Table of contents for 10/27/2025 in The Big Issue

I went to a lovely school. It was a local state Catholic school, so I went to school with a lot of Irish and a lot of Catholics of different nationalities. So it was a bit of a melting pot for quite a little colloquial town in Colchester. It wasn’t religious with a massive R, but religion was a part of it. I wasn’t particularly very good academically, and I was very easily distracted, so I left school. And then me and my dad had a chat. My dad is a very wise soul, and he said, we need to think about what you want to do. So I retook my GCSEs at the local sixth form and something clicked and I started doing well. I did my A levels…

→ In 1966 the Pritchard family moved into 30 East Drive and soon began experiencing years of severe poltergeist activity — from mid-air dust, spontaneous pools of water and flying furniture to mocking pranks — centred mainly on daughter Diane. It is still remembered today as one of Britain’s most unusual and persistent haunting cases. 30 East Drive, Pontefract IS NOT a traditional guesthouse, Hotel, B&B or party venue – and the owner recommends that you DO NOT visit, especially if you are of a nervous disposition or have a heart condition. The owner himself has never spent the night there and has no intention of doing so any time soon, having personally witnessed ‘it’. But Big Issue is bringing this rare opportunity for you to go ghost hunting. You…

When I turned 50 earlier this year, I told anyone who listened that it meant nothing to me. I was too grown-up and sensible to make a fuss out of a birthday. And I was too rational and measured to see it as a moment to take stock in any self-indulgent way. I wanted to be seen as a man who was still energised and driven – too focused on the horizon to waste time on anything as cringeworthy as a ‘life audit’. But I was in a good mood at the time. My book had just recently been published to favourable reviews, my kids were doing well at school, my wife and I were getting on great, and my bank account was looking OK-ish. At times like that, it’s…

CO-OP FOOD, WESTBURY-ON-TRYM, BRISTOL WEEKDAYS 9AM-2PM The vendor vest is a shield. It makes a big difference when you put it on. I’ve been selling Big Issue for 11 years. I have been providing food for my family and paying for rent thanks to the money I make. I lived in Romania before coming to England. It was hard living there. In the ’80s, under Ceaușescu, they provided food, water, schools. When he died and the revolution came, we thought we would have a democracy, but we didn’t. My family were killed during the revolution. They were shooting people in the streets. After the revolution we had a bad life. The moment I came to England I settled with my family, my kids were able to go to school. Now…

“I’m not one for things,”the BBC Radio 1 DJclaims. He is fascinated by other people’s spending habits and what it says about them as a person. And now, a perfect opportunity to snoop has emerged. In his new podcast Spent, Edmondson will interview celebrities about how they spend money, from extravagant buys to the mundane everyday purchases. Big Issue asked Edmondson all about this – and we took the chance to interrogate him about his own money habits too. Tell us about your new podcast Spent! and why you wanted to do it. It’s a deep dive into spending habits. I’m going to invite a celebrity guest on, and they’re going to talk through purchases they’ve made. They’re as diverse as the thing they bought last, and there’s a real…

↓ GET IN TOUCH The Big Issue, 2nd floor, 43 Bath Street, Glasgow G2 1HW letters@bigissue.com @bigissueuk @bigissue.com @bigissue /bigissueUK thebigissue Take on trust As always, a pleasure to read Big Issue. The Trust issue [1686, 29 September-05 October] proves how public confidence has been eroded. The sad reality is politicians are completely out of touch. To represent a constituency is an honour, not a given. A weak and ineffectual democracy is a breeding ground for extremism. Richard Ellis’s article about the house of campaigns is a truly great idea. AC Zacharski In for a penny Why are our politicians so scared of telling the truth about income tax? Do we want publicly owned social housing with affordable rents? Do we want our schools to be funded? The same question…

→ The idea of fear as some sort of generalised and prevailing mood is not new. Post 1945, the Cold War and threat of nuclear armageddon kept civil society on edge. Into the 1970s, the fear of strangers in fawn Ford Cortinas and of high voltage electricity pylons frying children was a prevailing thought. Into the late honeymoon period of New Labour, anxiety in the post-9/11 era and the non-specific worry about ASBO youth was dominating. But now, post-2008 crash, post-Brexit, post-austerity, post-truth, post-global rise in populism stoking fears of the other, all that feels like golden years. There have been significant studies recently, governmental and non-governmental, dealing with that nagging, though amorphous, feeling. Because if you understand it, you can do something about it. To beat fear, you face…

