Innholdsfortegnelse for 6/30/2025 i The Big Issue

What connects us all Recently I visited a men’s mental health centre in Drumchapel, on the edge of Glasgow. Drumchapel does not have the best of reputations. A postwar mass housing development, it has high volume of child poverty, low life expectancy, high unemployment and low social mobility. It’s just far enough from the centre of Glasgow to feel remote, especially if you don’t have a car. And as often happens, the area rests cheek-by-jowl with affluence. The well-heeled Bearsden lies just over the hill. Inequality shows its hand. But despite the challenges, Drumchapel doesn’t sit down. The place is full of local people making things better for all. This is a common tale – indominable grassroot focus to lift everyone up. There were a number of organisations visiting the…

In August 1991, Oasis played their debut gig at the Boardwalk club in Manchester – Noel Gallagher was in attendance to see his younger brother’s band, which he would soon join, assuming control over the songwriting with immediate effect. The next month Big Issue launched in London: a publishing revolution and a smart solution for people experiencing homelessness. These were tough times. New voices were needed. And what followed, after weeks and months of grafting to find that voice, were millions of sales, some memorable fights, constant chaos, too many drugs, huge headlines, a level of infamy and a permanent place in the public consciousness. But enough about Big Issue, because Oasis also kicked up quite a storm. These two cultural institutions that began their journey at the same time…

‘It was like being on Concorde for six years’ Johnny HopkinsCreation Records press officer It was a 24/7 existence. The phone did not stop ringing. It was like being on Concorde for six years, and I loved it. The speed at which they went from A-Z was incredible. They did the Marquee, then the Forum, and then it was straight onto Earl’s Court, Maine Road, Knebworth. They never did Brixton Academy, which would have been most bands’ ambition at the time. The people on the guest list changed from indie bands to soap stars, footballers and people like Kylie and Kate Moss. The day (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? was launched we had a party on Sunday morning (1 October 1995) in West London. Booze and brilliant food were served,…

When Adam Buxton interviewed Paul Weller live on BBC Radio 2 in 2010, he hit upon the brilliant idea of singing, Grease-style, “Paul Weller, Weller, Weller, ooh! Tell me more! Tell me more!” to his guest’s face. The notoriously truculent Modfather was not amused and the rest of the interview continued under a cloud of extreme awkwardness. This is typical of the anecdotes you’ll find in I Love You, Byeee, the second enjoyable volume of Buxton’s memoir, in which the genial comedian and podcaster presents a litany of blunders for our amusement. His almost constant self-deprecation would be wearing were it not for the fact that Buckles – as he’s affectionately known to his large cult fan-base – is a self-evidently genuine, thoughtful and naturally funny man who’s also justifiably…

Nikki Lilly started crying when she saw her portrait – a hyper-realistic pencil drawing that captures the slight slope of her smile, the veins around her eyes, the swelling on the right side of her face. For the first time, she saw her beauty through someone else’s eyes. “I was in shock, and taken aback by how incredible it was,” she says. “I was speechless at the talent. Then I think the realisation set in that I was looking at myself. We never perceive ourselves in the way others perceive us.” A content creator, Lilly has spent much of her life behind a camera – she started vlogging for YouTube when she was eight years old – but this was different. Artist Kelvin Okafor spent hours getting to know her…

DONNA LLEWELYN, 40 I am called the Queen of Cardiff and I am very famous! I picked that nickname up from the public because I used to sell friendship bracelets. I love it! It was a joke from my friend that started me selling them. She was sitting on the floor and said to people they were 50p each and they just took off. They’re just plain woollen friendship bracelets but I crack jokes with everybody at the same time as selling them. I’ve only been selling the magazine for two weeks. I’ve brought the sales up in Cardiff and I’ve done really well! I’ve got gimmicks as well. I say: “I’ve got issues but I’m still smiling!” That helps me sell the magazine to customers – if I’m smiling…

POVERTY All parties lack the boldness needed to tackle poverty, exclusive research says. Reform UK’s ‘Britannia Card’ is just the latest bad idea Nigel Farage has launched his latest populist grab for working-class votes as he promised to take from the rich to give to the poor with Reform UK’s ‘Britannia Card’. The Robin Hood tax pledged to give wealthy foreign residents favourable tax status for the price of a £250,000 upfront fee to be paid when they move to the UK. This cash will then be handed to the bottom 10% of low-income workers as a tax-free lump sum. Reform said this could see 2.5 million workers receive between £600 and £1,000 a year, depending on take-up of the Britannia Card. At the launch of the Britannia Card, Farage…

Get in touch The Big Issue, 2nd floor, 43 Bath Street, Glasgow G2 1HW letters@bigissue.com @bigissueuk @bigissue.com @bigissue /bigissueUK @thebigissue Letter of the law When children are removed from their parents, it’s not so much that the system doesn’t care about the interests of the parent as well, it’s that they’re not actually allowed to. The piece of legislation that governs these matters, the 1989 Children Act, states unequivocally in its preamble that “the child’s welfare is paramount”. No ifs, no buts. No scope for arguing in court about the impact on the parents, now or in the future. Therefore, social work case files are in the name of the child, not the family. If an adult is no longer deemed relevant to a child’s wellbeing, they drop off from…

