Table of contents for 1/13/2025 in The Big Issue

As we step into the New Year, this is the perfect moment to embrace a legislative beacon of hope for us all – the Climate and Nature Bill – which I’m advancing through parliament. Big Issue has long championed the causes that matter most to those on the frontlines of change, and I believe that the ‘CAN Bill’, which I’m proud to say is backed by your founder, Lord Bird, represents an essential step towards a sustainable and just future for all. The bill is not just a piece of legislation, but a manifesto for our planet’s future. As one of its champions, Alex Sobel MP wrote for Big Issue that its central objective is to tackle the intertwined crises of global warming and biodiversity loss together. We cannot address…

The ascent of Bob Dylan was staggering. And writer-director James Mangold’s new biopic, which charts the first few years of Dylan’s career, hits all the storytelling beats to showcase both his dizzying rise and the suffocating pressures that accompanied it. In A Complete Unknown we meet Timothée Chalamet’s Dylan as a hitchhiking fanboy, singing to his hero Woody Guthrie at the Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital in New Jersey in 1961. Within two and a half years, he’s on his way to being the voice of a generation as he sings from the podium at the Lincoln Memorial before Martin Luther King Jr delivers his ‘I have a dream’ speech at the March on Washington. By July 1965, at the electrifying denouement of the film, Mangold shows Dylan plugging in his…

Longtime Street Art contributor Robbins is 96 years old. She works regularly with the 240Project, an arts and health activity centre in London for people affected by isolation, homelessness and exclusion. “When I’m cutting things out, I don’t think about what they mean or how they make sense together,” she says. “A lot of it seems silly, but it’s fun and keeps me busy. This one is torn because I stuck something down, then changed my mind and the woman’s face ripped. I think it looks dramatic and mysterious. A happy accident. Three faceless people. They look intent on something even without faces.” 240project.org 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.…

January is the month of physical and spiritual resets, where tradition dictates everyone must try to narrow the chasm between who they are and who they want to be. So it should be the ideal time for a film about a frustrated character who feels so stuck in a rut they feel compelled to make big changes. That might help explain the current trio of UK releases centred around women looking to reignite or redirect their love lives (another welcome commonality: all three come from female filmmakers). The spicily hyped Babygirl, from Dutch actor-turned-writer/director Halina Reijn, sees Nicole Kidman play a driven tech company boss whose married sex life has never quite clicked. She embarks on an affair and her risky liaison with a 20-something company intern (Harris Dickinson) upends…

Last year was a busy one for British funk band Cymande. Getting it Back, Tim MacKenzie-Smith’s documentary charting their decades-long journey to worldwide recognition, was released in February, followed by screenings and Q&As around the UK and US, live gigs, and finally, a slot on Later… with Jools Holland. After 53 years of making music together, it was, inexplicably, their first ever appearance on UK TV. The group formed in Balham, South London, in 1971. The children of Windrush immigrants, their music blended jazz, soul, rock and Caribbean influences against a backdrop of cold weather and racial tension. America was receptive – they reached the Billboard chart and toured with Al Green – but success in the UK eluded them and a long hiatus followed the release of their Promised…

ION TURTURICA, 26 How long I spend on my pitch depends on how busy I am and sometimes I can stay until seven or eight o’clock in the evening. For the moment, everything is all right on my pitch. Christmas was a bit different because a lot more people were buying magazines and it was a lot busier. But things are going OK and that’s the reason why I keep coming back every week to buy magazines from Big Issue to sell. I have been selling Big Issue in Bedminster for the last year and a half roughly. I started selling the magazine because I needed something to help me to survive, to be able to live. I have some regular customers who are buying all the time, not just…

POLITICS A deeper obsession, a warped politics and a test of Starmer’s courage: What to expect in the UK after Donald Trump’s White House return When America returns Donald Trump into office on 20 January, the UK will be anticipating his impact. Beyond the headline-grabbing rows, Trump’s administration promises drama. There are big pledges on trade wars, mass deportations and a shift in defence spending. Whether or not he sticks to his plans, experts tell Big Issue his second stint in the White House will prove testing for the UK. Politics Even before taking office, the past weeks have shown the ability of Trump’s circle to influence the UK’s political culture. Elon Musk, set to take up a role in Trump’s administration, has developed a new-found interest in British politics,…

The role of being a prime minister got more difficult with the advent of social media. Once there were few people on the stage giving out instructions, so to speak. But now there are millions. Who the gods wish to destroy they first make mad. Social media may well prove to be the most pernicious invention since Sir Walter Raleigh brought tobacco back from the American colonies. Lunacy rules OK. Opinions are everywhere and now it seems that unless you take into account the feelings of all expressed on social media you are faulty as a leader. But how can you lead anything if advice and observation comes thick and fast from all quarters? And polls are continuously debilitating on most occasions. How can you have truth when it is…

