Innholdsfortegnelse for 06-05-2017 i The Big Issue

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.…

On holiday in Scotland I bought a Big Issue in Edinburgh. I was horrified by the ignorance of the letter from Helen Wood [May 22-28], saying that the Irish border will not be a problem. I am Irish, though living in England, we have a cottage in County Leitrim close to the border, and lots of relatives scattered throughout Ireland. What will happen to the border is the number one worry in Ireland, on both sides of the border. No one wants a return to bitter sectarian fighting and destruction. I don’t know whether Helen has been living on the Moon this past 45 years but there has been a very bitter civil war in Northern Ireland, and hard-won peace. The border now exists in name only. We often go…

Kind-hearted Big Issue vendor Andrew McGarry celebrated finding accommodation in Exeter with an amazing gesture. He decided to spend £100 of his earnings from selling the magazine near Cathedral Green on socks and underwear for rough sleepers who visit St Petrock’s homeless centre. “Once you’ve been homeless yourself you know that it’s important to have support and a lifeline you can lean on,” he said. “I thought it was about time I gave a little back to people who also may be in need.” It is not the first time Andrew has shared his good fortune, having also bought warm clothing from his earnings last Christmas.…

“We still tinker. We invest in emergency – dealing with the effects and not the causes” The retired though still campaigning professor, the prevention campaigner, myself and Oliver sat in the large café in the most exquisite museum in London. Entering it and looking at the collection of paintings is like going back to the days before the French Revolution. Each time I go I am astonished how rich it is in creating an image of a time and not just of a lot of old paintings, armour and furniture. It’s like a bit of time-travelling without the dry ice and Daleks; the theatrics. The café of the Wallace Collection is large and impressive. It was in this café, now an atrium but formerly a garden, in this space so…

“One of the great ironies is that people who were let in suddenly won’t let anyone else in. I’m disturbed by them and try to speak out against them” Colum McCann hits you like a hurricane. You might be on a train, in your front room, reading one of his novels then – whammo! – you catch yourself crying or can’t breathe. And you don’t know exactly why. Because there is nothing showy to McCann’s books. Packed with stories and characters that bob and thread gently around and through each other’s lives, and in the case of most recent novel Transatlantic, stretching across time, they are simply told. There is beauty to the language and precision, grace notes that return to mind time and again to transport you. McCann’s books…

Welcome to the latest edition of The Big Issue. Starting on page 18, this week the country’s political leaders back The Big Issue’s poverty prevention policy ahead of Thursday’s election. I hope they remember once they’re in power. There’s also a nice article on page seven about the charity that helps provide extra care for dogs living on the streets. I’ve got a four-year-old Staffie called Molly – she’s a very good-natured dog and she’s with me wherever I go. There’s more about my own story on page 46. Can’t find a regular vendor? Subscribe to The Big Issue for £130. See bigissue.com for all offers. contact@selectps.com / 01202 586 848…

“There is a backlash against honesty about our racist past. Jack Sparrow, we need you to be part of the fightback” There is a strange feeling that settles on you within the first half hour of the new Disney Pirates of the Caribbean film. And it’s not the presence of the reputationally tarnished Johnny Depp as a comedy alcoholic. Nor is it the laboured joke about the scientific Beauty-and-the-Beast-Belle-like heroine Carina being confused with a prostitute by the pirates. “I’m a HOROLOGIST.” Or even one of the two other women in the film with a speaking part being the fat, ugly and ginger one Sparrow is forced to marry. No, it is not quite any of those things. What weirds you out is the realisation that you’re watching a comedy…

This election has confounded expectations. Nobody predicted the Corbyn surge against the May wobble. But throughout the campaign The Big Issue has been clear. There must be a focus on ending poverty in Britain. And the only REAL way to break the poverty cycle is to work to prevent it taking hold. We believe in a fence at the top of the cliff, not an ambulance at the bottom. We believe that by investing in people’s lives early you provide routes out of poverty and into better futures, especially for the poorest in society. We believe that better use of resources will improve the quality of people’s lives and reduce the need for expensive state services when lives are beginning to spiral out of control. We invited you form an…

1 Make small changes Don’t try to cut everything out and be a hero. The only real way to get lean is to take control of your food. Clear the junk out of your cupboards because you don’t need that any more. Go food-shopping, get healthy ingredients, start to plan your week. You might prep your meals the night before so it’s set and you don’t have to eat takeaway. 2 Take regular exercise Ten, 15 or 30 minutes a day, four or five times a week. It doesn’t seem like a lot but you can get really good results and feel great. And yeah, sustain it. Once you do 10 minutes you’re going to feel better and it’s a cumulative effect – you’ll make a better breakfast that day,…

