Innholdsfortegnelse for 10/6/2025 i The Big Issue

HOMELESSNESS How the tragic death of a homeless man in Blackpool was dragged into the asylum hotel debate → Every death on the streets is a tragedy. No one should die while experiencing homelessness. But a recent death in Blackpool has been twisted by the ongoing anger at asylum hotels. A man in his 40s died in Blackpool’s Revoe Park in the early hours of the morning on 15 September. He was sheltering in a tent at the time and was struck by a branch that fell from a “mature” tree in high winds. Lancashire Police found the man unresponsive in the park and emergency services declared him dead at the scene. He has not been named at time of publication as police trace his next of kin. The death…

→ It slipped through, broadly unacknowledged. But it’s a piece of thinking that could bring major ramifications for how Britain lives. You’ve probably already forgotten much of what was declared at the Labour Party annual conference in Liverpool. That’s understandable. You have a life to live, pets to de-worm, small jobs about the place to put off. Conferences are curious happenings. Members of the main parties gather, frequently in seaside towns and cities, to listen to speeches about why they are how they are, and why they need to be better at it/prouder of it. There might be a few interesting fringe events and debates and photo-ops. Political journalists hear things in bars. Then leaders make stirring keynotes and people stand up and down applauding an awful lot. Quite the…

As a teenager my life was pretty tumultuous. At 16, I had fallen madly in love with a boy my parents deeply disapproved of, and it was a real tussle for freedom and control. I’d started being naughty and smoking and sneaking out with the girls, so I remember it being a very exciting time of discovery and exploration. But I also remember it being deeply troubling. I was all about my friendship group at 16. It was all about the girls. We helped each other through and talked loads of shit and had a ball and cried a lot and were a bit mental. There was a group of about eight girls and nobody would fuck with us. We were such a pack. I’m so grateful to those girls.…

Although I take great pride in calling myself a writer and a comedian, medicine pays my bills. Like me, ever more non-white members of society are being granted the opportunity, the privilege, to become doctors – just in time to enjoy the job for a few years, before we are rendered obsolete by Google, AI and the general post-pandemic mistrust of traditional sources of information. But often, our experience of these last days, the barbarians at the gates, is not the same as that of white counterparts. People ask me if there are parallels between comedy and medicine – greeting a patient is a lot like walking on stage. In 30 seconds or less, they will have formed their opinion and getting it right or wrong will dictate how the…

In October 1994, I loaded a couple of holdalls of clothes, a box of cassettes, a frying pan, three tea mugs and some rolled-up posters into the back of my dad’s car. Then he drove me down to university for the first time. He had come to pick me up from the house I shared with my mum. When I kissed Mum goodbye on the doorstep, she wiped a couple of tears from her eyes. I was the last to fly the nest and now she was all alone. “Don’t worry about the crying,” Dad said a few moments later in the car. “Women get like that all the time for no reason whatsoever. Just ignore it.” My old man is not the sentimental type. But I am. I was…

WATERSTONES, THE HAYES, CARDIFF EVERY DAY 8AM-5PM I’ve earned enough money to pay for my DJ stuff. It’s decks, a laptop, the works I’ve only been selling Big Issue for two or three months but, so far, it’s been excellent. To be honest with you, I’m trying to get some DJ equipment so I can start DJing. As of today, I’ve earned enough money to pay for my DJ stuff. It’s decks, a laptop, the full works. I want to go into doing discos. I haven’t done anything like that before but I want to start doing it. I’ll play whatever people want. Clubs, private parties, all sorts. I’m not sure what I’ll play first when I’m testing out the equipment but I’m excited. I’m going to get cards and…

September and October have always felt like the true start of the year for me. The changing seasons, the anticipation of the holidays and the arrival of Black History Month have always combined to make this time feel special. Black History Month feels different this year – it’s harder than ever to find cause for celebration But this October feels different. The air is thick with unease and division. The UK feels as though it’s sliding deeper into polarisation. The rise in far-right protests and the violence simmering just beneath the surface make it feel dangerous simply to exist as a Black or minoritised person – let alone to celebrate loudly, proudly and without fear. I’ve long been proud to call the UK my home. I’ve never denied its deep-rooted…

→ As you can see, Professor Michael Marmot is like a rash all over this copy of Big Issue. We have made a celebration of his life’s work. We have bought into the idea that Marmot towns, where his eight principles are resoundingly adhered to, make sense. For they bring together the thinking and action around health, wellbeing and the professions that achieve results. They bring the providers into harmony with the needs of the client. Last week I spoke at the [cross-party think tank] Demos fringe meeting at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool. Even now I can’t help wandering around Liverpool wondering where Ringo Starr spent his childhood. What cafes did he drop into, etc? So the conference was a time for me to traipse off to places.…

→ “It’s hard to explain to people we’re running the centre for the benefit of local people,” says Andy Brooks. “We’re trying to cater for people that wouldn’t normally go to gyms.” Brooks is the commercial manager of Be Active in Urmston, located in a suburb of Manchester. Those walking through the doors might be older than a typical gym-goer, or live with long-term health conditions. “Basically someone you wouldn’t imagine walking into a Pure Gym,” he says. But the leisure centre could easily not exist. Back in 2016, the local council announced the George H Carnall leisure centre was being shut and knocked down. That launched a community campaign to save the hub – culminating in the centre reopening in June 2021. Rather than being run for profit, its…

