Innholdsfortegnelse for 9/4/2023 i The Big Issue

I suppose you can expect no unity between political opposites even though the issues facing us at the moment are bigger than any political divides. Since Covid we seem to have been in a permanent state of emergency. The toppling of food security has probably been one of the biggest of issues, where one would have hoped the best minds could have been drawn together to solve problems around the cost of living crisis. Inflation needs cooperation to be defeated, yet partisanship rules the roost. Of course, our combative political system means whoever is in power will be the butt of whoever is not. Point scoring is highly necessary, it seems, when elections loom. You have to gain those precious percentage points that indicate who is to be the next…

Two weeks before his 17th birthday, Stephen Woodhouse’s mum died of cancer. “We knew she was dying,” he says. “They gave her six months. She lasted five.” Still in mourning, he and his sister – just two years older, but classed as an adult – were left to fend for themselves. “She ended up getting a council flat to look after me,” remembers Woodhouse. “However, she was dealing with grief as well. It just didn’t go very well.” Still a minor, Woodhouse found himself homeless. In the 30-year “roller-coaster” since, he’s often been without a place to call his own. “Every time I managed to get a job and got myself off the streets, something else has happened,” he explains. But thanks to his guitar – and the help of…

I’d gone from loving school when I was very small, and then really, really hating it once I got to around 12. By the time I was 16 I think my imagination started firing. And I was much more interested in stories and adventure than buckling down and doing things I just couldn’t understand the relevance of. Like maths and science. Now I find all of that absolutely fascinating and I tried to make up by doing a couple of courses at Birkbeck a few years ago, and Open University. Because now I find all of that wonderful. I just wish that at the time there had been some context to what they were teaching us because I never really understood it. So I just started wandering off in my…

It’s a wet, warm morning in late August. I’m sitting in my car outside the school, worried about where my daughter is. She walked through the gates almost an hour ago with her mates to collect her GCSE results. My wife and I are waiting outside for back-up purposes only; under strict instructions to keep a safe distance but be ready for emotional support should things go wrong. I tap at the steering wheel anxiously and study the faces of other kids emerging. Could their expressions offer clues to what’s going on inside? Why is my daughter taking so long? Is that a good sign or a bad sign? “I think it’s a good sign,” I tell my wife. “If it was bad, I think she would have shot straight…

HOMELESSNESS A quarter of a million people are homeless and councils are battling a ‘perfect storm’ as they try to keep up Nearly a quarter of a million households across England are experiencing the worst forms of homelessness and councils are struggling to keep up with demand, Crisis has warned. The homelessness charity laid bare how ill-equipped local authorities are to help households facing homelessness on the street, sofa surfing at friends’ or relatives’ places, or staying in B&Bs. Nearly every local authority in England (97%) said they have struggled to find private rented accommodation for people experiencing homelessness. More councils than ever before reported they are facing an increase in people experiencing homelessness, while their stock of temporary accommodation, such as B&Bs, is “running out”. Crisis estimated that the…

Get in touch The Big Issue, 2nd floor, 43 Bath Street, Glasgow G2 1HW letters@bigissue.com @bigissue /bigissueUK @bigissueuk @thebigissue Help the aged Oh, how I agree with Tony Rowe (Letters, Issue 1575, 31 July). I am nowhere near his wonderful 100-year-old mum’s age but – yes – I do feel part of an underclass. We simply can’t handle the apps, ‘click here’ do-it-online world we are in. We can’t order things, buy things nor even enquire with some organisations. ‘Helplines’ are few and far between and all the information we need and all the ways of paying bills, banking etc is online. Our families aren’t able to comprehend why we can’t manage it. Our local bank is closing. Our younger GPs are perplexed at our inability to send them smartphone…

As cost of living pressure rises across the UK, it’s grassroots groups plugging the gaps left by local services to support people experiencing big issues like homelessness. Manchester has eight times more homeless people than any other city in the north-west. For eight years, the Manchester Homelessness Partnership (MHP) has been offering help with food, hygiene and shelter. Earlier this year, the charity bought a second-hand Ford Transit van. They equipped it with a shower, microwave, and sink, and created space for rough sleepers who may require transport to a shelter. On a Thursday night, I join the team on their rounds. Laura Smith, a volunteer for the charity, said that they run the van every Tuesday and Thursday night across the city’s busiest areas. “We try to reach as…

