Innholdsfortegnelse for 4/4/2022 i The Big Issue

As millions of Brits buckle under the strain, little help is coming from the state. A £20 increase in Universal Credit payments, put in place in March 2020, was scrapped by the government in October 2021. The government insisted it was always temporary, but the move drew ire from all corners. Footballer Marcus Rashford said millions of families had “lost a lifeline and a means of staying afloat”. Even some Conservative MPs argued against the cut. Rishi Sunak’s increase in the National Insurance threshold, announced in his spring statement mini-budget, won’t affect those who earn less than £12,570. Benefits are due to rise by 3.1 per cent in April but, with inflation forecast to average 7.4 per cent this year, will effectively decrease. It has been forecast 1.3 million will…

Frequent Street Art contributor Michael submits his work via London outreach centre the 240 Project, an arts and health activity centre for people affected by isolation, homelessness and exclusion. He likes there to be humour in his artworks. “The more ridiculous the better,” says Michael. “I loved Monty Python and the whole silliness thing. I think the world is a very silly place and hopefully this comes through in my pictures.”…

The 32-year-old plays Eloise Bridgerton in the Netflix smash. Her character is smart, sassy, switched on and the audience’s access point into the Regency era’s peculiar social structure. Jessie has plenty to say about contemporary society’s peculiarities as well THE BIG ISSUE: Did you expect Eloise to be a fan favourite? CLAUDIA JESSIE: I was nervous that people would be like: “Claudia’s crap.” That’s my natural disposition, to be quite nervous. On the page, she’s so funny and quick-witted and so close to the audience that I was hoping people would be able to connect with her. Do you have much in common? I’m nowhere near as cool as Eloise. I never have been, I never will be. I most certainly was not that cool when I was 17 or…

Like the lead character in Apocalypse Now, I needed a mission to save myself from the self-inflicted abyss I found myself in ‘This paper is about the American Dream’ Street Sense is a street paper in Washington DC. As it celebrates its 500th issue, vendor Wendell Williams explains what selling it means to him When I was informed we’d be publishing our 500th edition, I was amazed that this experiment in journalism, employment and empowerment of the poor and homeless had lasted this long. I proudly carry badge #64, and about 700 vendors have received a badge in Street Sense’s history. I was around as we hit the streets trying to sell those early editions and remember the first interactions with the public who knew little about the street newspaper…

HOUSEHOLD BILLS What other countries are doing to ease the cost of living crisis Rishi Sunak has been criticised for failing to support the UK’s poorest as inflation rises. Are other governments across the world faring better? FRANCE From this month, households in the UK will see their energy bills rise by as much as 54 per cent as the price cap limiting what suppliers can charge is lifted. In essence, this is because energy companies are passing along the high cost of wholesale gas onto ordinary consumers. Not all countries have passed along these costs to consumers, however. In France, state-owned energy company EDF has been forced to take an €8.4 billion (£7bn) financial hit to cap household bill rises to just four per cent. In December, low-income French…

Really interesting and intelligent item from @BigIssue – as this piece says “truth is complicated”. But honesty is not@PeterCo16354149 Going for Golda I don’t want to come across as patronising but Golda Rosheuvel’s parting shot in her interview [March 14] is so naive and comes from such a privileged position. From her starting point in her final words “nobody else can tell you where to go” and ending with “you are in control of your journey” is so lacking in understanding. Hasn’t she grasped that millions of people in this country and elsewhere are trapped in situations caused by other people and the majority are so not in control of their journey, unless of course they have lots of money. I ask her to please understand that these uncontrollable situations…

In the mid-nineties, Patrick Alley and a couple of friends got together in a draughty flat in Lancaster Gate, London, and hatched a plan to take down the Khmer Rouge. They had no money, no connections and zero experience of doing battle with brutal, jungle-based guerrilla armies. But they were fascinated by the delicate political situation in Cambodia and passionate about stopping the violent communist cadres of the Khmer Rouge from taking back control of the country. Travelling to Cambodia and posing as traders, they soon discovered that the Thai government had been funding the Khmer Rouge via the illegal timber trade. This exposé by three daring Brits would eventually lead to the demise of that corrupt relationship and the restoration of peace in Cambodia. Alley and his cohorts were…

It’s absolutely fascinating seeing a city that you’re familiar with through the eyes of a visitor Cities are fascinating backdrops for fiction, as every author comes at a place from a different angle. In my own fiction, I hesitated to write about my home town of Edinburgh for a long time, because it was already such a familiar literary landscape. But every writer’s version of a city is unique, so I eventually succumbed. This week we have two books that conjure the atmosphere of their host cities in very different ways. First up is the utterly wonderful River Clyde by bestselling German author Simone Buchholz, translated thoughtfully by Rachel Ward. This is the fifth book in a crime fiction series revolving around state prosecutor Chastity Riley, a terrific character who…

