Innholdsfortegnelse for 7/26/2021 i The Big Issue

Friends and regular customers have paid touching tributes to popular Cheltenham Big Issue vendor Chris Clark, who has died at the age of 55. The long-time seller, who sold the magazine outside Greggs on Cheltenham High Street, was found dead in his home on June 9. An inquest into his death was opened and adjourned at Gloucestershire Coroner’s Court on June 28. Chris, who was a double amputee, never let his injuries prevent him from being a positive influence in Cheltenham, said Wayne Ellaway, a vendor development worker at The Big Issue. “Chris always had a good story to share and led a very interesting life,” said Wayne. “He was very charming and charismatic and never let being in a wheelchair get him down. He was always positive and very…

If your mental health has taken a hit as Covid restrictions ease, you’re not alone. More than half of people were worried about seeing and being near other people ahead of lockdown rules being fully relaxed in England on so-called ‘Freedom Day’ last week, mental health charity Mind found. The pandemic has also meant one in four adults and more than one in six young people have experienced mental distress for the first time, while NHS figures reveal the number of people in contact with mental health services is the highest since the first lockdown. While some people will continue to work from home for the foreseeable future, many businesses have adopted a hybrid model, which means some employees may be facing returning to the office for the first time…

Richard Hammond For The Grand Tour, the clue is in the name, so our plans are always both ‘a tour’, and ‘grand’, so Covid did rather knock us off the rails a bit. But then we thought, “Hang on a minute…” I’m really glad we went to Scotland. If you live outside of the UK, Scotland is very remote, very famous and very beautiful. Obviously, America has a particular affinity to Scotland, because they all claim to come from there at some point, we were really thrilled to be able to do it. I’m not entirely sure that Edinburgh was designed from the outset for full-sized American sedans! We discovered that to our cost. It was a squeeze. People reacted very well, though. They liked to see them, unless they…

Furious leaseholders caught up in the building safety crisis have taken their anger to Downing Street so they are not forced to cover the cost of fixing their homes and removing dangerous cladding. Four years after the Grenfell Tower disaster, thousands of leaseholders across the UK are facing huge bills to fix fire safety defects in their homes or remove dangerous cladding, with many facing homelessness or bankruptcy as a result. More than 100 people chanted “Developers must pay!” outside the Prime Minister’s residence on July 15, calling for ministers to make the companies that built the buildings pick up remediation bills. Filmmaker Reece Lipman, 31, was among the protesters. He told The Big Issue that he is still waiting to find out how much repairs at his home in…

Jim Teer Yes and no. Remember Star Trek history…. The last Great War and one man’s drive to furthering technology which accidentally brought humanity into contact with an advanced alien species brought us to the Star Trek world in canon. Darren Smithson The truth is that intellectually, humanity has become a race of gods... with the emotional maturity of cavemen. Until our ability to control our base emotions matches what we understand and can do with science and technology, then Star Trek is just a dream future. Rowan Colver Star Trek future is a non-real future that is expected to have met aliens and gained technology beyond what physics can allow but I still have faith in a unified global society dedicated to self-improvement and exploration of space. Calvin Lawrence…

A bronze statue of Street Cat Bob has been unveiled on Sslington Green, north London, in tribute to the cat whose story touched the hearts of millions worldwide. “It feels really cathartic,” his companion James Bowen (pictured) said. “This is the place where it all started, where Bob and I used to come every lunchtime. “And to be here now, in our spiritual home, feels very special. Bob is forever part of Islington. We have made a mark here. I’m so proud of him. Bob is definitely here today. I brought his ashes so he could be part of the day.” The former Big Issue vendor found Bob, injured and abandoned, in 2007 and took care of the young cat – who in turn gave him a reason to get…

At 16, music was already my main interest. That and girls. This was the point where I became more interested in music than surfing. When I got a licence to drive, at 16, I was allowed to take my car and just disappear with my friends for days. So I was hanging around at the beach with people older than me. Everybody was full of adventures, full of experimenting. I remember the first joint I ever smoked – I wound up watching the sun go down, listening to Ray Charles for an enormously long time! It changed everything. Time was changed, the music was changed, and I was changed. I was already into playing and writing songs, so that just intensified everything. When I look back, I like my younger…

