Innholdsfortegnelse for 8/9/2021 i The Big Issue

Thanks to the hundreds more of you who have signed our petition to Itop Mass Nomelessness. The number is now well into the thousands! The pandemic has made the issue of homelessness bigger than ever. Right now there are 564,000 people in rent arrears, 190,000 owner-occupied homes in financial difficulty and 4.3 million people are behind on household bills. That’s why we’ve come up with a plan to prevent the immediate threat of tens of thousands losing their home: 01 Pay people’s rent and mortgages to keep them in their homes, plus any rent arrears that they may have accrued. 02 Support people financially until they are in work. 03 Provide jobs or training for people. This week, Hollywood superstar Benedict Cumberbatch commented on the campaign. “It’s like we’ve suspended…

letters@bigissue.com @bigissue /bigissueUK @bigissueuk Driving the point home I’m surprised you don’t see the irony of printing an article about the Grand Tour team (Jeremy Clarkson et al) [Hills, Glen and Caddys, July 26] who’ve probably made quite a contribution to damage to our environment with their promotion of car use which was followed immediately by an item by nature writer Stephen Rutt on how we are a part of nature and not separate from it!! Alison Johnston Wheely good idea As there are more and more incentives for drivers to scrap polluting cars and vans, would it not be possible to create a “Car City” in each place where there are rough sleepers? Old cars could be slightly modified to provide a dry and secure “pod” for rough sleepers…

@MagazineCentre Love this week’s cover illustration for @BigIssue, especially the cover price positioned in the kite [July 26] which, weirdly, made us very happy. I really enjoyed your article published in issue #1472 (July 26) about coach holidays and how they aren’t just for more senior persons. I am 39 and have not long returned from a wonderful holiday in Horthumberland with Bakers Dolphin coaches (they are a company in the West country). I had a wonderful time, the hotel was magnificent, with spa and gym, and I got to see so much of a county I love! I have some disabilities but nothing was too much trouble for the driver and host. Try it, you might like it! Carmen Appleby, Bristol…

The office might look a bit different if you’re returning for the first time aǽter restrictions eased. Many employers are adopting a hybrid working model (so don’t forget to water your desk plants on the days that you’re in). The move seems broadly popular. In fact, 85 per cent of people who worked from home because of coronavirus want hybrid working post-pandemic, according to the latest ONS figures. Recruitment experts are of the opinion that hybrid working is not just a stop-gap model and is here to stay. James Reed, chairman of recruitment brand Reed, told The Big Issue: “This is a workplace revolution. This is the biggest change in 100 years in how we work, since women entered the workplace. “Dynamic working was happening already but the pandemic forced…

01 Tarka the Otter by Henry Williamson Williamson’s still-unsurpassed classic combines poetic imagination with close observation of a wild animal in its natural environment. To survive, the young otter must cope with threats from other creatures of the wild as well as persecution by humans. The final, climactic encounter between Tarka and the otter-hound Deadlock is an heroic battle of wills and savage instincts. 02 Mama’s Last Hug by Frans de Waal The world’s leading primatologist delivers a coup de grace to the notion of human exceptionalism. In holding up a mirror to the chimpanzee, de Waal shows us a clear reflection of our own emotional selves. 03 Farmageddon by Philip Lymbery The CEO of Compassion in World Farming reveals the true price of intensive modern agriculture. Our food is…

In 2019, back when I got washed and dressed, I thought I knew who I was. Now I’m in full barnacle-under-a-rock mode and my tastes have become unrecognisable. First it was jigsaws, then it was a poncho I bought from a shop called Harbourside Interiors, and now I have developed a strange admiration for James Martin. Yes, James Martin of Saturday Kitchen fame, a man so awkward on live TV that he makes you want to put your head in a pan and boil it like a ham. The thing is, I can’t decide whether I love James and want to marry him or I just want to crawl inside his body and become him. Every week on James Martin’s Islands to Highlands he’s barrelling confidently around the country, doing…

I’m in the process of joining a lawn bowling club Selling The Big Issue saved my life. If I didn’t start this 10 years ago I don’t think I’d have stopped drinking. It was actually one of the other vendors who said, why don’t I try it? It’s the best thing I’ve ever done. Things started going pear-shaped when my wife passed away 14 years ago just three months after my dad died. I used to just drink every day of the week after that while sat in the graveyard. Then I landed in hospital one morning. I didn’t know how I got there. I’d collapsed outside my home and the surgeon told me if it wasn’t for the lad across the road who spotted me then I wouldn’t have…

More than 30,000 prisoners were released into unsettled accommodation between April 2020 and March 2021, according to the latest Ministry of Justice data. It represents almost half – 45 per cent – of all those who were released from prison during the period. And rehabilitation charity Switchback has called for an overhaul of the system that is described as setting up prisoners to fail. One ex-prisoner shared with The Big Issue his first-hand experience of the challenges he faced, saying he felt he would be better o›f staying in jail than dealing with the uncertainties of homelessness outside. On the eve of his release from prison in May last year, Jason* was anxious and unsettled. It was the start of his new life. But Jason, then 30, was about to…

VENDORS Following a long lockdown, vendors in England, Scotland and Wales are back out selling the magazine. Please continue to support them. 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. If your local vendor is selling The Big Issue, please buy from them. Vendors buy magazines for £1.50 and sell for £3, keeping the difference and working their way out of poverty. 2. If you cannot buy from a vendor, subscriptions to the magazine are available on a three, six or 12-month basis with a new edition…