From Alexandra Kollontai’s Love of Worker Bees to Sheena Patel’s I’m a Fan, women’s novels have long focused on the ideological stances of men versus their inability to put these political ideals into practice. Argentine writer Pola Oloixarac’s Savage Theories explores the lives of the idealists, activists and academics fighting for their sexual and political freedom at the time of Argentina’s Dirty War, while highlighting those who spout ideology and those who live it. While unflinchingly maximalist throughout, Oloixarac’s rich prose hits its heights through characterisation, as a person’s upbringing, political philosophy and sexual preferences offer a rich tapestry of unique individuals, whose kinks may differ but are unified in their relentless pursuit of sexuality. I will say that as the novel quickly flips from Trotsky to Aristotle, from Roman…

Chloe Kelly is the youngest of seven children, which made her competitive from an early age. The England and Manchester City star learnt to play football in the cages in Ealing, West London, and enjoyed shocking people with her talents as the only girl on boys’ teams. It has led her to where she is today, most famously scoring the winning goal for England in the UEFA Women’s Euro in 2022 as a substitute in extra time against Germany. A generation of girls will grow up inspired by Kelly and her teammates. In the year England defend their Euro title in Switzerland, the 26-year-old’s positivity shines through, but she has also faced challenges. When she tore her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in 2021 she admits she “cried every day”, but…

Sleep is how we start and end every single day. So it’s no surprise we’re a little obsessed with how much we’re getting and how good it is. But the ‘sleepmaxxing’ trend on TikTok might be taking that obsession too far. Thousands of videos sharing tips and tricks that promise to give you a better, longer, deeper slumber have amassed 100 million views online. Influencers showcase tips on how you can ‘maxx your sleep’, varying wildly between using weighted blankets or listening to white noise, to eating two kiwis before bed or taping your mouth shut. But how to identify the useful advice from clickbait fallacies? The most repeated hack is to avoid drinking anything in the two hours before bed. Dr Chelsea Perry, owner of Sleep Solutions, says this…

I got two over Christmas. Both wished me a lovely holiday period – very thoughtful. Then into the new year I got another saying, we haven’t seen you in a while, here’s a new year gift. Clearly very kind. They were emails from a car park outside Manchester Airport. I’ve used it twice. The gift was 25% off, for the next time I’m swinging by. Imagine what comes for the hat-trick of parking! I also received a few emails from Edinburgh Airport hoping I was doing well. Thanks, Edinburgh Airport, I am. Holland & Barrett are VERY keen that I don’t miss out on DOUBLE points. Though I can’t think where the points card is. Halfords have all sorts of car battery-prolonging advice they want me to hear. Screwfix, though,…

Get in touch The Big Issue, 2nd floor, 43 Bath Street, Glasgow G2 1HW letters@bigissue.com @bigissue /bigissueUK @bigissueuk @thebigissue Humiliated by DWP I was forced to give up a job I loved due to multiple conditions. When I applied to DWP, I was told my claim would be processed in three to six months. When my appointment was scheduled only two questions were asked. First: did I have stairs in my house? Nothing was asked regarding how I manage the stairs. I’ve lived in this house for 25 years; I can’t just move because I am now disabled. I practically live in one downstairs room. When my partner is at work, I can do nothing for myself. The other question asked was “What do you do all day”? The whole…

Mary Long-Dhonau’s 11-year-old son woke up screaming. His room was flooded with water and it reeked. “It was the contents of the local drain,” she says. “There was quite a lot of sewage in it, and the smell… There are no words to describe the smell. It was absolutely rank. Even after the floodwater was gone, we would lie in bed upstairs and still smell it.” The drains had emptied out their guts. It was thigh-deep and a dark brown colour. “Having to wade through that with my family was horrific,” Long-Dhonau recalls. The family had just converted their playroom in their Victorian semi in Worcester, and all the toy boxes were upended by water and the toys were ruined, which was particularly difficult for her three-year-old son who had…

When I was 16, I was obsessed with my guitar, and with writing and recording songs. My best friend at school was Andrew, who I’m still really good friends with. I came to Glasgow when I was 10 and Andrew and I were the geeky, awkward, misfit kids. We bonded because we both had academic dads and we’d both been sent to school with a briefcase, which was a good way to get a doing. I remember we took our briefcases and we went sledging on them. So we became good friends and we got into playing guitar about the same time. I played him The Beatles, and we got obsessed with them. Andrew and I wrote so many songs together, but we weren’t interested in playing live at all,…

Before I get to my main point, allow me to ask a favour: Please do not spend the month of January complaining that it is going “so slowly”. Same every year... whining that time isn’t moving fast enough, followed by February and the rest of the year teaching you a lesson by moving at a speed that carries you through to next Christmas. Enjoy the leisurely pace before the car chase to the end of another year, straight from “it’s so slow” to “where did it go?”. January is also the month where writers and performers start announcing their ambitions for the Edinburgh Fringe festival. I will be returning with two shows. Ice Cream for a Broken Tooth is about seeking the joys that carry us through the pain, based…