Innholdsfortegnelse for 10/10/2022 i The Big Issue

It’s very difficult to explain a large painting I worked on when deep in Covid. The painting is five-foot square, so it’s sizeable. Few walls could take it. It is supposedly a view of a tree reflected in a river. But who am I kidding? It’s really a load of colourful marks on a flat square. It went through a number of transformations the week I had Covid, but it did not get interrupted by the lingering pandemic. I just chugged on at it, adding stains and, at times, removing them. The first problem of explaining the painting, which at the moment is untitled, is that it seems to me to have a value. It seems to have meaning, perhaps not as a river with a tree reflected in it.…

SPACE EXPLORATION Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock was only a few months old, making her own first small steps, when man first landed on the moon in 1969. Over half a century since the last Apollo mission, Nasa finally has plans to return. It’s not just the potential of building bases and exploring further out in our solar system that Aderin-Pocock is excited about but changing the demographic of moon walkers. “Twelve people have been to the moon and so far it’s been 12 American white guys. So we need to diversify the moon a bit,” she says. “As a black female, I keep saying, ‘I’ll go, send me!’ Nasa haven’t called me back yet. But I’m still hopeful.” Growing up watching The Clangers inspired Aderin-Pocock as much as the moon landings…

Lui submits his work via the 240 Project, an activity centre in London supporting vulnerable adults. He takes inspiration, he says, “from the world around me, the images, ideas and people that fill this city”. His latest painting is an obvious homage to Vincent van Gogh’s iconic painting of the same name, but done in Lui’s own cheerful style. “I am self-taught and drawn to many genres of art,” says Lui. “I tend to follow my own intuition, creating fluid pieces that do not necessarily pay homage to any specific artist, but there may be the occasional trace of influence. “Whatever you want in life start chasing it now,” he adds, “before it’s too late.” The work on this page is created by people who are marginalised. Contact street.lights@bigissue.com to…

INTERVIEW We’re used to delays in this country. Fifty-two years after The Railway Children, its sequel has finally arrived. The original dealt with timeless truths, the importance of family and the joy of waving at passing trains, but also big issues. It was poverty that pushed the children to the countryside after their father was arrested for being a suspected spy. The sequel has similar aims, serving as a platform to explore racism and the horrors of war. The next generation of railway children are evacuees from Salford, fleeing Word War II bombs to find adventure and trains to flag down in the same Yorkshire setting as Lionel Jeffries’ perennial classic, based on the writing of E Nesbit. The only railway child actually returning is Jenny Agutter, now 69. THE…

RENTING As a rent freeze comes into place in Scotland, what are the chances of the rest of the UK following? The Scottish government has pressed ahead with emergency legislation to freeze rents to help tenants get through the cost-of-living crisis. The Cost of Living (Protection of Tenants) (Scotland) Bill was fast-tracked through Holyrood last week after First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced the measure would be brought in alongside an eviction ban until at least March. There have been plenty of calls for private renters in England and Wales to receive the same measure. Members of the Renters’ Reform Coalition, including Generation Rent and ACORN, have urged the Westminster government to introduce a freeze while Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has been asking for one for two years. But there…

Get in touch The Big Issue, 2nd floor, 43 Bath Street, Glasgow G2 1HW letters@bigissue.com @bigissue /bigissueUK @bigissueuk @thebigissue State of denial Jacob Rees-Mogg says, “Common sense dictates that if the Met Office cannot forecast the next season’s weather with any success it is ambitious to predict what will happen decades ahead” [Issue 1531, September 19]. He does not understand the distinction between weather and climate. Climate is the average pattern of weather over a long period. It is less variable than weather. Annual rainfall and minimum temperatures for different seasons are measures of climate. Weather changes markedly from one day to the next. There are many things which can be forecast more accurately over a long period than a short one. My car insurer does not know how many…

REVIEWS Men of faith find hell at the end of the earth In Room, Emma Donoghue’s Josef Fritzl-inspired novel about a mother and child trapped in a kidnapper’s lair, the author suggested that, with enough love, it was possible to create an almost-haven in the depths of hell. In her latest book, Haven, she shows how, with enough zealotry, a spiritual sanctuary can be transformed into a cruel parody of the divine. Set in seventh-century Ireland, Haven follows the attempts of Artt, a revered scholar and priest, to set up a religious community far away from the temptations of the world. Dismayed by the laxity he finds at a monastery he is visiting, and seizing on a dream as prophecy, he sets forth to find an unsullied spot with two…

ANALYSIS The BBC must stay focused on making history If there’s a benefit to our national broadcaster beyond its ability to speak to, and engage, all of Britain’s citizens on a principle of universal accessibility distanced from vested interests – not to mention enrage idiots like Nadine Dorries by its mere taxpayer-funded existence – then it’s how it functions as a permanent repository for the cultural memory of a nation. A kind of televisual Tardis, through which we can transport ourselves to practically any moment in the last century and vicariously experience important moments as past generations did in real time, glued to the telly or the wireless. When it comes to live music, the 100-year archive of the BBC is practically unrivalled in human history as a portal of…

RICHARD DAWSON, 40 I’ve was offered a job at Sainsbury’s just a couple of weeks after I started selling the magazine here. I got the offer of a 12-hour contract working shifts stacking shelves and on the till. I was selling the magazine one Tuesday and there was a thief in the store, so I told the Sainsbury’s staff. On the Wednesday the manager came out to see me and said: “Would you be interested in a job?” I said yeah and asked him why he was offering it to me. He said he liked how I spoke to staff and how I was very nice to customers, helping them where I can. He told me he just wanted to give me a chance. We had an interview and he…

Space hoppers trump spur-of-the-moment suggestions Our colleague Lee Welham had a spot of trouble enrolling for the London Marathon. Lee sells The Big Issue in Cambridge. He’d planned to compete to raise money for a disability charity, but there was an admin issue. Not one to shirk a challenge (Lee recently organised a sell-off with the Archbishop of Canterbury, then interviewed him post-event in a punt on the Cam), Lee decided to try something else. He’d complete the marathon distance. On a space hopper. He planned, over a few nights, to cover the distance on, I repeat, a big orange space hopper. After completing an admirable stretch of eight miles, give or take, on the first night, Lee conceded that perhaps the idea had needed more thought ahead of the…

I was absolutely obsessed with sport when I was 16. My heroes were Glenn Hoddle, Nick Faldo, Boris Becker, Daley Thompson. I was dreaming of either being a professional presenter or, more likely, a teacher. I loved my school, Hazelwick, and I was inspired by my teachers, particularly my history teacher, Mr. Lolls. I was excited about everything at that age. I loved playing sport, and I was excited by the idea of leaving home and going to university, getting out into the big wide world. There was quite a lot going on in my little 16-year-old head. My first dream was being a professional sports player. When I was quite young I was very tall, so I got some trials with football clubs. I played in a school team…

DAYGAMING ‘Women are not a game, not a sport’ “Excuse me, I think you’re just beautiful.” It’s a familiar situation for a lot of women: being chatted up in the street by a man out of the blue. ‘Daygaming’ sees men stop women they find attractive in the street with the aim to get their numbers. The practice has dedicated coaches. Men learn tailored techniques through one-to-one coaching, bootcamps and even six-week transformation courses. They may pay anywhere from £300 to upwards of £5,000 to learn how to approach women with confidence. One of our Big Issue vendors in London witnessed the technique being put into practice while out selling magazines and grew concerned. He got in touch to share what he’d seen. “There’s a series of short but superfluous…