CULTUREART Long-time regular Street Art contributor Vallely’s colourful paintings are her way of helping to deal with a history of depression and homelessness. She submits this artwork via the 240Project in London, a health activity centre for people affected by homelessness and exclusion. Mary attends other art workshops too. “One is Accumulate and the other is St Mungo’s, which have helped me,” she says. “Time is a great healer. “I am also featured in a magazine this autumn called Orion. They discovered the picture I had in The Big Issue called Blister and are featuring an article about me. So thanks, Big Issue.” 240project.org.uk 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.…

FAMILY Supporting parents as they shape young lives Through my twenties, I thought little about my own early childhood. Honestly? Leaving it to history felt easier than spending too much time dwelling on the past. It was only when I got married, wanting kids of our own, that I realised I really needed to reflect on that period properly. I’m a father of two now: understanding my own experiences felt an important step in shaping how I take on the task of parenthood with the care it deserves. I was born in 1987 in South London. Before I was talking, there was turbulence at home. My parents split. Dad went to Turkey, and I’ve not seen him since. Mum and I went to Malaysia where I started nursery. That was…

You can tell the US presidential election is under way because the cease-and-desist letters are going out. As the circus pitches the big tent the number of annoyed music stars grows. This week Eminem made his feelings clear. It was Vivek Ramaswamy, the young Republican would-be leader of the free world, who has the air of a Black Mirror version of a would-be leader of the free world, who was slapped down. He performed Eminem’s Lose Yourself at a campaign event and Eminem didn’t like it. Ramaswamy is now not allowed to use any Eminem track during his campaign. There is a long list of artists, from Springsteen to Neil Young, who have demanded that, mostly Republican, candidates don’t use their music. This grows as the campaigning intensifies. I do…

A worldwide TV audience of 328 million saw Bukayo Saka miss the penalty that cost England the European Championship at Wembley Stadium in July 2021. He was just 19 and had never taken a penalty in a senior match before. The abuse he received in the aftermath – much of it racist – went on for weeks. It might have broken some teenagers. Or at least derailed their career somewhat. But at the time of writing, Saka has just completed a run of 83 consecutive matches for his club, Arsenal. He has been named their player of the year two seasons running and, last year, was also voted the England’s team’s top player. When he’s not thrilling crowds on the pitch, he is putting his time and profile to good…

REVIEWS Celebrating snubs from the Booker longlist It isn’t exactly an iconoclastic take that the Booker Prize, which released its latest longlist last month, is about as useful a way of discovering the year’s best literary releases as blue-tick Twitter is for finding people who aren’t mental. The omissions of Eliza Clark, AK Blakemore, Barbara Kingsolver, Brandon Taylor, Catherine Lacey, Emma Cline and Alice Wynn, among numerous others, suggest that the judges weren’t just in a bubble this year, they were huddled in an oubliette in some distant tundra. One of the most egregious snubs has to be Rachel Connolly’s Lazy City. Set in Belfast, the novel follows Erin as she returns to her home city after the death of her best friend in London. She is initially met with…

In a complicated world with its impossibly complex problems, Ros Atkins has found a way to capture and convey the essentials. If there is a big news story – from Partygate to Ukraine – the BBC News analysis editor will have distilled the details into a short, sharp, shareable report that is keeping millions up to speed with world events. His new book The Art of Explanation spells out the critical importance of communicating with clarity and confidence, beginning always on establishing your aims from the outset. THE BIG ISSUE: What precisely is this article going to explain? ROS ATKINS: Well, I hope this article will explain why I’ve decided to write a book about explaining and why it could potentially be helpful to your readers, regardless of what they…

MARK MORGAN, 57 Trust means a lot to me. The best thing about selling The Big Issue is the regular customers I’ve built up over the years. I do gardening jobs for some of them. That makes me feel better about myself. One of my customers, her mum is 93, and I’ve been over there to help care for her when the family goes on holiday. The other day I was mowing the lawn for one of my regulars. It’s nice to get a bit of extra cash, but it’s not all about the money. They’ve looked after me and I like doing jobs to help them. It works both ways. I’ve been selling The Big Issue in Christchurch for three and a half years now, and for four-ish years…