I left school at 15 and my outlook on life was the same as it is now. I was always a hopeful child if not always a happy one. I was outgoing, sociable, funny, and I was accepted by my peers. All I was interested in was music and escapism. I don’t think I’ve changed much. Obviously circumstances have changed along the way, but I think my core values are still the same. I’ve never been the kind of person that thinks negative thoughts about myself. If my upbringing taught me anything, it was resilience. I got that from my mum. She also gave me the notion that no one’s gonna give you anything. The only way you’re going to get what you want is through hard work. Unless you…

Sometimes it’s good the boss goes away on holiday. Not just for the increased office chat in their absence, but for what happens when they return. About 10 years ago, the managing director in the publishing company where I worked came back tanned and relaxed from his trip to Cambodia, enthusing to his staff about the wonders of the ruins at Angkor. Listening to him, I thought that it would be good to do a book about places like Angkor – these curious worlds that we’ve left behind – eerily quiet ghost towns, trains half-buried in the sand, forlorn movie palaces, roller coasters entangled in vines. They have history to them, but a sense of mystery, too. When we see photographs of these places, it makes us stop and wonder:…

Want to make summer 2025 feel even more disconcerting? Why not do what I’m doing and spend the evenings of the longest days watching Severance, which is set in a mysterious dark corporate netherworld where the sun never shines, and the only light comes from spooky fluorescent strip lights that flicker on and off ? Ah, yes, not for me the flirtatious firepit shenanigans of Love Island or the sweaty kitchen nightmares of The Bear Season 4. Just give me an unsettling workplace drama set in the dead of winter where the character’s brains have been bisected by a microchip. Then sit back, relax and have an Aperol Spritz while you try to figure out what the hell is going on. Cheers! If you don’t already know, Severance explores the…

Labour has major plans to boost the number of homes and invest big in infrastructure – but new research suggests that an influx of new homes are planned for areas where public transport is not up to scratch. The government is targeting building 1.5 million homes across England – a move which has seen ministers set local authorities the target of delivering 370,000 homes a year. Ahead of peers’ first debate on the Planning and Infrastructure Bill on 25 June, Transport for New Homes mapped the government’s new housebuilding targets across England against the public transport satisfaction scores compiled by pollsters Ipsos. The campaign group found a mismatch between the scaling up of housing and the public transport that’s already accommodating people living in the areas. Castle Point Borough Council,…

Imagine its 2035. Every other car you see on the street is electric, millions of homes have heat pumps providing heat, large data centres the size of 10 football pitches are dotted across the country – this has caused the electricity demand to surge by more than 50% over the last decade. The good news is that a lot of this is powered by renewables, after an aggressive strategy to build huge offshore wind farms and covering large tracts of brownfield land with solar panels over the past decade. Now also imagine a cold, windless Christmas evening that year, millions of ovens are on, heat pumps are whirring and energy demand is outpacing renewable power supply. The Germans call it dunkelflaute, a long lull of dark windless days. Ask anyone…

Amsterdam, 18 February “It’s Noel on his own because the rest of them weren’t there. I was taken over to Amsterdam to meet them and we flew over on the Friday morning with a PR. We got to the hotel and I said, ‘Where are the others, are they still out?’ He said ‘No, they’re back home’ I said ‘Why?’ He said, ‘They got arrested on the ferry on the way over for fighting with Chelsea fans.’ They had a few drinks and it all kicked off – Noel had gone to bed. They were all locked up and sent straight back. They were supposed to be playing a gig that night, opening for The Verve. So we wandered about a bit and I saw a poster and I said…

Long-time regular Street Art contributor Robbins recently turned 99 years old. She celebrated her birthday with the art group at the 240Project, an arts and health activity centre in London for people affected by isolation, homelessness and exclusion. They sang and had cake, and Robbins made two new collages in her trademark cut-and-paste style. The 240Project posted on Instagram: “Rene has been attending the 240Project for the past 23 years, travelling two hours each way to get here. What an inspiration to us all.” 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. At least half of the profit goes to the artist.…

With everything happening in the world it feels a little glib to discuss globally successful Hollywood properties as if they need our sympathy or concern. But someone needs to take the blame for the last decade of Jurassic Park sequelising, a spiral of diminishing returns that has evolved from roaring comeback to bloated shambles. After launching with huge success in 1993, the Universal film franchise based on Michael Crichton’s 1990 bestseller had essentially been in stasis since 2001’s compromised Jurassic Park III. The series was revamped in 2015 with Jurassic World, written and directed by Colin Treverrow and starring Bryce Dallas Howard, Chris Pratt and a friendly raptor named Blue. By playing the greatest hits with gusto – dinosaurs run amok in a tacky theme park – Jurassic World turned…

On 15 August it will be 100 years since the virtuosic jazz composer and pianist Oscar Peterson was born. His centenary is being celebrated with concerts, tributes and retrospectives across the world; a rare moment of collective attention for a musician who, despite an enormous catalogue of recordings and widespread acclaim (Duke Ellington called him the “Maharaja of the keyboard”), has often remained peripheral to the major mythologies of jazz history. Peterson was born in Montreal in 1925 to Caribbean parents and grew up in a household where music and discipline were closely linked. His father, a railway porter and amateur musician, insisted on classical training, and Peterson practised Bach and Chopin rigorously before shifting his focus to jazz. His classical roots became the backbone of his trademark playing style.…