Innholdsfortegnelse for 1/11/2021 i The Big Issue

The latest Covid-19 lockdown means that the UK is now in a race between the fast-spreading new strain and vaccinations – and there is a danger that those experiencing homelessness will end up being left behind. Last week Boris Johnson and devolved leaders were forced to introduce the most stringent Covid-19 measures since the pandemic began last year as the desperate need to stop the new strain of the virus spreading through the public became more urgent than ever. The vaccine rollout is being accelerated in a desperate bid to keep the public health emergency under control, with 350,000 ‘jabs in arms’ a week and growing, according to the Prime Minister. But even if the rollout hits its target of two million vaccinations a week, it will still take until…

VENDORS Across the country vendors are prevented from working on their pitches by the national lockdown. Our staff is working closely with each vendor to make sure there is extra support to make up for reduced earnings. We also understand that apart from reduced income, the lack of social interaction will cause a lot of distress. If you would like to pass a message on to your local vendor please email editorial@bigissue.com and we’ll do our best to make sure they know they still have your support. SUBSCRIPTIONS AND SHOPS Since the first national lockdown in March, we have supported our vendors with more than £700,000 of financial assistance to make up for lost sales. As the only certainty is more uncertainty, we urgently need your help to make sure…

I If only to take your minds off the last year, let me tell you about one of the worst years of my life: 1962. I started the year as a 15-year-old reformatory school boy. The new year began and it all looked bleak. I had at least two, if not three, years of confinement to face. I had been in the reformatory three months and there was little light at the end of the tunnel. Green, a fellow inmate, was desperate to abscond, as it was legally called. When he heard that I was not against the idea we hatched a plan to run away together. The night of our departure, though, I developed a heavy cold and was put in the sick bay, a small hospital-like building. Each…

Memorial by Bryan Washington (Atlantic, January 7) I was knocked out by Washington’s debut of short stories, Lot, in 2019. He has a very individual take on the contemporary black experience, his voice compassionate, observant, and tough; often funny, always authentic. For months I cherished the idea that he was my own secret discovery, until Lot showed up on Barack Obama’s books of the year. Memorial, Washington’s first novel, focuses on the relationship between two young men; Mike, a Japanese-American chef at a Mexican restaurant, and Benson, a black day care teacher. They live together, have a good sex life, Mike cooks great meals for Ben, and they’re pretty sure they love each other. But after four years the bond is beginning to feel fragile, its meeting point increasingly grazed.…

USUAL PITCH: Costa Coffee, Stockbridge, Edinburgh I’ve spoken about the support I’ve had throughout the crisis from The Big Issue on the news and on The Big Issue podcast – they could have just leǽt us vendors to our own devices but they were fantastic with us. There was financial support and vouchers, it was all a massive help. Other than that I basically got fired in about Zoom meetings with people from the fellowship I’m involved in and that’s helped me get through each day. When I was back on my pitch it was a struggle. I was doing about a third to half of the magazines I was selling before the first lockdown. I’m an optimist, but I’m also realistic. I made a conscious decision when we got…

Opportunity awaits. It does not look like that, not at the minute. By every measure, we’re in the soup. Lockdown has closed everything. Hospitals are packed to breaking with the Covid-sick. Shops are shuttered and many businesses can’t operate. The impact of tariffs on trade post-Brexit is yet to be really understood. Schools are shut, parents are fearful for the future, and for the next hour of home-schooling. The USA, so close in so many ways, is lost in confusion. Happy new year! However, the vaccine rollout remains a shimmering light. At the risk of rumbling on like Boris Johnson on a metaphor superbinge, that little prick (the jab, I mean) will take us to Shangri-La. And in Shangri-La we can nudge people at the packed bar in a pub…

Adam Kay Writer, comedian, former doctor I’d like to see the end of the anti-vax movement. Is that so much to ask?! Robin Ince Comedian, Big Issue radio columnist I would like to see a sharp decline in conspiracy thinking and a continuation of the camaraderie from a distance that has blossomed in so many places. James Bowen Author of A Street Cat Named Bob I hope we manage to get a grip on tackling homelessness now we have gotten more coverage because of Covid. Caroline Lucas Green MP for Brighton Pavilion I’d like us to use the Covid crisis to reset the way our economy and society are run, turning our back on a system which wasn’t working for millions of people. I’d like 2021 to mark…

