Innholdsfortegnelse for 3/29/2021 i The Big Issue

In one of the more curious lockdown happenings, teenage global climate activist Greta Thunberg could find herself sharing a plinth with a Big Issue vendor. Last week, Winchester University said it would unveil a £23,760 life- sized sculpture of the 18-year-old environmental figurehead to “inspire” students on its new campus. And as debates rage over the legitimacy of memorials and statues more broadly, the plan sparked a conversation over who else in the city should be honoured. One name was put forward as the key candidate – much-loved Big Issue seller Kev Collick. Kev is known locally for his generous charity work and donning a Christmas tree outfit on his pitch during the festive months. He raised more than £5,000 for Children in Need in 2016. In 2017, Winchester residents…

Ahead of Russell Watson’s Big Issue Singalong, fans across the country have shared emotional stories of living through the coronavirus pandemic – and their hope that the People’s Tenor can bring some joy to those they love. On April 2, The Big Issue is teaming up with I’m a Celebrity… star Watson for a free online performance to o›fer a much-needed liǽt to a beleaguered nation. Readers had the chance to request a song for somebody close to them, and we have been inundated with stories of everyday heroism and resilience. Among the messages was Jo Starkes’s tribute to her fellow NHS sta›f members at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital. “We have all worked so incredibly hard, in new and challenging circumstances,” she said. “We have all felt exhausted, despaired and…

Top stories this week How Priti Patel’s new policing bill threatens your right to protest Russell Watson: Why The Big Singalong offers hope after a hard year A hand up: Big Issue vendor Rob, who saved his earnings and bought a boat Naga Munchetty: Let’s be honest, attacks on the BBC presenter aren’t all about impartiality Parents call for action on pollution: ‘The wheels on the bus make toxic air’ Prison documentaries: The ones everyone should see on Big Issue TV…

START AN EMERGENCY FUND Debt charities say that the most common reason people end up borrowing money, and getting trapped in paralysing debt, is an unexpected expense or sudden drop in income. Almost 6.6 million adults have nothing set aside for this scenario, according to new research from the money app Yolt, but financial shocks in the last year, such as pay decreases, saw people lose an average of £6,000 off their annual household income. Ask any financial adviser and they will insist on the importance of having an emergency fund, a sum of money that you can get your hands on if something unexpected happens. Yolt reckons £12,500 is the ideal amount to aim for – a daunting sum for most young people. Debt charities suggest £1,000 as a…

On March 4 the planet celebrated another World Book Day, with thousands of children taking part, dressing up as their favourite characters and celebrating all the fun and joy that reading brings to young people. This is followed by another global day on April 2, International Children’s Book Day – celebrated to inspire a love of reading and children’s books. In addition to this there are initiatives such as the Summer Reading Challenge encouraging a generation of young people to discover the incredible benefits of reading, often aided by access to school and public libraries. The benefits are plentiful. For example, reading for pleasure is proven to be more important for children’s cognitive development than their parents’ level of education. It is also a more powerful factor in life achievement…

June 14 2017 Grenfell disaster leaves 72 people dead March 19 2020 UK government introduces Fire Safety Bill to improve fire safety in buildings in England and Wales in light of Grenfell February 10 2021 Government announces multibillion-pound intervention to tackle cladding on buildings over 18 metres March 17 2021 House of Lords makes latest amendments to Bill and returns to House of Commons for voting March 22 2021 House of Commons votes to reject amendment to the Fire Safety Bill asking government to pay initial costs of remediations, before recouping this from developers and cladding manufacturers April 2021? The Fire Safety Bill returns to House of Lords. Bill could be accepted as voted on in Commons, or further amendments could be moved for consideration by MPs…