ART Night Owls and Abstractions Curated by Inua Ellams → Nigerian-born British poet and playwright Inua Ellams curates the latest Koestler Arts exhibition of art by people in criminal justice settings, presented in partnership with the Southbank Centre in London. The free exhibition will feature a mixture of music, writing, fine art, craft and design by individuals in prisons, secure hospitals, young offender institutions and immigration removal. Over 7,500 submissions were whittled down to a final 200 selections by Ellams, who says he was struck during curation by the many depictions of owls and what they might represent to people in these settings. “To me, these night birds are symbolic of what it means to be behind bars, looking out, thinking and searching for clarity that often only comes at…

Around 20 million people in the UK are living in financially vulnerable circumstances and that means scores of Brits on low incomes struggle to access credit for life’s essentials or when disaster strikes. Fair For You’s Shopping Card Loan uses a pre-loaded Mastercard with up to £350 that can be used online or in-store at Dunelm, Argos, Iceland Foods, Tapi Carpets & Floors and Euronics as well as recent addition Currys. The Shopping Card Loan helps people who get turned down by banks and Buy Now Pay Later firms and who may not meet the requirements for in-store credit options. These people may be forced to turn to loan sharks or unscrupulous lenders. Instead, charity-owned not-for-profit Fair For You will only lend to people who can afford to repay when…

→ How to get a grant from your energy supplier Some energy suppliers offer grants to customers to help them pay their energy bills. Reach out to your supplier or check their website to see if they offer a grant or fund to low-income customers – or you could think about switching suppliers. We’ve listed a few which offer grants below. British Gas The British Gas Energy Support Fund is open to applications from British Gas credit and prepayment meter customers who have an energy debt of up to £2,000. There is also the Individual and Families Debt Write Off Fund, which is for people with a debt of up to £1,700 – and for this one you don’t have to be a British Gas customer. You’ll need to seek…

→ Not a massive fan of US talk show hosts. There is something alien about the whole pitch and process of their late-night slots. There is also a heavy wash of self-aggrandisement, so that they are as big as the guest, sometimes bigger. There are exceptions, naturally. Jon Stewart has something unique and genuinely probing. I liked Letterman a lot – he seemed to have a curious thing going with Tom Waits. Dick Cavett’s interviews and oddly spun attempts to get to the nature of being with his guests were touched by genius. The recordings of his 1970s shows on YouTube bear frequent views. But the Kimmel/Fallon/Colbert of it all blends into one. And when Jimmy Kimmel was suspended over Charlie Kirk shooting remarks, I wasn’t furious. It didn’t really…

One of the things a good book can do is give the reader an entirely new perspective. On an obvious level that can mean seeing the world through a particular character’s eyes, but there are other ways to give someone a new outlook. This week we have two books that, in very different ways, will change your frame of reference just by reading them. Our first is the wonderful 100,000 Birthdays by Cynthia Rogerson. The American author is based in the Scottish Highlands and has a handful of award-winning novels under her belt as well as a highly original memoir. This latest book falls somewhere between those two stools – part-fictional memoir, part-philosophical musing and part-ode to the universe and all the life it contains. If it sounds ambitious, 100,000…

→ Supermarket prices are still rising, making the weekly shop one of the biggest strains on already squeezed budgets. No wonder British shoppers have started to look for cheaper ways to feed themselves and their families. Yellow sticker shopping is one – focusing on the discounted, yellow-stickered short-shelf-life items that supermarkets mark down and some customers wouldn’t buy. But with every shop discounting food at different times, it can be hard to know when to get the best deals. Online communities have cropped up to swap tips on social media. Adam Clarkson, 30, goes by ‘YellowStickerGuy’ on TikTok and uses his platform to share the best deals his followers have found. He originally started the page as a bit of fun, but it quickly snowballed. “I really didn’t expect…

→ Until recently, it wasn’t uncommon for a 21-year-old to leave college or university and dive headfirst into a private sector job, climb the corporate ladder for a few decades, maybe switching company every decade or two, then sit it out at the top until their retirement. That model is creaking. The number of graduate job openings has fallen by a third in a year, and the young people who can get a nine-to-five aren’t feeling fulfilled mentally or monetarily. Nearly half of Gen Zs say they don’t feel financially secure, and 46% plan to change jobs within the next 12 months. Many are turning to the swashbuckling high-risk, high-reward world of entrepreneurship. Research from Travel Counsellors shows that nearly three quarters of 16- to 24-year-olds are open to starting…