Innholdsfortegnelse for 6/9/2025 i The Big Issue

On a journey to make things better Several years ago Big Issue created the Breakthrough scheme. We wanted to address the lack of opportunity in journalism for younger people who might not have considered this as an option, or who had been locked out due to ongoing socio-economic barriers. Journalism has a growing class problem. This has been known for years. A major report published in late April, from The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, confirmed so much that had already been touched upon. A key finding was that just over 70% of journalists working in the UK came from a privileged background – as defined by their parents’ occupation. And while the parents’ occupation was not down to the individual trying to make their way, it did…

If you could win £1,000 for putting a piece of litter in the bin, would it incentivise you to keep your neighbourhood tidy? If you could earn gift vouchers for reducing your household energy use, or swapping the car for the bus, would this motivate you to change your weekly routine? What if being a ‘good citizen’ became a game to play, with a chance to win? Well, this is already the reality – and there are real prizes to be won. My research focuses on the rise in digital apps that offer rewards to volunteers – such as litter-picking lotteries – in what I term the gamification of citizenship. Gamification is where elements of game design are used in non-gaming contexts. Think digital points for unlocking achievements, collectible virtual…

At the heart of Lollipop is a central performance from Posy Sterling as Molly. Her depiction of the pain and frustration of navigating the fractured system as she fights to be reunited with her children following a short spell in prison is as powerful and poignant as any seen on the big screen in recent years. The range Sterling exhibits as Molly veers from frustration and impotent fury at the system she is forced to navigate through brief moments of joy and hope, before crashing back into despair, is beautifully played. This should be a career-making film for Sterling. She previously impressed bringing chaos and charisma to a role in the Clean Break co-production of Dixon and Daughters at the Dorfman Theatre. But this is a bigger stage – and…

Design and Disability is a brand-new exhibition in London showcasing the radical contributions of disabled, deaf and neurodivergent people and communities to design history and contemporary culture, from the 1940s until today. Demonstrating how disabled people have designed for every aspect of life through their own experience and expertise, it’s intended to be both a celebration and a call to action. To celebrate the exhibition’s opening, two striking artworks have been exclusively licensed to the V&A by Arthouse Unlimited – a charity platforming the artistic talents and skills of adults who live with diverse learning and physical disabilities. One of them is We Are Strong, by Stephen Thomson – a joyous and inspiring message of hope and resilience from an artist with lifelong epilepsy. Design and Disability, V&A South Kensington,…

BIOPICS The strange history of the rock doc The tried-and-tested, rags-to-riches, obscurity-to-legend format of music documentaries tracing the origins of pop and rock’s biggest and most influential stars is well established, with such recent-ish examples as Oasis: Supersonic (2016) and Todd Haynes’ The Velvet Underground (2021) showing the genre is still in rude health. But every now and again, some smartarse comes along to mess with the formula and pose the question: when is a music documentary not actually a music documentary? The latest culprits are Pavement. The Californian slacker-rock godfathers have done nothing to tidy up the assorted myth and mirth that has followed them around since their 1990s zenith, with the making of a feature-length film called Pavements. Splicing traditional documentary narrative with behind-the-scenes making-of elements from both…

JUSTIN FISHER, 53 I split up with my girlfriend and became homeless on the streets and I am still homeless on the streets. But Big Issue saved the day with being able to earn an income and giving me something to do. They bought me some new boots, they’ve offered me many things and offered me camping gear, anything that I need. I’ve been selling the magazine for about eight months. I seriously enjoy selling it, I find it very therapeutic. For someone who has got mental health issues: depression, anxiety, PTSD and all that, I find it therapeutic. I didn’t think I’d be able to deal with the public but I enjoy interacting with people. I’m starting to get a few regulars now, it has taken a while. People…

Get in touch The Big Issue, 2nd floor, 43 Bath Street, Glasgow G2 1HW letters@bigissue.com @thebigissue @bigissueuk @bigissue.com @bigissue /bigissueUK Politically homeless I had two extraordinary conversations this week. Both were with friends who, like me, were active Labour Youth participants in our teens, in the 1980s – who have voted Labour all their lives; who I simply cannot imagine voting any other way. Both these friends, independently of each other, told me they will be voting Reform at the next general election. One somewhat hesitantly, not to say shamefacedly, the other angry and unashamed. Both voiced the same reasons. That Labour’s first action upon taking power was to means-test the winter fuel payment; at the same time as their first scandal hit: Labour frontbenchers accepting the dubious largesse of…