One Night In Miami On Amazon Prime from January 15 In February 1964, as the civil rights movement was gaining critical momentum in the US, Malcolm X, Cassius Clay, Sam Cooke and record-breaking running back Jim Brown convened in Miami. All four were already celebrated in their chosen fields and could presumably compare notes on the stresses of being a black celebrity at a time of great social upheaval. That these legends squadded up to witness Clay’s unexpected boxing victory over Sonny Liston is a matter of record. One Night In Miami – adapted by Kemp Powers from his own 2013 stage play – imagines what might have been up for discussion in Malcolm X’s relatively modest hotel room after the knockout bell. The hospitality extends to Nation of Islam…

After a year in which there was only really one headline in the health news – indeed, only one headline in the news overall – it might seem like a strange time to be launching a book which makes the case that ageing is our greatest challenge when it comes to human health. But the pandemic has only emphasised the urgency of the case. As we hopefully get coronavirus under control during 2021, it’s time to look to a brighter future – and the fascinating science which is going to help us get there. We first need to understand what ageing is, from the perspective of a biologist. A simple definition is to look at how our risk of death varies depending on how old we are. Coronavirus provides a…

A hand up... Our sellers BUY the magazine for £1.50 and sell it on 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 can continue to help them now and in the future. 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.…

@mlchandler01 The Top 100 Changemakers always one of my fave @BigIssue of the year. Congrats to all – and particularly the wonderful @our_MoH @turtleandturtle @streetskitchen @LGBTIQoutside @GoodLawProject @TrickyPeriod & many others on here! @nufcfoodbank Fans’ efforts for starting the #CharityNotPPV movement has been recognised in The @BigIssue’s 2021 List of Changemakers and all fanbases & fans. @ToonPolls, @kerrylynn21 @SFoodbanks, @SpiritofShankly &c. Let’s see what unified fan power can achieve for good in 2021 #NUFC @green_and_seen Amongst all the current bad news this weeks @BigIssue on #changemakers is wonderfully uplifting. Please buy a copy either directly from a vendor or via bigissue.com @UKSAYSNOMORE We are so pleased to have been named one of the @BigIssue Covid Heroes for our Safe Spaces scheme with pharmacies. What an honour! @lgsmigrants We’re thrilled to…

We’re all back in lockdown. For the third time. As before, our vendors will immediately be hammered hard. They will lose the ability to make an income. And they’ll lose that vital connection they have with their customers. But there is now a sense of an ending. The vaccine rollout means we head into this period with more hope. We have learned from before how to get support to our 1,340 regular vendors. We have built a new digital platform that allows subscriptions to be purchased directly from individual vendors and we have an online edition that can get to you immediately. But we need you. Together we can stand with your vendors and look forward to them being back on the streets, making their living, changing their lives and…

From Jacob Rees-Mogg to Boris Johnson, World War II rhetoric has never been far from the Brexit debate. The narrative has a powerful emotional pull. Plucky Britain winning the war – and the supposed ingratitude of the rest of the continent. The evocation of Blitz spirit. Quiet suspicion of German power. WWII is a lodestar for British exceptionalism. So it’s a surprise when arch-Europhile Eddie Izzard launches into a Churchill analogy to explain her latest feat of endurance. “I look at things in 50-year chunks. And this test was bound to happen,” says the groundbreaking comedian. “Churchill’s generation was chosen by fate to fight against the extreme right. And our generation has been chosen again to fight against the extreme right. So that’s the way it’s going to be. “This…

Our earliest memories are oǼten highly fragmented, reduced to single shapes or specific smells. For me, the colour orange looms large in my woolly recollections of childhood. It was the shade of one of my very first music books, Me and My Piano. Its title stretched out in a rainbow bubble font across a vibrant background, which sat atop an image of black and white keys. When I wasn’t pretending to be playing along to Wham!’s Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go – one of two beloved demo tunes available on the tiny electronic keyboard – I was learning how to read sheet music from this special book, via Sammy Squirrel and the Old Man With A Beard. I wasn’t alone: thousands of children were doing the same thing, and…