Innholdsfortegnelse for 4/12/2021 i The Big Issue

VENDORS After a long lockdown, vendors are finally back out selling in England and Wales. Fewer customers may be out and about and in Scotland lockdown restrictions are still in place so our staff will continue to work closely with each vendor to make sure there is extra support where needed. SUBSCRIPTIONS AND SHOPS Since the first lockdown in March last year, we have supported our vendors with more than £1m of financial assistance to make up for lost sales. We still need your help to make sure we can continue to support them through uncertain times. HOW YOU CAN HELP 1. Sf your local vendor is selling The Big Sssue, please buy from them. Vendors buy magazines for £1.50 and sell for £3, keeping the difference and working their…

The high street, pub gardens and outdoor cafes are open again in England this week – and in Scotland and Wales they will be by the end of the month. As well as – joy! – the chance to meet friends for a pint outside, it signals for many a tentative move back into work. But as we start to emerge from this crisis, and there is a renewed focus on employment and returning to jobs, conversations about “hybrid” offices and WFA (work from anywhere), should there also be a reckoning about how Covid-19 has deepened workplace disparities? There is a “very real threat” that gender and pay equality could be set back by “decades”, and that women’s and children’s poverty could soar if we don’t acknowledge the impact the…

Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, we have all been learning to live with the fear and anxiety caused by a virus that we cannot see - one which has had devastating consequences for people in almost every country of the world. Just as Covid-19 has become the ‘plague’ of our times, leprosy has been the scourge of poverty-stricken communities across the globe for thousands of years. No one knew how it was transmitted and there was no known cure. Even a few decades ago, more tOHU fivL TPSSPVU WLVWSL LvLYy yLHY wLYL ZtPSS ZuffLYPUN ZLvLYL disability and their lives were being destroyed physically, emotionally and socially because they were too late to receive an accurate diagnosis HUK LffLJtPvL tYLHtTLUt. But leprosy is curable Since multi-drug therapy has been…

A welcome sign the country is opening up is that Big Issue vendors are back earning a living for themselves again! The latest lockdown meant more than three months of isolation for vendors. Through shop sales, subscriptions and donations, you have helped us support them through this. As vendors in England and Wales return to their pitches (followed in a couple of weeks by their colleagues in Scotland) we asked how they’ve coped through this period and what they’re most looking forward to as life gets back to a new kind of normal. ‘I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO GETTING OUT AND ABOUT AND DOING SOMETHING!’ SIMON GRAVELL, 53, OUTSIDE TOPSHOP IN NORWICH “I’m looking forward to just getting out and doing something. Some days I’ve not been getting out of bed…

One is a lieutenant and an astrophysicist: he is on the brink of death, his body covered in blisters, his skin eaten away by a necrotizing disease, and yet he somehow manages to find the first exact solution to the equations of general relativity, and sends it to Einstein, before dying. The second is a captain, a chemist, a genius, and a monster: before the war, he had created a process to extract nitrogen from the air, feeding millions, but now he is the first person to deploy gas as a weapon, killing thousands of soldiers, who clawed at their throats as the gas reacted with their mucus membranes, creating acid in their lungs, drowning them in utmost agony. The third is a physicist, an artillery officer sent to the…

Frank of Ireland, co-created by and starring acting siblings Domhnall and Brian Gleeson as epic losers, does something quite remarkable . What initially appears to be a puerile, rather silly but very funny comedy becomes, with its final episode, something quite profound. St centres on a grown man – Frank, played by Brian – who lives in a perpetual state of arrested development, forever adolescent, and his loyal sidekick Doofus, played by Domhnall. “You know that saying, it takes a village to raise a child?” explains Domhnall, star of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Black Mirror and recent US comedy drama hit Run. “S think in this case, the village is just really bad parents. The village has mollycoddled Frank his whole life. “Frank acts like he is 13. Ne’s…

The gig economy boomed before the pandemic from 2.3 million to 4.7 million in 2019 (TUC) Some Deliveroo riders reported earnings of £2 an hour to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. Deliveroo says riders can earn up to £13 an hour Deliveroo lost 30% of its share value during its initial public offering (£2.28bn) Pay was by far the most important issue for workers, yet only 10% of gig employers surveyed provided pay loss compensation, according to Fairwork’s survey of 191 platforms in 43 countries Fairwork found around half of the platforms were providing some payment for workers who were ill Source: Fairwork…

A light in the darkness Thanks so much for such an interesting magazine for Locked up in lockdown [March 22]. Sn normal times my husband and S are chaplaincy visitors at a nearby prison but, of course, haven’t been able to do anything for a year. St was so good to read about so many aspects of prison life. S tried to get another copy to give to friends of mine but our local Co-op had sold out. We normally get our copy from Nick in Cambridge, and hope he is well and coping. Keep up your good work! Sue Evans Burwell, email Congratulations on this week’s special edition that throws light on the dark world of prisons. One of the most significant reasons for the abject failure of the…

