Innholdsfortegnelse for 24-08-20 i The Big Issue

This week marks a key and treacherous moment for people already financially struggling as a result of Covid. In England, the moratorium on evictions for rents was set to end on August 23. This threatened to bring countless people into homelessness through no fault of their own. Wales and Scotland extended provision to protect renters from eviction. As we went to print it remained unclear if Westminster would follow suit. At the same time, the furlough scheme clock ticked down. More than nine million people have been on furlough, allowing them to stay in employment and keep heads above water. As redundancies in all sectors grow, so do fears. It has hit jobs from manufacturing and retail, to entertainment, aviation and hospitality. Nowhere is immune. The heartbreaking reality of Covid’s…

VISUAL ALBUM Beck and Nasa blast into Hyperspace  He’s always been out of this world as musicians go has Beck Hansen, but never so literally until now. The genre-clashing Californian has collaborated with Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to create a unique visual counterpart to his acclaimed 2019 album Hyperspace, utilising visuals from actual space missions re-rendered in trippy, hyper-real ways through revolutionary AI techniques. You can watch the full thing for free now on YouTube by searching #Hyperspace2020. beck.to/Hyperspace2020 PHOTOGRAPHY A charity print by Larry Fink celebrates the March on Washington  Taking place on August 28 1963 and climaxing with Dr Martin Luther King’s epochal I Have A Dream speech, the biggest political event ever mobilised by African-Americans saw 250,000 people including Harry Belafonte, Marlon Brando, Judy Garland and Sammy…

What role do music and performance play in the present crisis of a broken economy, broken by Covid-19? Coming at a time when live venues for performers are shrinking, one can imagine that the crisis of Covid-19 is also a crisis of modern performance. The damage done to our live performance outlets has been steady and painful. But suddenly, with the advent of the pandemic, it’s obvious it’s suddenly got a lot worse. Can we reverse the erosion of people standing up and playing for us? Away from the mechanical and digital? Could we possibly come out of Covid-19 more fully aware of the role of music and performance in upping our wellbeing? All I know is that if anyone whips out a guitar or a penny whistle, or anything…

“I have experienced a very difficult marital relationship and after divorce a period of homelessness,” says regular Street Art contributor MB. “Now I strive to improve and develop my personal creative skills. “Photography helps me to understand and depict London. Originally I came here from Iran as a political refugee.” 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. CULTURE BOOKS The four key skills we all need to find peace with each other Emily & Laurence Alison BROADCAST The government and ‘the science’ are proving to be uneasy bedfellows Robin Ince MUSIC Why live classical music has had to take things outdoors…

01 Geek Love by Katherine Dunn A beautiful grotesque, written in descriptive prose. It’s the story of the Binewski family, who breed freaks in order to save their travelling circus. The ultimate outsider story, it deals with cults, sexuality, beauty myths and family feuds. Provocative and funny, it’s so electric it crackles as you read. 02 The History of the Circus by Nicolas Bentley A tiny book containing a comprehensive history of the circus from Roman gladiators to the 1970s, with eight pages of sumptuous circus art. A real gem. 03 Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter Often regarded as the ultimate circus novel and labelled as magical realism, the story of Fevvers the aerialist is a quick-paced travelling circus caper. Carter’s writing is wicked and fierce and for…

When the pandemic began, some scientists thought this could be the turning point for the “we’ve had enough of experts” rhetoric, which encourages people who know somewhere between nothing and very little to realise that on certain matters their opinion drawn out of the papier-mâché of a beermat did not have the same value as that of people who had very specific focus on specific subjects they have spent a lot of time researching specifically. Shortly after the government briefings began, with fastidiously scripted rhetoric, it seemed to become apparent that THE science may be a fall guy. Politicians spread word that they were very specifically following a singular science, should anything not be as it should be it would be due to the diligence with which they followed THE…

Confusion reigned. As we went to print with this edition it was still unclear whether the government’s ban on evictions in England would remain. The measure was put in place to offer some security for those who fell into arrears, or feared they would, due to Covid crippling their finances. As part of our RORA drive we had been calling on the Westminster administration to extend that ban, which was due to lapse on August 23. Late last week, the Northern Irish executive joined devolved leaders in Scotland and Wales in introducing some measure of extension. We asked the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government if they were planning a last-minute Damascene conversion, whether the U-turn was on. We were assured that things would progress as planned and that…

Our social investment arm is supporting social enterprise The Skill Mill, which is running an intensive project that will employ 224 young people for six months each, helping them gain a qualification as well as work experience, a wage and support to move into further employment or training. Young people with convictions or involvement in antisocial behaviour from across seven local authorities will be offered a six-month job with in-built support designed to address the challenges they face and prepare them for a successful future away from the criminal justice system. The jobs on offer are mostly in construction and environmental maintenance – shown to boost mental and physical wellbeing through lots of time spent outdoors. The participants also earn a Level 2 AQA qualification in employability skills and The…

