Innholdsfortegnelse for 22-05-2017 i The Big Issue

Welcome to the latest edition of The Big Issue. The magazine has an interview with the children’s author Judith Kerr – you can read about her amazing life on page 16. The Big Issue always has good stuff on books and we also have this great literacy campaign to help keep libraries open. I really value my own library in Portsmouth – for the newspapers, books and somewhere to go. I’m there at the end of each afternoon to play Scrabble with friends. Luckily I have somewhere to stay at the moment but it’s obvious there’s not enough affordable housing getting built these days. You can read more about that on page 27. And you can read more of my story on page 46.…

I watched a screening of I, Daniel Blake last night and there were some things in there that really resonated with me – but not in the way I expected. Yes, there were massive issues: systemic failures, austerity and unemployment. But what really struck me were some subtler points: a white man from Newcastle’s friendship with his younger black neighbour; the relationship that develops between Daniel and a single mother from London who he meets at the Job Centre. Fear, suspicion and disunity are powerful forces, and if we fear the person who lives at number seven or number nine then we are likely to retreat into our shells, our televisions, our newspapers and the internet. But if we are friends with the person or family at number seven then…

As a struggling homeless artist, street art sensation Stik by chance met a woman who changed his life: pop star Sheila Chandra. Now the artist is repaying her by penning an introduction to her new book, Organizing for Creative People. Released on May 25 by Watkins Publishing, the book is a bible for creative people. Chandra was a successful singer and found pop fame in the 1980s singing Ever So Lonely with the band Monsoon. Stik said: “Around 10 years ago at a party I met [this] remarkable woman and we just clicked.” Stik talks more about Chandra in a full interview at bigissue.com. And we have five copies of the book to give away, signed by Stik. See bigissue.com to enter.…

When Harry Styles makes his acting debut this summer playing a soldier in Christopher Nolan’s war epic Dunkirk, his young fans might be in for a shock as the One Direction star meets a rumoured-to-be violent demise. And yet the challenging thoughts and emotions they encounter upon seeing their pinup shot, drowned, bayonetted, decapitated, blown to bits, squashed by a tank or possibly even all the above – just speculating here, kids – may pale in comparison next to the challenging thoughts and emotions they’ve already encountered upon listening to Harry’s self-titled debut solo album. In a classic episode of a boyband member wishing to now be taken seriously as a solo musician, Styles has sought to outflank his legions of screaming teenage acolytes by rooting through their parents’ CDs…

WE BELIEVE in a hand up, not a handout... Which is why our sellers BUY every copy of the magazine for £1.25 and sell it for £2.50. WE BELIEVE in 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. WE BELIEVE poverty is indiscriminate… Which is why we provide ANYONE whose life is blighted by poverty with the opportunity to earn a LEGITIMATE income. WE BELIEVE in the right to citizenship… Which is why The Big Issue Foundation, our charitable arm, helps sellers tackle social and financial exclusion. WE BELIEVE in prevention… Which is why Big Issue Invest offers backing and investments to social enterprises, charities and businesses which deliver social value to communities.…

We missed a bit. Or maybe they did. Ahead of the last general election, the Labour party had a very good idea. They said that if elected they’d levy a five per cent charge on the TV revenue of the Premier League. That would then be reinvested into grassroots sport. But that was way back in 2015, when elections were still relatively rare and manifestos didn’t have to be conceived on the back of an envelope on a weekend off. Last week’s manifesto launches didn’t make quite such clear demands of football’s elite. Labour scuffed around the issue, talking about fan representation at clubs and holding the league bosses to account over the five per cent. Tories focused on Brexit, which I suppose was a way of committing to take…

Rhys Ifans wants you to join him in ending homelessness. The actor, who in 2013 played a homeless man caught up in the Occupy movement in the play Protest Song, is backing Shelter Cymru’s 7 Ways You Can End Homelessness campaign. “I find it shocking that every year in Wales more than 2,800 children have to go through the trauma of homelessness,” he says. “This should not be happening in the 21st century. An end to homelessness is possible, if we work together. ” The campaign outlines proactive measures everyone can take, from volunteering in outreach services to sending alerts to Streetlink about rough sleepers who may need help. Read about it at sheltercymru.org.uk/7-ways…

“Hanging the wrong man was what scuppered the death penalty” Back when Ian Brady and Myra Hindley were found guilty of their crimes I was a 20-year-old, non-reconstituted ‘hang them high but let the family tear their eyeballs out first’ sort of fellow. So last week when I read on the front of an issue of the Daily Mirror their take on the death of Ian Brady –“Burn in Hell” – I was thrown back to those times. It was the summer of the last time England won the World Cup, and in autumn the appalling death of many children, not at the hands of a pair of perverted killers, but of a nationalised industry. A mountain of slurry and coal waste was left above a school in Aberfan and…

