Innholdsfortegnelse for 1/6/2025 i The Big Issue

All it takes, it seems, is a massive stone, ideally weighing about six tonnes and two metres in length. One of the more intriguing stories to greet the new year was that of Stonehenge. The great altar stone, the piece of much debate and conjecture, is now thought to have been a gift marker and something to illustrate political allegiances. Given that it was sent around 700km and this was around 4,500 years ago, it is quite the gift. Would like to see Evri’s tracking on that. This new analysis comes from Mike Parker Pearson, Professor of British Later Prehistory at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London. It follows the big revelation earlier in 2024 that this stone was extracted, intentionally, from the ground somewhere in the north of…

Get in touch The Big Issue, 2nd floor, 43 Bath Street, Glasgow G2 1HW letters@bigissue.com @bigissue /bigissueUK @bigissueuk @thebigissue Plane speaking I was interested to read Carla Denyer outline her big issue for 2025 as the climate [Issue 1644, 02-08 Dec]. Bristol Airport’s big plan for 2025 appears to be expansion and lengthening of the runway(s) to accommodate more frequent flights and larger aircraft. This plan comes despite objections from many local residents and local councils concerning the levels of pollution and constant noise from often non-stop daily flights which can only become much worse. I think the reaction from the Green councillors and the Green Party in Bristol to this proposed expansion has been disappointing so far, and I believe that if they are serious about the climate for…

It’s not just Annamaria’s family who came over for Christmas dinner. Along with her kids and their children, she cooked for elderly and isolated neighbours who’d otherwise be alone on the day. In total, in her house in Derby, 13 of them tucked in to turkey, ham and lamb. The 46-year-old mother of four managed through the festive season by using Iceland Food Club, an interest-free loan scheme offered by the retailer which allows customers to borrow up to £100 and pay it back at £10 per week, building their credit score in the process. Annamaria, who works as a cleaner in a hotel, first started using the scheme when there were hiccups with payment at work. “There were a lot of issues with payroll, and I was just really…

I always say adolescence is a war for everybody – no one gets out unscathed. But, at 16, I was pretty mainstream. I was a basketball player. That was my obsession. I was captain of the basketball team – maybe that was when I was 17 – and president of the student council. So I was a frighteningly normal and mainstream high school student at that point. I lived in a town where you were expected to excel. Many of the students at my school went on to top colleges. It was quite competitive. Both my brothers went to Yale undergraduate and Harvard Law School. They both graduated early and had perfect SAT scores. So it was a competitive town. My parents were pretty good about it, though. They were…

After a rough decade or so, I’m keeping my expectations extremely low for 2025. Call me pessimistic, but I think if we can all get through this year without having to build a bunker stocked with Morrison’s Savers tinned soup and Duracell batteries, it’ll have been a success. But look on the bright side. If that happens, either due to climate change, Pandemic X, WW3, an alien invasion or a sentient AI robot army – there are going to be plenty of hours to kill, and that means lots of lovely end-of-days TV! So here are my top picks to watch through the gauze of your hazmat suit (some of which may be entirely made up). The Traitors Ten accountants, an irritating massage therapist and a weird woman called Doris…

HOMELESSNESS Labour finally answers Big Issue’s call for a focus on homelessness prevention with a billion-pound investment Big Issue founder Lord John Bird walked out of a housing committee inquiry into rough sleeping back in November bemoaning the government’s lack of focus on prevention. Lord Bird felt his point was being missed. As he and Big Issue have said, for many years: spending more money on stopping people falling into homelessness in the first place is more effective, efficient and humane than allowing levels to reach crisis point as they are now. It clearly struck a chord with Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and the Labour government. Just before Christmas, housing secretary Rayner announced what the government has called the “largest-ever investment in prevention” with £1bn of funding to tackle homelessness…

James Acaster is due a revelation this week. On Thursday 9 January, the still fresh-faced comedian turns 40. “It feels wild,” he says. “With the pandemic, suddenly we were two years older. I feel like, ‘No, I’m still 37, aren’t I?’ When I turned 30, I loved it actually, because in my 20s I thought, ‘Oh, I’m an adult now, I really need to know stuff, I need to understand the world.’ Then when I turned 30, I realised, ‘Oh, I’m never going to understand anything,’ and that felt a lot better. Now I’m turning 40, we’ll see what the revelation is on that day.” It may be his following thought. “Ultimately, I guess I just feel lucky I’m still here. That’s good. Just gotta focus on that.” If taking…