Five years old, nativity play. I was a shepherd and they asked me to sing Silent Night. So I did. When you’re five, everyone’s shy. But I was not. That’s probably why they asked me to sing. I felt really good because I saw people smiling. I remember that. My five-year-old self was like, Oh, if people are smiling and clapping, that’s a good thing, so I want to keep doing that. Now it’s become a little bit more complex, because it’s not necessarily just about making people happy, it’s about connecting. While I’m singing I want to connect people to my humanity and I want to be able to connect to their humanity. That could be anything from tears or laughter, whatever that is, I want to connect. As…

When it comes to our health, hearing often ranks low on the priority list. Unlike eyesight, which we routinely check, many of us neglect our ears until problems become unavoidable. Yet good hearing is so important for everyone – and getting it checked is far easier than you might think. “There’s still this idea that hearing devices are just for older people,” says Annie Morris, a hearing expert at Specsavers. “I hear it a lot – people saying, ‘My dad had hearing devices, but he was in his 70s.’ So they think, ‘I’m not there yet.’ But the reality is, hearing loss can happen at any age.” The world has never been noisier. We’re constantly exposed to high volumes through headphones, traffic, crowded venues and workplaces. It’s no surprise that…

REVIEWS Body of evidence The discovery of a body is a common opening for a thriller, but Joyce Carol Oates being the master of domestic thrillers that she is, knows when to stick with the tides and when to delve into uncharted waters. Instead of leading the reader straight to the body of Mr Francis Fox – the subject of Fox, the latest Oates novel – she takes us on a meandering wander through South Jersey wetlands, beginning from the simple olfactory perspective of a loyal dog. From the animals circling the smell of rotting flesh, to the citizens disturbed by the news of a teacher’s unexpected demise, Fox dedicates itself to the lives, unfortunately, ill-fatedly, touched by the man in question. Oates actively invites comparison with Nabokov’s Lolita, as…

Wendi McLendon-Covey is often on the verge of exploding. Her speciality, she says, is dysfunctional women. And she’s played a few over the years; she’s best known for comedy blockbuster Bridesmaids and a decade as Bev, the domineering matriarch of The Goldbergs. Now she leads the cast in the new medical mockumentary St Denis Medical, starring as Joyce, a hospital administrator – meaning it’s Joyce’s job to make sure her hospital’s finances are in check, which is a certain way to guarantee the pressure will always be building. BIG ISSUE: What’s funny about the US healthcare system? WENDI MCLENDON-COVEY: Nothing actually, which means everything is funny. The uniting factor is that we’re all going to show up in the hospital at some point in our lives. You’re there maybe getting…

Why has political change been so difficult to achieve in the Middle East, and why has the region reached this low point in its 100 years history? The people of the region have been systemically denied self-determination, political participation and effective government. The agency of everyday people in the Middle East has been constantly crushed. In my book, The Great Betrayal: The Struggle for Freedom and Democracy in the Middle East, I argue that the convergence of western social engineering, deepening political authoritarianism and the effects of prolonged regional conflicts like that of Israel-Palestine, have produced political paralysis and economic stagnation. These dominant interrelated threads help explain why there is so much upheaval and violence in the contemporary Middle East and why the aspirations of the people for self-determination have…

As an experiment, let’s see if we can somehow rustle up a positive appraisal of Labour’s first year in office. What has changed since Keir Starmer first walked into Downing Street? Well, other than new trade deals, a deft realignment with EU and an absence of the sort of corruption, incompetence, sex scandals and rampant in-fighting we endured under the Tories for the previous 14 years, not much. People on the right don’t like this government. People on the left don’t like this government. Even people in the middle aren’t that keen. Many people – some of them diehard Labour supporters– are adamant Starmer has already lost the next general election, probably to Nigel Farage. They remind me of the football fans who destroy their season tickets in despair after…