Innholdsfortegnelse for 6/3/2024 i The Big Issue

Youth is never wasted on the young Don’t be young. So far, that is the driving narrative of the election campaign. If you are young, well, tough – give us your vote anyway! It was not so long ago that there were loud noises about supporting young people who had suffered during lock-down. It was recognised that formative years were being damaged. In the normal run of things younger people would have been out in the world, discovering themselves and their place in it, exploring how relationships work, getting jobs, building up some hope for the future. Instead, they were shuttered. Horizons narrowed. As lockdowns eased, the Local Government Association published a report calling for children and young people to “be at the heart of plans to rebuild communities”. The…

Get in touch The Big Issue, 2nd floor, 43 Bath Street, Glasgow G2 1HW letters@bigissue.com @bigissue /bigissueUK @bigissueuk @thebigissue Counting the cost of Sunak’s reign It is unbelievable what Rishi Sunak is doing to this country and no one is doing anything about it. Sunak is one of the richest men in the country. How can he possibly relate to people on benefits and pensioners trying to survive on £900 per month? Council tax payments alone cost between £250 and £300 for a modest home. Why isn’t he stopping the profiteering? Supermarkets, petrol stations, banks, energy companies, insurance companies, need I go on? Countless businesses are making obscene profits while people struggle to put food on the table, keep warm and cope with the rise of day-to-day living expenses. Not…

At 16, I was at a really idyllic little school. It was a Steiner school and was literally in a valley, so it was a very particular environment. We were quite sheltered and hermetic. And we didn’t know until after we left, but the other schools referred to us as the Rainbow Warriors. Partly because you could wear your own clothes, but there was also quite a hippy thing going on. I found those years quite tricky. It was like The Prisoner – everything was very bright and colourful, but I remember feeling a real want to get out of there. I was quite solitary. But talking to my friends, because we’re all still in touch, I think it’s just part of being that age. I did feel quite lonely…

Fifty years ago this summer, the island of Cyprus was divided by conflict. The crisis began on 15 July 1974, when soldiers backed by the Greek military dictatorship staged a coup, turning up in tanks to depose the democratically elected President of Cyprus, Archbishop Makarios III. In the ensuing chaos, the Turkish army invaded from the north. A third of the population had to flee their homes, and still haven’t returned. There is still no official peace agreement, only a ceasefire. This state of division feels like a sign of the times we are living through now, with bitter conflicts playing out in eastern Europe and the Levant. In fact, Cyprus has always been a microcosm for whatever is happening across the region, standing as it does at the crossroads…

All property exists in the realm of fantasy these days. A one-bedroom flat in Rochdale commands the kind of money only an oligarch could secure. And even if you made an offer, you’d be pipped to the post by an army of mysterious trust/hedge funders who are paying in cash. So instead, let us sit in our pestilent hovels with our Fray Bentos pies and watch a bunch of varnished idiots trying to sell Mayfair houses with home cinemas. Yes, Selling Sunset – the show that’s populated by terrifying alpha females and very, very small men who look like toys you get free in a packet of cereal – has spawned yet another offshoot. We’ve already had identical formats set in Paris, Sydney and Florida, and now there’s Buying London.…

MOHAMMED IQBAL, 57 I am 57 and I have sold the magazine for the past 24 years of my life – 14 years in Crosspool, four years in Scunthorpe, four years in Barnsley and two years in Sheffield. I have a good relationship with the staff at the Spar by my pitch. Once, a man tried to shoplift and I intervened. He threatened me with a knife, but I was not scared. I have seen much worse. The staff caught him and gave me a reward. When I lived in London, a long time ago, when I was very young, I worked as a chef. I earned £400, £600 a month. I wish I could do that kind of job again. I love cooking food. I was born in Bradford,…

GENERAL ELECTION 2024 The general election comes amid ‘good news’ on inflation. But the cost of living crisis is far from over for millions Rishi Sunak called a general election against a bleak backdrop. There are more than 14 million people in the UK living in poverty, including four million children. As rain poured onto his suit, the prime minister admitted to the nation “it might still be hard when you look at your bank balance” days after he was named in The Sunday Times Rich List, having amassed more wealth than the King. Sunak timed his unexpected general election announcement around the “good news” that inflation had fallen to near-normal levels. Prices increased by 2.3% in the year up to April 2024, nearing the Bank of England’s 2% target,…

