Table of contents for 7/1/2024 in The Big Issue

Time to make votes count Since 2010, there have been 16 housing ministers in Westminster. At Big Issue, we have challenged each one to tell us what measures they were taking to deal with homelessness and fearful spiralling rents, particularly for poorer and younger renters. The answers were not always forthcoming. In summer 2010 there were an estimated 1,250 people rough sleeping in England. In late 2023 this number sat close to 4,000. Last autumn it was calculated that there were 142,490 children in temporary accommodation in England. That this figure has not been a badge of shame in the election campaign is remarkable. In 2010, there were 35 food banks in the UK, operated by the Trussell Trust. Such were the small numbers that an explanation of what a…

Among certain politicians and media outlets there is a deliberate, often inflammatory rhetoric that describes undocumented migrants in terms of ‘invasions’, ‘tidal waves’ and ‘swarms’. But these characterisations are highly misleading: the history of migration is the story of humanity and its progress. So, let’s set the record straight with 22 facts and figures that show the true benefits of migration. Walls and fences → Walls and fences encourage migrants to take clandestine and dangerous routes, leaving them undocumented when they enter a country, and so unable to qualify for support – or pay taxes. → Tighter borders encourage some to stay longer than they would like to. These restrictions interrupt historical patterns of seasonal migration for work. They also discourage people from returning to their origin. If crossing a…

REVIEWS Set adrift on memory bliss Lauren Elkin has made her name as a literary flaneuse of various descriptions, and her first full novel, Scaffolding, is replete with the trends of her non-fiction. Expect plenty of slips into Freud and Lacan, and images of clever French boulevards and philosophical cafes. But this is a novel charged with a highly political resonance and a fervent moralism. It switches throughout, between the years of 2019 and 1972. Anna, Clementine and Florence are all involved, in their different ways, with the feminist protests that strip and paint the walls of Paris. They are perhaps odd years to choose – no ’68 nostalgia here, or any heroism at marches or scenes of violence. But I promise this perplexing and intriguing novel is worth it,…

CULTURE INTERVIEW Karen Gillan is on her way to the orthodontist when she calls from Los Angeles. The 36-year-old from Inverness has been on quite the ride since her breakthrough role as Amy Pond in Doctor Who – relocating to the US, starring in six Marvel movies as Nebula, two Jumanji adventures and even voicing Groundskeeper Willie’s romantic interest in The Simpsons. But, as she inches through the traffic towards her date with dentistry, Gillan is talking about a project that brings her career full circle. On Douglas is Cancelled, she is reunited with former Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat and co-star Alex Kingston. “It feels like I’m coming home,” says Gillan. “This was my favourite job I’ve ever done. I married an American and he’s terrified I’ll want…

The battle to save an Edinburgh cultural institution The Edinburgh music community reacted with shock in April when the much-loved Jazz Bar suddenly shut its doors. A stalwart of the city’s live music scene since 2005, it had fallen victim to the ongoing crisis in grassroots venues. But the vibrant basement bar wouldn’t stay down. Now – thanks to a passionate community of music-lovers and, in particular, the dedication of two former staff members – the venue is set to reopen as a social enterprise within weeks. “The Jazz Bar is too important to fail,” says Nick Mushlin, who, along with his wife Justyna, has put everything on the line to save the Edinburgh cultural institution. “There’s a strong community around it, and the bar is vital to that community.…

Politics needs to be saved. By us I was told by a journalist interviewing me recently that “the mood music of today is miserable”. That is, that after 14 years of Toryism people are beaten down. Are unhappy and glum because they are finding it difficult to survive. Perhaps. But going about the place – trains, pubs, beaches, restaurants and even supermarkets – I am far from convinced that the mood music is in fact bleak. This is not denying that I could have easily lived the last few months going from one food bank to another. There are terrible individual realities that have come into being these last 14 years. Yes, government policy has led to an increase of people living in the emergency of poverty. Now more people…

I was a rather strait-laced teenager for the 1960s. There are moments when I think, oh my goodness I did miss out on certain things. I’d certainly want to say to my younger self, relax a bit. Beware of perfectionism, judgementalism. I think there was a streak of that. I was an only child and that always creates a slightly hothouse atmosphere. I’d also been a very unhealthy child. I had meningitis when I was very small and that left me with a few minor, but not negligible, health problems. My recollection of teenage years is spending quite a lot of time at home or in bed with various respiratory ailments. It rather intensified a taste for solitude. I’m not sure that my parents quite understood that. They were churchgoers,…

No sooner had they touched down in Germany for Euro 2024, the Scottish national team were whisked off to their tournament base in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, and treated to a healthy dose of the famous Bavarian hospitality. While the onlookers helped themselves to beer and grub, the players were greeted by dancers in lederhosen and felt hats, slapping their ankles to the music of an oompah band. This, many people must assume, is what Germany looks like. And as Scotland’s experience showed, there’s no smoke without fire. Yet the reality, of course, is that this kind of thing is anything but typically German. There are 80 million people in Germany, and most of them would not be seen dead in lederhosen. The costumes, along with the dancing and the beers served by…