Labour’s environment spokesperson Luke Pollard tells us why the UK’s approach to the climate crisis is embarrassing With exam results out this week, you can visit our Jobs and Training platform to find out tips for school leavers Matt Damon talks about being born again after taking time out from movies Why we have to stop prisoners being released straight into homelessness Vendor Mary Daly explains how The Big Issue saved her life…

IN the summer of 2015, Gina was convinced that she only had months to live. For 10 years, the former nurse, despite having had a great career, had been addicted to cocaine, a habit she formed after a stressful time at work and home. Before long, she had lost the job she loved, her home, her family and friends, and mostly lived alone in her car in Tampa, Florida. “Living on the streets addicted to drugs is a pitiful and nasty life to lead,” says Gina. “You don’t know where your next meal or hit is coming from or how far you are prepared to go to get your drugs. I lived in my car or with people I thought were friends who were also drug addicts.” The people who…

“I never really intended to write about ecological loss, but I also don’t know how to avoid writing about it.” Nina Mingya Powles’ Small Bodies of Water, winner of the Nan Shepherd Prize, is a collection of essays so vividly connected to nature that even in its most enclosed spaces – public swimming pools, the shelves of libraries, university classes – metaphors and dreams of orcas and Kōwhai trees shudder through. Powles was born in Wellington, New Zealand (Aotearoa) and grew up there as well as in New York and Shanghai. In her opening essay, “A Girl Swimming is a Body of Water”, she writes that “home was a slippery word” and alongside the silhouettes of sea creatures and the central motif of water, this slipperiness lingers on each page.…

WeWork: Or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn  Available on digital platforms from August 13 Now that working from home has become normalised, there are apparently some people who miss the mundane rituals of office life. Putting aside the valuable social aspect, how much of this nostalgia is genuine? Do you really miss a communal fridge crammed with milk cartons labelled with various initials? Or the sneaking suspicion that a co-worker has lumbered you with their wonky mouse? Is remembering to dial nine for an outside line a perishable skill? The way 2021 is shaping up, it looks like the old world of lanyards, leaving cards and Thursday morning fire drills may never fully return. It also means WeWork: Or the Making and Breaking of a $47…

If you thought Covid-19 sweeping across the country in March last year was terrible enough to endure, spare a thought for communities in England and Wales which were caught while still reeling from another major disaster not a month prior. Amid all the turmoil and confusion that ensued with the global pandemic, it quickly became forgotten that Storm Dennis had struck in mid-February 2020, causing historic flooding, destruction and danger to life. Imagine having your home and possessions wrecked by filthy water, only for your misery to be further compounded by lockdown and all that came with it. One such community severely affected was Crickhowell in south-east Powys, on the edge of the Brecon Beacons. Aerial footage and photographs of a large part of the pretty market town and its…

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, 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 that deliver social value to communities.…

Popular Big Issue vendor Clive and his pet dog Geezer have become tourist attractions in Plymouth after being honoured with a pink plaque on their pitch. The pair, who became a hit while selling the magazine outside the Theatre Royal Plymouth (TRP), received the tribute as part of a local council effort to celebrate the “people who make the Devon city great”. Both Clive and Geezer’s exploits with The Big Issue and on the theatre’s stage are honoured on the plaque, which reads: “Clive sold his first Big Issue outside TRP on 8th August 2016. He first appeared in The Drum with ‘Geezer’ having a walk-on part 4th-6th July 2019.” Clive, 58, told The Big Issue: “It’s quite amazing! That’s the brilliant thing about selling The Big Issue outside the…

The summer of 1991 was miserable for me. I had agreed to start on a very big project with an old friend and I felt cornered. I knew the project would fail because it was vast and there were many things to do and I was a common printer and a small-time businessman who had only ever employed one person. How I had about 15 people on my payroll and it was going to be a disaster and it would all be my fault. And it was difficult to get the respect of anyone who apparently knew what they were doing. Contempt for me was everywhere. I drank more than I had for a long while. I smoked more roll-ups than I had in a long while. This was all…

Virginia McKenna was one of Britain’s biggest movie stars of the 50s and 60s, starring in films like A Town Called Alice and Carve Her Name With Pride . She also got to know Yul Brynner pretty well, playing opposite him on stage in The King and I hundreds of times. The mane role she’s remembered for, however, is Born Free, based on the true story of Elsa the lioness, orphaned as a cub, raised by humans then released back into the wild. McKenna starred as naturalist Joy Adamson with husband George played by McKenna’s own husband, the late Bill Travers, the pair becoming animal rights activists. In response to the death of an elephant they’d appeared with in An Elephant Called Slowly, the couple, with son Will, founded Zoo…

How does a composer and arranger, the son of Cuban exiles who grew up in Florida, become the maestro behind a non-stop run of Broadway hits? There are so many amazing things Alex Lacamoire has already done. Music director of In The Heights and Namilton, he is Lin-Manuel Miranda’s right-hand man. These shows revolutionised musical theatre and, following them, Lacamoire also went on to help The Greatest Showman and Dear Evan Nansen come alive. This month he’ll be back with Miranda, who voices a cute kinkajou from Navana who can’t resist a catchy beat, in the Net›lix animation Vivo. Lacamoire serves as composer on the film with music at its heart. The Big Sssue: This is an impossible question, but can you explain the magic in the music you’ve created…

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. In a game of snooker, how many points do you get for potting the pink ball? 2. In which English city is Europe’s largest library? 3. Which British band have released the albums Final Straw and Eyes Open? 4. On the London tube network, which is the only station to begin with the letter I? 5. Where was Napoleon Bonaparte born? 6. What is trepanning? 7. Which famous novelist’s middle names were John and Huffam? 8. In which year did Jay-Z headline Glastonbury? 9. Who were the last team to win football’s English Division One title before the foundation of the Premier League in 1992?…