over cooking up delicious dishes. During lockdow he’s been sharing lots of his favourite recipes on his Twitter account. Here he explains how he caught the cooking bug, shares a fast-to-make favourite with Big Issue readers and offers some handy tips to help you make the most of your morsels. “I loved cooking from an early age. I was cooking my first meal when I was ei It was spaghetti bolognese and I don’t think I used any stock or anything like that. It was pretty bland. But you learn! “I’ve been everywhere: Europe, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, all o Initially I started off in Israel, a friend lived out…