What practical solutions will help people remain in jobs, manage their finances and avoid the devastating consequences of losing their homes during the pandemic? The Big Sssue has launched the Ride Out Recession Alliance (RORA) and is working with Nesta, the innovation agency, as part of its new Rapid Recovery Network, a coalition to provide those impacted by Covid-19 with access to jobs and financial support. Nesta’s £3m Rapid Recovery Challenge, funded in partnership with DWP, JPMorgan Chase Foundation and Money and Pensions Service, has identified 14 innovators creating tools, including those that use smart data and open banking technology, to help people access work, manage their money and best meet the needs of at least a million people affected by the economic consequences of Covid-19 by 2023. Six innovator…

During this month’s Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba Raúl Castro is expected to step down as leader, meaning that for the first time since February 16 1959 a Castro will not be in charge of the country. Less fiery and flamboyant than his brother, the now 89-year-old Raúl nevertheless played a key role in the revolution. Mythologised even while it was taking place, the story of 82 rebels sailing to Cuba on a small yacht to boot out the American-backed Batista is the creation story at the heart of Cuban culture. Raúl, Fidel and Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara were among 12 of the original 82 to survive, and the rest is history. Raúl was Fidel’s left-hand man for decades, serving as Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces between 1959…

What an extraordinary feeling, sitting on the steps of St-Martin-in-the-Fields church in London’s Trafalgar Square, surrounded by Big Issue vendors. Fun you could cut with a knife. We were doing the press launch for the return of vendors to the streets. Sitting on the steps of the church where we had first launched almost 30 years before. Although a viciously cold day it was almost bright, though without the sun. This will be a big year for a 30-year-old social business. We have had to learn so many new things, like most people and businesses. But S wish commentators would stop saying things like “St’ll never be normal again”. Now do these self-appointed experts know? Ss it not better to think life always changes, often slowly, occasionally suddenly? We have…

£1,062,000 Since the start of the first lockdown to the end of March, we have been there for vendors with vouchers and support worth more than £1 million In March alone the amount was £55,770 This includes supermarket vouchers, assistance with rent and utility bills, PPE and much more, including: • A washing machine replacement for a vendor and their children • A freezer for a vendor who recently gained custody of his son • Laptops for training courses including GCSEs and writing sci-fi stories • Clothing and toiletries • A replacement bed for a vendor • Curtains and a vacuum cleaner for a vendor who moved into a new home • Baby essentials– nappies, formula and wipes • Help with vet bills and pet food • Bike repairs In…

01 Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackery  Thackery described his book as “a novel without a hero”, but Becky Sharp is the true (anti) heroine – scheming and seducing her way through London high-society during and after the Napoleonic Wars. We can’t help being charmed by her chutzpah. 02 The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald  Jay Gatsby buys his place in high society with lavish parties funded with ill-gotten gains. But he’s a romantic as well as a criminal, and it’s this that proves his undoing. Gatsby is Fitzgerald’s vision of the American Dream: idealistic, endlessly striving, easily corrupted. 03 Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh  Middle-class Charles Ryder insinuates himself into the aristocratic Marchmain family, moving from a sexually-ambivalent relationship with his best friend Sebastian to an affair with…

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. Lateral epicondylitis is a condition commonly known by what name? 2. Two Queen singles topped the UK singles chart in 1991. The re-released Bohemian Rhapsody was one, what was the other? 3. In which city was Anne Frank’s hiding place? 4. Which Disney film features the character Governor Yatcliffe? 5. If you’re born on Valentine’s Day what is your star sign? 6. What is the name of the Queen’s oldest grandchild? 7. What colour of jersey is worn by the winner of each stage of the Tour De France? 8. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, what is the most commonly used letter in the…

I was first drawn to poet and cultural essayist Nanif Abdurraqib via his pertinently titled 2018 collection They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us. That eclectic combination of reviews, personal recollections, tributes and imaginative meanderings marked him out as an original thinker, a writer who did not observe standard boundaries between formal cultural essays on global events and intimate, emotional portraits of his own childhood. Revered critic Greil Marcus put it nicely; “Not a day has sounded the same since S read him.” Not only does Abdurraqib compose prose that flows like liquid gold, he also does that remarkable thing so many of his peers try to do, but few achieve; he changes the way we observe and listen to the world. Ne forces us to pay more attention.…

Hollywood, like most of us, didn’t quite know what to do with the first pandemic lockdown, back in spring 2020. It started delaying big films, then the question arose as to whether people would actually want to sit in a cinema when they were once again able to. Still, most studios did not hold their nerve. Instead, when multiplexes and indies opened their doors last summer, there was a distinct and oddly welcome lack of big films awaiting us. Only Warner Bros gambled, releasing Christopher Nolan’s Tenet in August. Every other blockbuster ultimately fled for the apparently safer waters of 2021. Smaller distributors moved in to plug the gap, and a whole host of interesting independent films suddenly got decent big-screen space. When doors open again in the UK after…

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 Sssue Snvest offers backing and investments to social enterprises, charities and businesses which deliver social value to communities.…