COVER FEATURE Today, Johnny Harris, one of Britain’s best character actors, is looking very sharp. Tailored navy blazer, knitted silk yellow tie and light blue Brooks Brothers button-down. He’s making an effort, he says, “because it’s Weller”. Paul Weller joins us, a few floors up in a Central London club, looking tanned, tired (he’s just back from LA) and less formal (Lee cords, leather loafers). During the interview, his tailor will drop off some clothes for the shoot that is coming later. That feels very Weller. Paul Weller, or the idea of Paul Weller, has been a dominant thread in popular British culture for almost 50 years. He has just turned 66 and has been the Modfather longer than many of his fans have been alive. Through it all he…

Ilhem Oubaiche is an Algerian-French artist. She submits this painting via the 240Project, an activity centre in London supporting vulnerable adults. “I have been drawing since the day I could hold a pen,” she says. “When I am painting, I am in my bubble.” Of this artwork, Oubaiche says: “The woman and the child is open to interpretation to the viewer. To me it can be the universe holding you (hence the stars all over their garments), just like a mother holding her child. The unconditional love and protection amongst the chaos of life. I have used acrylic paint and acrylic pens on this canvas mainly.” View more of Ilhem Ouibaiche’s art at instagram.com/il_m_art 240project.org.uk The work on this page is created by people who are marginalised. Contact street.lights@bigissue.com to…

REVIEW Fake killer, real comedy The title is stripped-down, like a sniper rifle ready to be concealed in a briefcase. But there are a lot of moving parts in the new movie from Richard Linklater, the veteran US indie filmmaker behind offbeat hits like School of Rock, Boyhood and the beloved romantic trilogy launched by Before Sunrise. Co-written by Linklater and his star Glen Powell, Hit Man is a literally killer comedy inspired by a 2001 magazine profile of a real guy from Houston, although it comes front-loaded with a ductile disclaimer: “Based on a somewhat true story.” When we first meet New Orleans college lecturer Gary (Powell), he is a faintly dorky dude with lank hair and glasses. He teaches psychology and philosophy to yawning students. His hobbies include…

JAZZ Rebirth of the cool Last year, when Ezra Collective won the Mercury Prize for their album Where I’m Meant to Be, it felt like the first time since the award’s inception that a win for the ‘token jazz’ nominee was not just likely but inevitable. The forward momentum of British jazz music had finally reached the point where its bearing on mainstream culture could no longer be ignored. It’s not that prior nominees with jazz leanings were undeserving. I fell for the genre aged 11, watching Courtney Pine perform a track from his album Modern Day Jazz Stories at the Mercurys on TV in 1996, but it’s hard to imagine a group like Ezra Collective drawing huge crowds at Glastonbury a decade ago, or indeed a jazz-centric festival like…

The general election gives us the opportunity to demand real change Elections are like islands of hope in a sea of troubles. They seem to increase hope when deep despair is at hand. Last week, whilst doing a Q&A in Falmouth after the showing of the film Someone’s Daughter, Someone’s Son, I was asked whether I hoped for much in the forthcoming general election. I was not appointed in life to urinate on people’s parades. Nor was I appointed – or self-appointed – to be gooey-eyed over political promises. Rather, to be firmly sensible and not misled by what turns out to be electoral bluster. So it’s a hard one when, having stacked up so many empty promises, the government finally surrenders to the inevitable and calls an election. And…

REVIEWS The mane attraction I’m a sucker for writers who use their own personal experiences in their novels. We should never, of course, mistake the central character of a story for the storyteller, but there’s something wonderfully authentic about a novel that has its seed in real life, adding a tangible veracity to the book. So it is with our two novels this week. First up is Willy Vlautin’s The Horse. American author Vlautin has a cult following of dedicated fans, and is one of my favourite writers. He writes about the underbelly of the American dream, about the disenfranchised and struggling people of everyday life, but he does so with great depth and humanity. He is also an acclaimed musician, having been in alt.country bands Richmond Fontaine and The…

CULTUREINTERVIEW India Amarteifio’s life changed this time last year when she starred in the Bridgerton spin-off, Queen Charlotte. She was dropped into a world of glitz and glamour. It felt bizarre. Amarteifio grew up with a single mum who claimed benefits and worked long hours as a beautician to take care of her girls. “I’m not from that world at all,” the 22-year-old says. “My family is very humble. We’re not materialistic. I feel very connected to people and my society, so to be sprung into a world like that felt very alien.” As she speaks to Big Issue over a video call from her home in Surrey, washing machine humming in the background, it is clear that her roots are close to her heart, and she wants to use…