1. THE LITTLE PRINCE Antoine de Saint-Exupéry The book’s iridescent innocence reveals the things that truly matter. It speaks of the need to protect, the ability to love, and the cost of it. For the young of all ages. 2. THE BOOK THIEF Markus Zusak The story is narrated by Death as if in demonstration of the preciousness of life. It tells of the force of love, the gorgeous (and accurately rude) vitality of childhood, and the importance of story and imagination, all rendered in reckless tenderness. 3. AS I WALKED OUT ONE MIDSUMMER MORNING Laurie Lee This book gives onto horizons of serendipity, fat with time and freedom. It is also about the hospitality that is offered to the author in return for the grace of his trust. 4.…

“An old friend? Yes indeed! How’s he doing?” Kate Mulgrew, best known as Red Reznikov from the smash-hit prison drama Orange is the New Black, is in Germany at a Netflix showcase, leafing through a copy of The Big Issue featuring Patrick Stewart – her fellow Star Trek captain – on the cover. “He’s feeling a little alien at the moment? Aren’t we all.” The shock of the new-ish US president is still all-pervading for this second-generation “Yellow Dog Democrat” (asked what this means, she replies “that we would die for the Democrat Party”). “The voice from Orange is the New Black reaches far and wide. And because we are so globally successful, we could maybe cause a little tsunami. It will be interesting,” says Mulgrew, 62, cogitating on the…

No sex please, we’re British! Possibly reaffirming a few prejudices held among hardcore Brexiteers about those Europeans all being happy-handed perverts – Sexiteers, let’s call them – it’s frisky Frenchies Phoenix with their sixth album Ti Amo. It takes its title from the expression the Italians reserve for the most carnal form of love – the Italians being so loving they have a two-grade system for expressing such feelings – and Phoenix describe it as being all about “simple, pure emotions: love, desire, lust and innocence”. The perverts! Everyone else with functioning ears and libido should be set to fall for this Versailles synth-fiddling alt-pop foursome anew, like it’s the first date all over again. After finally whittling down their vast potential into a properly great album at the fourth…

Midnight Sun, the latest Scandi-noir crime thriller from writers Måns Mårlind and Björn Stein, who were also behind The Bridge, was one of this year’s most anticipated shows in Europe when it aired on Sky Atlantic. Now you can own it on DVD and Blu-ray (StudioCanal, £29.99 and £34.99). Kahina Zadi (played by Leïla Bekhti – A Prophet, All that Glitters), a French police officer, travels to Kiruna, a small mining community in remote northern Sweden, to investigate the brutal murder of a French citizen. With the help of prosecutor Anders Harnesk (played by Gustaf Hammarsten – Brüno, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), who is a member of the indigenous Sami tribe, they are faced with new killings. A 10-year-old secret conspiracy begins to unravel, involving many of the…

Brexit U-turn Terence Springthorpe’s letter in the last Issue [May 22-28] makes it clear how misled some voters were by the EU referendum campaign. He clearly seems to suggest there is some form of Brexit that is realistically feasible whereby we simply stop paying our dues, bring home our MEPs and life continues as normal all hunky-dory. Untangling ourselves from the EU and making new treaties will take huge amounts of work and time. It will be a miracle if we manage it by the 2019 deadline. There is only one way to make it stop, and that is to reject the result of the advisory referendum and accept that the best way forward is to work on reforming the EU from within. I suspect that this is not Mr…

SPOCTOPUSSY BY CHRIS GRAY  “I’m 49 years old and have a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia which is largely under control by the correct medication,” says Chris. “I grew up in Littlehampton and I’ve lived in Brighton for over 20 years. I’ve been using computers to create images, animations, interactive pieces and music since the early 1990s. These images are hand-drawn then treated and colourised in Photoshop.” See more of Chris’s work at: chrisgrayartist.com ESCAPE BY STEVE McINTOSH Steve taught himself to draw at a young age from reading DC comic books. He submits his artworks via London homeless charity the 240 Project. “My drawing feels more technical than artistic; puzzles, crosswords and historical facts influence my thoughts and occupy my time, though my work comes from my imagination. I don’t…

1984 LIVE NINETEEN-EIGHTY FOUR “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.” George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four resonates stronger each year. With fake news, ‘alternative facts’, constant political turmoil, it’s a prescient time for 1984 Live. On June 6 the entire text will be read by a range of speakers including Alan Johnson, Billy Bragg, Jack Monroe, Peter Hitchens and Orwell’s son Richard Blair. The event is being staged at the Senate House in London. During World War Two Orwell’s wife Eileen worked in the Senate House for the Censorship Department of the Ministry of Information and her experiences served as inspiration for the nightmarish Ministry of Truth. 1984 Live is free, no tickets are required; orwellfoundation.com…