It feels like we’ve been living in the middle aisle of Lidl for quite a long time now. We’ve been besieged by lots of random and seemingly unconnected things that change with no warning, and there is really no way of predicting what’s coming next. One day someone throws a potato masher and a trampoline at us, the next we find ourselves drowning under a job lot of Neoprene sleeping bags and Rita Ora hairdryers. The only thing we know for sure is that this change is constant and relentless, and that one day we can be riding high, holding a leaf blower endorsed by Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the next, rolling around on the floor with one fake Croc and a toilet brush. We must have become inured to this…

Ahead of the election, Big Issue vendors took their concerns, and those of our readers, straight to the top. Joined by frontline staff, they visited the Labour HQ in Southwark and the Conservative campaign HQ in Westminster last week to deliver an open letter urging whoever forms the next government to implement five vital policies in their first 12 months in power, to eradicate poverty in the UK. The open letter had been signed by 12,227 people, including our ambassadors Christopher Eccleston, George Clarke and Daniel Mays, and a number of leading social businesses supported by Big Issue Group’s social investment arm, Big Issue Invest. Lee, a Big Issue vendor who sells in Covent Garden, said: “Today, with a group of other vendors, we’ve visited Labour and Tory headquarters to…

HOMELESSNESS Keir Starmer’s election manifesto contains no firm pledges on rough sleeping. Instead, he has promised a cross-government strategy, working with mayors and councils to “put Britain back on track to ending homelessness”. By contrast, four years into government, Tony Blair’s team had declared mission accomplished, with a count of 532 people on the streets, a reduction of two-thirds. Compare that to now: the most recent statistics show 3,898 people in England were sleeping rough, a 27% increase in a single year. In interviews carried out in the lead-up to the election, Big Issue spoke to those at the heart of making it happen, from housing ministers to a grassroots worker running a hostel. What lessons are there for an incoming government? And for a state that often seems paralysed,…

Get in touch The Big Issue, 2nd floor, 43 Bath Street, Glasgow G2 1HW letters@bigissue.com @bigissue /bigissueUK @bigissueuk @thebigissue We saw you Your Do You See Me? issue for Learning Disabilities Week [Issue 1620, 17-23 June] is the best issue ever. The collaborations between the wonderful contributors and your team have produced brilliant, varied and informative articles. I hope as many people as possible get to read this issue – I am passing my copy around and recommending everyone to buy their own. Janice O’Neill, Stockport Special mention Last Thursday in Harlow while on my way to volunteer at Plant Pots and Wellies, an allotment-based project which involves people with disabilities, I came across a Big Issue vendor. A whole issue on Learning Disability Week, edited with people with learning…

Fun is a funny thing all right. As far as concepts go, it’s about as slippery and subjective as they come. While researching my book Here Comes the Fun: A Journey into the Serious Business of Having a Laugh, I must have asked a thousand people what their idea of fun was. One person said it was being in the bath, watching Andy Murray. Another said it was shopping in Aldi wearing only a raincoat. What nobody mentioned, or got close to mentioning, was politics. Politics does have its moments though. There was that time someone shared their milkshake with Nigel Farage. And there was that time Ed Miliband condescended to a bacon sandwich. But for the most part I think we can agree that politics – and the discourse…

A collection of paintings inspired by childhood memories, Jonathan McKinstry’s solo exhibition, I like things I remember, has been staged in collaboration between arts charity Project Ability and Scotland’s biennial Glasgow International Festival of Contemporary Art. Depicting all from iconic snacks of the 1970s to board games such as Operation, Buckaroo and Hungry Hippos and Star Wars and Transformers action figures, McKinstry’s paintings are bold, bright and full of happy nostalgia. McKinstry attends Project Ability’s Aspire programme for people with learning disabilities, where his practice has expanded thanks to the creative and supportive environment and his love for popular media, which always makes people smile. project-ability.co.uk glasgowinternational.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…

REVIEW A bellwether for the age of surveillance This September will see the UK release of Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis, a grandiose $120 million (£95m) passion project based on an idea that the filmmaker first dreamed up back in 1977. And judging by the divisive response from its recent premiere at Cannes, Megalopolis is a literal monument to hubris, with a zealous architect called Cesar (Adam Driver) shaping a broken city into a vision of utopia. It sounds pretty allegorical (this all takes place in some alternate timeline) and more than a little daft (Aubrey Plaza plays a character named Wow Platinum). But since the veteran writer, director and winemaker funded it all himself it should at least be true to Coppola’s singular vision. Before that potential boondoggle, though, there…

CLASSICAL Instrumental family Like most freelance writers, I dabble in the odd spot of ghost writing. Without wishing to open the factory door, this involves preparing drafts that may – or, most likely, may not – be tweaked by the individual you are impersonating, which are then published in their name. It can be strange seeing your words under different authorship, but that is all part of the deal. It is quite another experience to have your work attributed to someone else without your permission, as was the case for many composers. Among the most notable instances of mistaken identity is that of a song admired by Queen Victoria. The score bore the name of one of her favourite composers, Felix Mendelssohn; in fact, the work was created by his…