Zel is new to Street Art – their work is published here for the first time. They created this very personal sculpture at the 240Project in London, an activity centre empowering West London’s vulnerable community. “I always dreamed of being artistic like my mother,” says Zel. “I cherish the times when she drew my portrait as a teenager in Slovakia. It used to surprise me how skilful she was. Now we are getting on in years and she has started to draw again so I decided to try making a bust of her in clay. It could only happen because we attend art groups together and are surrounded by artists who guide and encourage me.” 240project.org The work on this page is created by people who are marginalised. Contact street.lights@bigissue.com…

“When a boy walks into the theatre, they are no longer a pupil – they are a practitioner,” reads the strapline for Eton’s drama page. The tone is so overblown I send it on to Private Eye for Pseuds Corner. I’m researching music and drama faculties in education settings, and, as ever, the difference between state and private schools is astounding. While the overall number of music A level entries has declined dramatically since 2010, Charterhouse – Eton’s rival school, as a friend liked to describe his alma mater – says that half of its sixth-form students “go on to further musical studies at a university or conservatoire, with roughly 50% of those gaining places at Oxbridge colleges”. And, whereas plenty of secondaries have no access to orchestral instruments at…

SAM OATES, 42 I was homeless when I started selling Big Issue three years ago. I come from Bideford, I’ve lived here my whole life and I got into quite a bit of trouble growing up – I got into parties and drugs and drink. I was homeless for six years in total and one of the guys that I used to talk to in town was a Big Issue seller called Kevin. He was in a tent and I was outside as well so we used to check in on each other as I was going past him. He said he was leaving and I asked him: “What are you doing about the job?” He said I could have it if I want. He phoned Big Issue and sorted…

Do the big banks and mainstream lenders really care about consumers on the margins of society? Given that banking and access to affordable finance are often heralded as essential services to getting by in the modern world, the vast numbers of people unable to access mainstream financial products is problematic. Financial exclusion affects a wide range of people, including those on minimum wage with little disposable income, and can have knock-on effects for accessing accommodation and employment. It can also contribute to food poverty. While high-cost providers such as Wonga and, more recently Amigo Loans, did serve the ‘sub-prime’ market, tighter regulation on the back of concerns about unaffordable lending has drastically squeezed the sector, leaving millions in the financial hinterlands. Some have resorted to borrowing from friends and family…

The modern publishing industry is very keen to keep authors in their lanes, writing more or less the same book as their last one. But for anyone of a creative disposition that kind of formula is surely anathema. This week we have two authors who delve into a variety of different genres and styles with sparking effect. First up is We Are All Ghosts in the Forest by Scottish author Lorraine Wilson. Wilson has a handful of novels under her belt, ranging from folkloric mystery to literary fiction, and she strikes me as a writer who is always trying to do something new and fresh. That’s certainly the case with this sumptuous, slow-burn dystopian story with hints of fantasy and fairytale thrown in. When the internet collapses and takes civilisation…

In under 12 months, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor has appeared in five films – The Color Purple, Origin, The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat, The Deliverance, and now Nickel Boys – all directed by black filmmakers. “Is there an intentionality in that? Yeah, there is, but not just because they’re black directors. They’re also really dope, and doing things that I think are really singular,” she says. Since making her professional acting debut in The Tempest on Broadway in 1995, as Ariel opposite Patrick Stewart’s Prospero, Ellis-Taylor has built a career across stage, film and TV. Her face became familiar through supporting roles in Hollywood films but the kinds of jobs she was offered changed after she played Oracene ‘Brandy’ Price, the mother of the Williams sisters, in King Richard and scored an…

Oxford University Press announced 2024’s word of the year as ‘brain rot’, defined as the “supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially as a result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging”. This deterioration often causes fatigue, lack of focus and sleep troubles. “I spend hours scrolling through AI-generated images of Shrek, snippets of old, cringey X Factor auditions and videos of people choosing what flavour packs to add to their water bottles – but I can’t stop,” my chronically online GenZ sister tells me. “My brain is definitely rotting, there’s no better term for it.” Many use the term to poke fun at themselves and the mind-numbing content they consume. But others use it to diagnose the problem and…