Innholdsfortegnelse for 3/7/2022 i The Big Issue

FOOD & DRINK TEA PIGS Tetley veterans Nick Kilby and Louise Cheadle set up Tea Pigs to bring quality tea to a new generation of British consumers. They source their leaves from sustainable estates and support vulnerable young people in Rwanda. As if that’s not enough, they were the first tea brand to be certified plastic-free. teapigs.co.uk ODDBOX If food waste were a country, it would be the world’s third biggest greenhouse gas emitter. Oddbox go directly to farmers and “rescue” surplus fruit and veg from this sad and immoral fate; they then deliver it to customers overnight. oddbox.co.uk DIVINE CHOCOLATE Veterans at fighting exploitation, for more than 20 years Divine Chocolate and its partners have been committed to empowering women, supporting them in cocoa farming so they develop skills…

The overwhelming majority of the UK public believes digital access is important in finding and securing a job, exclusive Big Issue research has revealed. Around 91 per cent of people said being able to afford the internet – whether through computers and broadband or smartphones and data – and having the skills to use it was key for those seeking employment. But roughly 10 million people in the UK can’t access or use digital technology – which has become the primary platform for recruiting staff across nearly every sector – according to Lloyds Bank research. That is nearly 10 times the amount of job vacancies currently open across the country. “The pandemic exposed and exacerbated the deep digital divide that we have in the UK,” said Helen Milner OBE, group…

They discuss feminism as they tentatively question their drink-sodden husbands who squander their money on beer and cigarettes every Friday There are plenty of novels telling us money isn’t really important, and we should live a life of the soul free from pecuniary complaints, so it’s something of a guilty relief when one reminds us of the banalities of our reliance on cash and, more importantly, the importance of not ending up with none of it. The characters in Elena Medel’s The Wonders spend most of their time on the brink of having none of it. The novel tells the story of Spanish working-class women, impoverished either by tragedy or by family breakdown, and the simplicity of their struggle for two things: money and power. Though it is perhaps more…

As someone who was raised in Doncaster since the age of 10, there’s no type of British film that excites me more than ones set up north – especially as most of the movies we make on these fair isles are London-centric. The north has never got enough attention and it’s certainly not a monolith; there is a regional diversity beyond our varying accents so it’s always a pleasure to see these different communities and cultures, from Liverpool to Leeds, represented in cinematic form. What is rarer than a northern excursion on-screen are the ones that feature people of colour and not simply to use racism as a plot device. The Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren-led The Duke was recently guilty of this in an otherwise charming film. The script…

Get in touch  The Big Issue, 2nd floor, 43 Bath Street, Glasgow G2 1HW letters@bigissue.com @bigissue /bigissueUK @bigissueuk @thebigissue Widening cracks Saw John Bird’s article about representation and about the Covid contracts [February 7]. I went into Plymouth last week and I took the bus [and sketched it, above]. The bus journey showed all too painfully we are still not helping those who desperately need it. When is the last time you saw a member of Parliament hop on a bus to take the same kind of journey I took? I’m fortunate I can drive to work (because there are no public transport alternatives). Who will represent those who will probably still continue to fall through the cracks in Parliament? Does Parliament understand the potential pressures that the cost of…

Is Mark Rylance the best actor in the business? He’s certainly in the Top One. From the bombast and bacchanalia of his Olivier and Tony Award-winning tour de force in Jerusalem to the quiet malevolence of his Thomas Cromwell in the BBC’s Wolf Hall, Rylance commands an audience’s attention. Like a quiet voice in a noisy argument, he draws us towards him. Nobody does it better. On stage, on screen, or on a Zoom call with The Big Issue, he is, it seems, permanently in the moment. Instinctive. Reacting. Responding. It makes him a joy to talk to. He moves breezily between subjects, always fully engaged. “Oh, you’ve got a nice record collection there. Me too,” he says, at the start of our conversation. “It’s so nice to see records…

B Corps are changing the way we do business. They’re still the new kids on the block, but their numbers are growing fast. They are driven by the desire to make things better through commerce and replace the focus on individualism with an ethos of interdependence. Because business cannot prosper where people do not thrive. These companies acknowledge that business can be a problem, but show that they can also be part of a solution. It’s still about profit – but it’s profit with a purpose. The Big Issue Group has been a B Corp since the early days of the UK movement in 2015. Like all of the other nearly 600 UK-based B Corps, it had its social and environmental mettle tested rigorously during the accreditation process. As part…

I was lucky enough to go to a good school, by and large. We had a really good drama society and I really enjoyed acting. I was actually quite a wallflower at parties. I was a bit shy. I regretted not having a sister because I didn’t really understand girls, and rather put them on a pedestal. So being on stage allowed me to be more confident. It helped me get out of my shyness. What did I look like? I had a lot more hair then than I do now. I had very flared bell-bottom jeans and grey Cuban heel boots, so I was… not quite flower power but getting there. If you met the 16-year-old me now you’d find someone who liked a joke. Someone who was friendly…