Last week I accidentally (and ironically) donated my husband’s beloved copy of Spark Joy by Marie Kondo to the charity shop. This action sparked arguments, so I spent the next few days trying to claw it back, along with all his other favourite books that I’d mistakenly donated. (By the way, I don’t recommend doing this – it is NOT a good look and involved several fraught conversations and frantic moments in the back room, combing through bags of unwanted Jeremy Clarkson autobiographies.) Now, you could argue that you shouldn’t put your favourite books on top of a pile that’s destined for the charity shop, but these little mistakes seem to be happening more and more. What with Covid and World War 3 constantly looming in the background like Jacob…

Bad behaviour very often gets passed with a chorus of awkward laughter and turned cheeks Last week on a night out in Soho, Central London, I was abruptly reminded of my gender when a stranger came within five inches of my face and slid his arm around me. It was an uncomfortable interaction, as it would be for anyone. What made it worse was the men, embarrassed but complicit, who watched the incident unfold. In these situations, the thought process is usually “Oh no” followed by “How can I get him away from me without being harassed further or him getting angry?” But in a flash that thought train came to a stop. My headstrong, supportive, take-no-shit friend told him to “get your fucking hands off her”. They argued. He…

He’s only controversial because he doesn’t try and bullshit us. The media should try it... now THAT would be controversial. @NetCitizen0 As long as the conversation is with the opinions formed with evidence, it is good, we can change our views and agree. If it is just opinions, better not have the conversation. @karthi_durai Russell has swung to the right, for the followers, likes and money that come with it. Can’t believe he’s still trying to convince people otherwise. @BitsBonzo Russell is more intelligent than a lot of these fools. He can listen to something he doesn’t agree with without being vitriolic and argue his point with an intellectual response. @Veyseylaaa Nobody ever does – or ever should – agree with everything anyone thinks or says. @KarenWalker2020…

‘YOU ONLY NEED ONE SQUARE FOOT TO CHANGE A COMMUNITY’ What can you do with one pound? For Ray Barron-Woolford, the answer was to buy a phone box. Sitting under the ‘rainbow bridge’ on Deptford High Street, the phone box was unloved and used as a toilet. Barron-Woolford, who founded the We Care Food Bank in Lewisham, thought he could put it to better use. Within three days of contacting BT, he had signed a contract to buy it for £1. It was transformed, opening at the end of February as a 24/7 community hub. Every nook and cranny was used. The phone box was given a redecoration and filled with food and drink for those in need, its walls covered with advice and numbers to contact vital services. It…

I couldn’t wait to leave school. I just could not wait to get out of there. I thought about it like a prison term – I remember saying, “I’ve got three more years’ bird left!” I had been quite an unruly kid in the first few years of senior school, but in the fourth year I started to knuckle down. I was a bit of a class clown. I remember one teacher saying, “It’s alright now, Considine, but when you leave here you won’t have your audience any more.” I thought, fuck, he’s right. You can be class clown, you can be the funniest guy in the factory or on the building site – but where is that going to get you? I was in danger of throwing my life…

Selected by Metin Murat British-born Turkish Cypriot debut novelist 1 Bitter Lemons by Lawrence Durrell Essential reading on Turkish Cypriots would of course include this once-famous book. Ignore references to Turkish Cypriots as reptilian creatures; the book has certainly aged, but it’s still a good read. 2 Journey into Cyprus by Colin Thubron This excellent book is interesting, nuanced and sympathetic to both Greek and Turkish Cypriots. 3 Plucked in a Far-off Land by Taner Baybars This is one of my favourite accounts of Turkish Cypriot life prior to Independence. I think Baybars is probably the first Turkish Cypriot to give a full sense of our lives and way of being before they were consumed by the vitriol of nationalism and subsumed into a wider Turkish Anatolian…

The queue snaked around the barriers, spilling on to the pavements leading up to the Print-works. The cavernous South London building, once the printing plant that produced newspapers including the Daily Mail and Evening Standard, was converted into an events space in 2017. Tonight’s punters weren’t waiting for Fabio & Grooverider or Tall Paul – some of the artists who recently appeared at Printworks as part of Clockwork Orange – they were preparing to hear music more commonly associated with a concert hall than a nightclub. Aurora Orchestra’s performance of Beethoven’s Seventh – famously used in The King’s Speech – vibrated through the press halls in one of the most absorbing renditions heard in recent years. The success lay in the ensemble’s approach to the vast scale of the building.…

I’ve been a city gardener all my working life. For years I’ve dug and pruned in the service of people and plants from everywhere. The countryside is lovely, but as nice as fields and woods are, my heart lies in the scrappy mass of hedges, trees and trampolines that we make when living 5,000 to a square kilometre. London is where I learned to see plants for the first time, not just as bits of green background, but as identifiable things with names and characteristics. Had I awakened to vegetation in the Hampshire Downs I would feel a special affection for beech trees and if I’d become aware on the North York Moors I’d write about heather. But no, it happened in Camberwell and so I love buddleja. I’m not…