“Being in my 60s, everything hurts,” says David, who submits his artwork via the 240Project, a London arts and health activity centre for people affected by homelessness and exclusion. “Especially in winter. Which is why I like to travel where the sun is kinder to me when I can. I speak French and Spanish thanks to my time in the Foreign Legion: communication is key to human harmony. “I have written poetry since I was 10 and learned to paint in prison. It was therapeutic. I hope you like my yellow period. It was Vincent van Gogh’s favourite colour.” The work on this page is created by people who are marginalised. Contact street.lights@bigissue.com to see your art here. To see more and buy prints: bigissueshop.com At least half of the…

On a street corner in Natchez, Mississippi, Aaron Eckhart is overlooking the mighty river. It’s hot out, even hotter in the car he’s sitting in with its clapped-out air conditioning. Ne’s in a contemplative mood. It could be the weather, the river rolling along, the emotional experience of talking to The Big Issue or the part he’s preparing to play. “Way back to Ihakespeare or Oedipus, it’s always about betrayal or murder or loss,” he says. “People are fascinated watching it. As an actor, in order to make people believe, you have to actually go to those places.” Can you switch it on and off? “You got to stay there. You have it bubbling on the surface all the time. And you look at everything through that prism. You never…

We got a paddling pool for our dog. It’s been a while since I wrote about the adventures of Toastie. He needed time out of the limelight. He was getting too popular and making all sorts of demands. I’m a pushover. He just has to raise his head and I’ll drop everything and spend four hours throwing a ball. The children never had it so good. Toastie likes being in water and to help him during the heatwave we thought a paddling pool would be the ticket. All tips from vets and experts online focused on keeping pets cool and hydrated. If he’s in it, he’ll drink it. It worked. There are few things more relaxing on a hot day than watching a dog happily drop into a pool of…

HOW IT WAS TOLD The Olympics are here but not as you know them. The spectatorless sporting spectacular is under way in Tokyo a year late thanks to Covid, and that means stringent measures are in place to halt the spread of the virus in a country where rising cases triggered a state of emergency two weeks before the event. While the 11,000 competing athletes are expected remain in bubbles during the event, social media theories pointed to other measures to prevent rising cases in the Olympic Village. Tweeters honed in on the beds – made out of recycled cardboard – suggesting they were a way to prevent athletes from getting extra exercise during the games. US Olympian Paul Chelimo was among them. He tweeted that the measures were aimed…

Pre-pandemic, I went on six all-inclusive coach holidays with people twice and thrice my age. Several things happened: I won the bingo on my first night in Scarborough; my appetite for an absolute bargain was repeatedly satisfied; I was charmed by a slower mode of travelling; my eyes were opened to the virtues of cross-generational encounters and I took a shine to the drivers. (Best driver joke: “Small group today, ladies and gents. Average height, 5ft 4.”) The idea of a ‘Gran Tour’ came to me while on the telephone to my great aunt, who told me she’d recently had four nights in Torquay, return coach travel, nightly entertainment, 16 pints of craft lager, four three-course dinners and the company of people of a pensionable age – all for less…

I Go Quiet, my picture book about a girl struggling with interior anxieties, was published in 2019. In that book the protagonist makes small steps towards getting to a better place, and finally finds her voice. I received many letters over the following year asking about the world she navigated with her new-found confidence. I Get Loud, a story of both friendship and displacement, is my answer to those letters. While working on the book the world sank into the pandemic, and in so many ways we all became exiled; pulled from our routines, our families, our social engagements, our roots. As the world went into isolation, I was consumed with writing a book about extending ourselves to each other, but it was also a book about forced migration. I…

In 2018, Libby Scott went viral aǼter her mum posted some of her writing about being autistic on Twitter. The next year, she wrote Can You See Me? about an autistic girl called Tally navigating school and her social life, co-written with YA author Rebecca Westcott. Now 14, Libby is publishing her third book, focused on the process of getting a diagnosis. She tells The Big Sssue about the life-changing experience The Big Issue: When you look back, are there things that make more sense after you had a diagnosis? Libby Scott: Well, for me it was mainly the feeling that I was somehow different to everyone else and I just didn’t know why. Also I now know what “demand avoidance” is. Somebody would tell me to do something and…