“ALL POLITICAL PARTIES NEED A BIT OF GINGERING ON EVERY NOW AND THEN, WHETHER IT IS JEREMY CORBYN OR SOMEONE ELSE. LET’S LEAVE IT AT THAT” “I was the first woman to be Speaker. I might also be the first to wear my slippers in the chamber of the House of Lords!” Betty Boothroyd could not be more at home, as she pads the plush halls of the Houses of Parliament in her most comfortable footwear. We meet, fittingly, in the Central Lobby, midway between the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two grand chambers in which Baroness Boothroyd – these days serving as a crossbench peer – has spent the majority of her working life. The lobby is a mass of action. I wait for the…

1. THE COMPLETE POLYSYLLABIC SPREE Nick Hornby This journey through three years of Hornby’s reading is enormously comforting. It feels like a conversation with the most interesting person you have ever met. When Hornby loves a book, you smile knowingly; when he doesn’t, the stinging prose has you roaring for more. 2. FAHRENHEIT 451 Ray Bradbury There is nothing more dystopian to the bibliophile than a world without books. Here, Bradbury depicts a society hell-bent on book-burning in an intense and vital novel. What comes out is this important truth: simple things – nature, books – are the key to joy. 3. MATILDA Roald Dahl The book that tells you it’s OK to hide behind pages, just when you need that message most. And the idea that reading can give…

Mind the pay gap The Big Issue often points out that prevention is better than cure – but you don’t go far enough. More than three million children are being brought up in poverty because the lowest wages don’t allow a decent standard of living. The most important thing anyone does is bring up children and this society woefully neglects to do that properly. Bringing up children calls for a proper education for all – not cuts in school budgets. Children who are hungry or cold find learning hard. We should be increasing school budgets and improving state education to compete with private education. State educated children should be winning the competition for their share of the best jobs. You say you want to see social justice for all. The…

Acclaimed street artist and friend of The Big Issue Ben Eine has created a giant new work in support of people fighting for human rights. He has painted the word ‘BRAVE’ in his distinctive typography in 16-foot high letters, marking the launch of Amnesty International’s new global campaign and as part of the regeneration scheme Colour in Romford. “From the safety of my comfort zone, I’m trying to support artists and others around the world to be brave,” said Eine, who designed a special edition of The Big Issue celebrating selling 200 million copies. “It’s important to stand up for them so they know the efforts they make for a better world and to challenge injustice don’t go unnoticed.” FROM THE VAULT... MAY 6–12, 2002 ISSUE 487 We…

A life in ORDER 1929 Born in Dewsbury, Yorkshire, the only child of textile workers Ben and Mary. 1943 Wins a scholarship to the Dewsbury College of Commerce and Art, despite failing her 11-Plus. Leaves at 16, works in a cosmetics shop, before dancing with the famous Tiller Girls for a few months. 1957 Stands for parliament for the first time in Leicester South East. Further unsuccessful campaigns will follow, in Peterborough (1959), Nelson and Colne (1968) and Rossendale (1970). 1960 Travels to the US to join Democrat John F Kennedy’s presidential campaign, before working on Capitol Hill for Republican Congressman Silvio Conte. 1973 Elected as MP for West Bromwich, she serves until 2000 after joining Labour’s National Executive Committee in 1981 1987 Boothroyd (on the right) is joined here…

PRISON ART WISH YOU WERE HERE? Postcards from Prison , an event hosted by our very own John Bird, showcased the work of 160 prisoners from across the UK alongside paintings and drawings by some of the biggest names from the world of art. Each £100 ticket included an original work on a postcard, meaning guests headed home with a genuine Grayson Perry, Cornelia Parker or Anish Kapoor – or an insightful glimpse into the thoughts and feelings of someone behind bars, such as this picture from an inmate at HM Prison Send. All funds go to championing the art of prisoners and those in secure hospitals and immigration removal centres. Koestlertrust.org.uk…

Mike Bartlett’s King Charles III is an imagining of the Prince of Wales’ accession to the throne following the Queen’s death. When he refuses to sign a controversial bill into law, political chaos ensues – a constitutional crisis, rioting on the streets and a tank in front of Buckingham Palace. As Charles wrestles with his own identity, the playful and poignant drama explores the implications for him, his family and his subjects. The inventive ‘future history’ drama sees the late Tim Pigott-Smith (Downton Abbey, The Hour) as Charles, with Oliver Chris (Breathless) as William, Charlotte Riley (Close to the Enemy, Peaky Blinders) as Kate, Richard Goulding (The Windsors, Ripper Street) as Harry and Margot Leicester (The Take) as Camilla. King Charles III is out now on DVD and…