1 The Blazing World by Margaret Cavendish A genre-busting novella written in 1666 about a woman who becomes empress of an alternate world and moulds it into a utopia free from war, religious division and gender inequality. A paean to the potential of unfettered female imagination. 2 Circe by Madeline Miller Relegated to a bit-part in mythology as the witch who ensnared Odysseus, here Circe is allowed to live, breathe and tell her own story. The result is mesmerising. 3 The Book of the City of Ladies by Christine de Pizan Written startlingly early, in 1405, in response to the misogyny she found in the writings of men, this pioneering defence of women celebrates the achievements of great female scholars, warriors and saints. 4 Women &…

In 2016, BBC Three was taken off air. But despite the odds, it thrived and gained a cultural influence that surpassed any other channel. Many of the biggest and brightest shows of the last few years – Fleabag, Normal People, This Country – began on BBC Three and spilled over into all of our lives. The vital voices given a platform grew so loud that they forced a return to terrestrial. Relaunching last month, one of the biggest new shows is Mood. In a starmaking role, Nicôle Lecky plays Sasha, a broke 20-something wannabe singer, sofa-surfing her way into a world of selfie-obsessed culture and online sex work. With a suitcase in one hand, she scrolls through contacts in search of a place to sleep. Behind every carefully curated social…

From ABBA to Robyn, Avicii, and super-producer Max Martin – a songwriter only topped by Lennon and McCartney when it comes to scoring US No 1 singles – why is Sweden so extraordinarily good at making pop music? It’s a question I’ve pondered a great deal over the years. I’m married to a Swede and spend a lot of time in the country, so my Scandiphilia runs deep. The answer is an unknowable blend of different things – all from good access to free music schooling for kids (“I have public music education to thank for everything,” said Martin in 2001), to a grounding in the age-old folk, schlager and communal singing traditions which helped produce ABBA. Speaking of whom, undoubtedly a healthy dose of confidence and pride still flows…

He was born in Ashford, Kent, in 1960, and his family moved to the US when he was two. He returned in 1978 to attend Rada. In 1994, Rylance won his first Olivier Award for Much Ado about Nothing and became the first artistic director of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre from 1995-2005. He won his first Bafta playing Dr David Kelly in C4’s The Government Inspector in 2005, and three Tony Awards for Boeing-Boeing, Twelfth NightandJerusalem (below right). On screen (above, from top), Rylance starred with Scarlett Johansson in The Other Boleyn Girl, picked up a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role in Steven Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies, and played a tech mogul in end-of-the-world comedy Don’t Look Up. The actor won a Bafta for his role alongside Damian Lewis…

Behind the B Corps is another big B: B Lab. It’s a not-for-profit network that was formed in 2006 to transform the global economy to benefit not just a few billionaires but every single global citizen. The network has B Labs all over the world. B Lab UK was launched in 2015. Its purpose is to reimagine how we define business success, using the B Corp movement and accreditation system to inspire firms to be better and to enable them to change. This new model moves away from prioritising individualism to recognising that all of us – businesses included – are interdependent and always will be.…

Do you own the phone in your pocket? For most of us, the obvious, intuitive answer is yes. A device that you carry with you every day to communicate with colleagues, friends, and loved ones that contains a trove of personal information, feels fundamentally yours. But the reality is more complicated. When the very functioning of a device depends on embedded software and network connections, it remains tethered to its manufacturer even after you buy it. That’s true not only for smartphones, but for vehicles, kitchen appliances and even door locks. This tether can reveal itself in many ways. Some will recall the shock of iPhone owners in 2014 when an unsolicited U2 album appeared on their devices without warning. Even though it was free, the incident was unsettling because…

“The painting is inspired by a busker I met in Soho, who was dancing to his music,” says John. “He reminded me of the jitterbug.” A long-time regular Street Art contributor, John first discovered his natural ability and enjoyment of painting in 1999, aged 50, as encouraged by The Big Issue. He has gone on to be exhibited at prestigious galleries in the UK and abroad including Somerset House, The British Museum and The Royal Academy. He recently completed a month’s residency at the Changing Room Gallery in Soho. 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 profit goes to the artist.…

There are too many books in Hay-on-Wye. Finding a treasure does not have the same sense of victory as finding something at a jumble sale in Invergordon or a junk shop in Stalybridge. But it doesn’t stop me browsing. I find a tiny pocket book of myths and a biography of Stanley Baker, a tough-guy actor you could really believe would knock you flat if you got mayonnaise on his tweed suit. I am at a book festival and right before me is a celebrity historian who has lately become something of an amplified conspiracy theorist. Festivals often have an author’s dinner at the end of the day, and my wife has told me to keep quiet and try to sit in the corner and so I do. I keep…

I’ve been selling The Big Issue for eight years, nearly three of them here outside Waitrose in Morningside. Before that I was in Livingston outside the Morrisons there, but I had a problem so I decided to move across to Edinburgh. A guy kept coming over to me while I was in Livingston asking for a cigarette and for me to give him cash and then the last time I sold there, he followed me to the bus to try and get my money. Things are a bit slow at the minute because it is the start of the year, but usually things are alright on my pitch so it’s not so bad. There was a big, big, big rise in sales at Christmas. As soon as it gets halfway…