ART Timothy Gold Edward Burne-Jones Sketch Timothy Gold has featured in Street Art a few times; the last one was in September 2023. He has been homeless on and off for several years now and currently lives in a hostel. “It started by not having any confidence and going out for a drink instead of keeping up with bills,” he says. “Things quickly got worse when lockdown hit and I found myself in a shared house with strangers who were frightened of what was going on and it made my mental health deteriorate even more.” Here he submits a sketch of an artwork that inspired him, The Beguiling of Merlin – a painting by the British Pre-Raphaelite painter Edward Burne-Jones, depicting a scene from Arthurian legend. “I still like to…

Are subjective horror movies having a moment? It all depends on your point of view. Last summer the Canadian thriller In a Violent Nature differentiated itself from the usual slasher shlock by telling its story entirely from the perspective of its lethal antagonist. In traditional Friday the 13th style, a group of innocent but slightly annoying college kids were stalked in the woods by a mute hulk. But the camera never left the killer, hovering behind his wheezing frame as he stomped relentlessly towards his panicky victims. Earlier this year the prolific director Steven Soderbergh belatedly dipped his toe into horror with suburban ghost story Presence. This time the camera became the point-of-view of a lingering spirit, floating through a family home to observe, and occasionally mess with, the occupants.…

In other circumstances, it would be heartening to see an opera getting national attention. Yet once again, the recent buzz around Covent Garden concerns politics rather than performances. The latest furore follows the Royal Opera’s decision to cast Anna Netrebko in a new production of Puccini favourite Tosca (until 7 October; with Aleksandra Kurzak sharing the title role). The Russian soprano is a major draw, filling opera houses around the world. She’s also accused of supporting the invasion of Ukraine after a photograph taken in 2014 – still available on X – appears to show her holding the separatist flag. In response, Netrebko claimed not to know what the flag (nor donations to the Donetsk Opera Theatre) meant, but when war escalated, several organisations dispensed with the soprano’s services. Not…

John Williams has been selling Big Issue on and off for more than a decade. These days you’ll find him in Swansea city centre, where he’s been working his pitch for the last two years. His work depends on something most people barely think about: a pair of glasses. “Without them I’d get really bad headaches, near enough migraines,” John says. “I wouldn’t be able to read properly, work out the money, see the card reader, or use my phone. It would make things very hard.” When his benefits stopped, John discovered how difficult it could be to get even basic eye care. “Sometimes I could get glasses free on benefits, but when that ended it became difficult. I needed new glasses and didn’t know how I was going to…

GET IN TOUCH The Big Issue, 2nd floor, 43 Bath Street, Glasgow G2 1HW letters@bigissue.com @bigissueuk @bigissue.com @bigissue /bigissueUK thebigissue Add it up I saw the figure you need to live in dignity [Issue 1685, 22-28 September]. I have never earned half the amount needed, let alone £30,000. (The average income for someone with a learning disability is under £10,000 a year in Cornwall.) The fact so many people with learning disabilities are needing help from food banks show the deprivation that’s happening. And it’s happening while society carries on regardless. l have never met someone with a learning disability who was earning £30,000 a year. One of the most frustrating things is there is a view that people with intellectual disabilities don’t need money. How are people supposed to…

Beveridge is alive and living in modern Britain. Not the man, but the social problems he identified, known as his five giants: idleness, ignorance, disease, squalor and want. It was Sir William Beveridge’s report in 1942 that laid the foundation for the welfare state in Britain. For a nation deep in war it presented a vision of a society that made the struggle worthwhile. The five giants had to be overcome. Evidence shows that one of the giants, health and disease, is strongly influenced by the other four. That has been the thrust of our many ‘Marmot’ reports, which explain why unfair, avoidable health gaps (health inequalities) exist and suggest ways to fix them. So strong is the link between social conditions and health that the health of a society…

After phenomenal successes on TV and in cinema with Peaky Blinders and Oppenheimer, Cillian Murphy has leverage in the film industry. But what to do with it? Murphy has gone for hardcore social realism. Big themes. Provocative and vital stories. Low-budget, high-quality storytelling with a political edge. And it’s paying off. New Netflix film Steve is a depiction of a chaotic day in the life of a ramshackle reform school for permanently excluded boys, a place just about held together by Murphy’s empathetic and inspirational leader. He plays a sensitive teacher driven to the edge by a combination of painkiller addiction and the chronic pain inflicted by the continual underfunding of his last-chance reform school for teenage boys excluded from education. Anyone who worked in public serves in the austerity…

Colonel Tom Parker is the most infamous manager in rock history. Widely regarded as a profligate conman who derailed the career of his legendary client Elvis Presley, his name is a byword for crass showbiz exploitation and mercenary greed. He is, and always will be, the arch-villain of the Elvis saga. Right? Well, no. Not really. The truth of the matter is far more complicated than that, as pre-eminent music critic/historian Peter Guralnick argues in his painstakingly researched and undeniably persuasive biography The Colonel and The King. Guralnick is a leading authority on all things Elvis. His books Last Train to Memphis and Careless Love are definitive accounts of the King’s life. So when he begs to differ with received wisdom, I’m inclined to listen. And I certainly came away…