When Michelle and Barack Obama signed on the dotted line with Net›lix, they joined a select and exclusive entertainment community. These days, they stand alongside Oprah Winfrey (Apple), Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Amazon Prime), podcaster Joe Rogan (Spotify) Shonda Rhimes, Ryan Murphy, David Benioff and DB Weiss, plus newcomers Prince Harry and Meghan Markle (all Netflix) as the select few global players able to launch their creative visions into the public consciousness with few barriers. What America’s former first couple bring to Netflix is clear. The Obamas are a popular, powerful, respected and socially conscious global brand, capable of leading the conversation across the planet. When the Obamas speak, the world listens. So when they make a television show, the world will watch, right? That’s the unarguable logic behind this deal. The…

The coronavirus crisis has become a crucible for rulers around the world to forge new tales of life and death. Governments of all kinds are shaping favourable narratives out of the pandemic, even as they grapple with the consequences of it. In China, a Covid-19 story that began with the persecution of doctors who identified the new disease has morphed into an official chronicle of exemplary crisis management. In Britain, an administration criticised over high death rates now proclaims its successful vaccine rollout as a route to redemption. The health emergency’s extremes have illuminated and accelerated a global phenomenon I recount in The Fabulists. The title refers to the myth-makers who now head many countries as dictators, democrats or a hybrid of the two. The questionable information they spread and…

NEED HELP? Why not get together with other Big Issue readers on Twitter – @BigIssue Get the answers in next week's mag! Good luck 1. Which band’s UK Top 10 hits have included There By The Grace Of God, Empty Souls and Found That Soul? 2. What is the name of Nemo’s dad in the Pixar films Finding Nemo and Finding Dory? 3. Which popular breakfast cereal was invented in the mid-1920s by Australian Bennison Osborne? 4. When Wembley Stadium was being rebuilt between 2001 and 2006, in which city was the English FA Cup final held? 5. What has topped the list of the most popular boys’ names in England and Wales for seven years in a row? 6. Which 1970s UK kids TV show featured the characters Aunt…

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Homelessness could become a thing of the past in Scotland as experts, frontline workers and politicians join forces to expand the hugely successful Housing First scheme across the country. Around 3,560 people could be helped by the innovative Housing First model per year, according to new research taking into account people already in the homelessness system and those forecast to be in need over the next decade. With the Holyrood-backed launch of a new 10-year framework to help local authorities start or scale up their efforts, it’s hoped the heralded model will transform for good the lives of people experiencing homelessness. The approach should be “in every political party’s manifesto” ahead of the Scottish parliamentary elections this May, according to Karyn McCluskey, chief executive of Community Justice Scotland, speaking at…

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At 16, I was an 80s pop child who just loved music. I was buried in pop music. We had Adam and the Ants, Haircut 100, Culture Club, Michael Jackson, Madonna – whatever was happening in the top UK Top 40, I’d be there. It was my turn to wash up on Sundays, so I’d be in the kitchen, radio on, listening to the Top 40 countdown and enjoying every minute of it. It was a great time to be a pop music fan. We also had a TV programme called Fame and everyone would know when that was on because it sounded like my bedroom ceiling would collapse. I was trying to dance and sing along and I was in love with the character Bruno, with his lovely curly…

01 Death in Spring by Mercè Rodoreda, translated by Martha Tennent Told from the perspective of a 14-year-old boy, Rodoreda’s final masterpiece dissects a macabre, nameless town, where after having pink-hued cement poured down their mouths to keep their souls in their bodies, the deceased are entombed in trees. 02 Feast of the Earth, Ransom of the Clay – from The Ice at the Bottom of the World by Mark Richard This first-person plural story focuses on Mr Leon, a small town’s cave-dwelling, mud-licking outcast-cum-spirit animal, who haunts a family funeral and threatens to disrupt the proceedings. 03 Death of a Pig by EB White When a farmer’s pig inexplicably takes ill, its owner embarks on a mission to save it. A surprisingly solemn and tender farewell for a creature…

If you heard anything about e›forts to end rough sleeping in the UK over the last few years, chances are you will have heard Housing First mentioned. It virtually eradicated street homelessness in Finland and is picking up traction across the UK as our greatest hope of ending homelessness for good. The pioneering approach gives people experiencing homelessness a home – in a house or flat rather than temporary accommodation, and in a local community – in the first instance, rather than having to navigate a long bureaucratic process before securing somewhere to live. A home is coupled with support for as long as someone wants it, with the Housing First model formed around the understanding that trauma, addiction and mental health problems also have to be addressed to help…