On November 9 1938 – Kristallnacht – the hospital was inundated with dozens of casualties. Guttmann insisted that all wounded were admitted. The next day he was summoned to the hospital by the Gestapo to explain his actions. Leaving the house, his wife made sure he took his boots and overcoat as she was sure he’d be sent to a concentration camp. Instead, Guttmann invented diagnoses to justify why the patients could not be released into custody. Out of 64 people, Guttmann prevented 60 from being arrested and almost certainly sent to their deaths. In 1939, Guttmann was ordered by the Nazi government to travel to Portugal to treat a friend of the Portuguese dictator António de Oliveira Salazar. The trip stopped over in London, where Guttmann, with his wife…

A culture clash in 1970s Ireland becomes a tale of compassion, says Jane Graham Irish writer Donal Ryan has a series of highly acclaimed books behind him, including his Booker longlisted (and should have been shortlisted) 2018 novel, From a Low and Quiet Sea. His reputation as an insightful and elegiac writer stands out even among his fellow native warrior-poets. His latest work, Strange Flowers, has, from the beginning, an even more deeply-felt tone than its predecessors, with profound bass notes I wondered if I was over-reading, until I found out more about the background of its inspiration. This story of familial loss and discovery, disconnection and reconnection was written in “a haze of shock and extreme grief” three years ago, just after the death of Ryan’s father. Set in…

EASTON CHRISTIAN, 66 PITCH: White City tube station, London Monday-Friday 6am-11am Easton’s delighted to be back on his pitch after four months away, but with less footfall than before he’s having to cast the net wider to get his sales back to where they were I’ve been selling the magazine since 2008 and since coming back after lockdown it has been like starting again. At the moment a lot of my regular customers are still working from home rather than in central London so they don’t come out any more. It’s about one third of the number of people who would normally be here. I’m really missing them, although I’ve managed to see one or two of my usual customers, for the rest I have seen nothing. I’ve been barely…

VENDOR RETURN VENDORS: Not all vendors have been able to return to their pitches at once. Health issues mean some are shielding and areas of the country are subject to local lockdowns. We will continue to support vendors who need help until they can sell again. PPE: Safety is key, we do not want to risk any vendor or customer’s health. So we have provided ‘Welcome Back Packs’ for each vendor that include masks, gloves, sanitiser and wipes. Vendors will also be given waterproof bags to safely store magazines. PITCHES: Some pitches may have moved, depending on local safety measures and circumstances. A large number of vendors will now be offering contactless payment, but they will continue to accept cash – there is no indication that handling cash or magazines…

A global problem requires a global response. That’s been made abundantly clear in the last few months thanks to the battle against Covid-19. But that is also true of the social challenges that follow the health crisis, and has driven a co-ordinated response to the problem of empty homes for the first time. It’s why British campaigners Action on Empty Homes have joined forces with Prosper Australia and the Local Initiatives Support Corporation from the United States to create the Global Empty Homes Network (GEHN). In the middle of a housing crisis, there are 226,000 long-term empty homes and 253,000 second homes in England and up to 100,000 Airbnb lets standing empty all over the country. The Big Issue has been drawing attention to the issue since 2015 when we…

What do you think of Brexit – in or out? Police stop and search – racist or reasonable? Face masks in shops – on or off? Regardless of ‘which side you are on’, the focus should not be about insisting you are right and others are wrong. Nor should complex issues be reduced to a shouting match. In our new book Rapport: The Four Ways to Read People, we reveal the key to developing compassion and understanding for one another. One of the four key skills we discuss is managing conflict. The book draws on some of the research conducted over the last 20 years in some very extreme environments, including police interviews with suspects. In these interactions conflict is often inevitable. But elite interrogators have mastered the following ‘HEAR’…

YOU WILL NEED • Mobile or compact digital camera • New batteries • Screwdriver set • Plectrums or old credit cards for prying • Cotton buds or a cloth • Isopropyl alcohol, switch cleaning fluid or white vinegar — DO NOT use water or soap! 01 CHECK THAT THE INFRARED SIGNAL IS WORKING  The easy way to test a remote is by looking at it through a camera phone – if it’s working you’d expect to see a blinking light on the front of the remote (with it pointed roughly towards the lens) through the camera. This works on older Androids, digital compact cameras and phones that do not have an infrared filter. New iPhones have these filters and will disappoint you. If you don’t get a signal from your…

A hand up... Our sellers BUY the magazine for £1.50 and sell it for £3, keeping the difference. Not a handout… Vendors 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 to 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.…