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 lost 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 last year, we have supported our vendors with more than £1m of financial assistance to make up for lost sales. As the only certainty is more uncertainty, we urgently need your help to make sure…

People aged under 35 worked in nearly 90 per cent of the 700,000 payroll jobs lost since the beginning of the pandemic, it was revealed in the latest labour market overview by the O›fice for National Statistics, published one year on from the first lockdown. Those under 25 have been hit the hardest, employed in 60 per cent of the jobs that have since disappeared. There was already a generational money divide before 2020, with average earnings for young people, stunted by the financial crisis of 2008, not keeping up with rising house prices. The shutting down of much of the economy during the coronavirus pandemic will blow this open, say those working in organisations supporting young people. Nearly half of furloughed workers are aged under 24, according to charity…

Probably because of George Orwell’s novel 1984, a mass of people who might have never read the book would expect that any fascist takeover of our lives would come from the state. A litany of a loss of freedom in a mind-controlling world, 1984 was so bleak I had to give it a miss. Of course the mind control, as is witnessed by the obsessive presence of the mobile phone in people’s lives, has come not from the state but from rampant appetite-pleasing capitalism. The mobile has become the most subversive tool for lulling us into a sleep full of mind-numbing film and data. The state is not busy winning control of our dependency on phones. Or if it is, we are still encouraged by the consumer marketplace of the…

In literary circles, Chris Power is synonymous with the short story. He is the writer of an insightful and exhaustive 14-year series for The Guardian called (surely ironically) A brief survey of the short story, covering, well, everyone really: from JL Borges to JG Ballard, from Lydia Davis to Elizabeth Taylor, from Carver to Cheever. If there is a thing to be thought about fiction’s short form Power has thunk it. It was inevitable that his first book, Mothers, would be a collection of stories. It was good, too: taut, unornamented and often pleasingly absurd, it wore its learning lightly and was deservedly well received. There was the sense however that Power had more in his locker, and so it proves with his intriguing debut novel, A Lonely Man. Like…

Today, she’s one of Ireland’s most successful artists, but Imelda May’s singing career started on a chunky brown Fisher Price cassette recorder. May remembers growing up in Dublin and sitting with her ear against the record player listening to Aretha Franklin, Ella Fitzgerald, Tina Turner and Janis Joplin. “I would listen to them over and over and over again to try and figure out how they did it… and then I’d turn it into my own,” she explains. “That Fisher Price toy changed my life because it had a record button,” May recalls. She’s gone on to tour the world, top the charts in her homeland, host a TV show and convert Bob Dylan and Bono into fans. She’s performed with some of the most important musicians in the world…

The Greek myths have been around for almost as long as we have. They are a massive, sprawling collection of epic tales of heroism, love, monsters, heroes, war and gods. The names of the main players – Zeus, Hercules, Jason, Pegasus, Aphrodite, Oedipus – have become part of our collective consciousness, our myths, our stories, our language. What makes the myths stand out in terms of theology is, unlike the deities in religion, the gods in Greek mythology are not perfect. They’re flawed, prone to emotional outbursts and sudden whims, and in no way immune to temptation. In many ways, despite the fact their blood is golden and their sweat is silver, they’re no better than the humans they created. It is this weakness, this jagged edge of a character…

When I started o›f in life I could just walk in to places and get a job. But I found that my employment situation became extremely difficult starting from the Sixties when they set up agencies. After that I only got washing-up jobs, which I’m not very good at. I would have loved to have done scientific research because I have a PhD, and degrees in zoology and psychology. But I always had a poor opinion of myself and it sank further and further, having failed to get a job – partly because I’m just not very good at interviews. I slept rough in Aberdeen in empty houses for a little while and then I came down to London and was squatting there for many years. One day I was…