Table of contents for 7/29/2024 in The Big Issue

The core argument remains static. Universal basic income is never completely universal, it’s far from simple and, at present, it doesn’t really offer sustained or sustainable income. But I still support the idea of it and of trying to find a way to make it work. This is hardly a unique position. The overarching plan is straightforward – if you provide everybody in society with a certain amount of income, the corrosive impact of entrenched poverty, the fears and the lack of opportunities that are carried through when the only concern is the howling lack of money, are blown away. And this isn’t about an opposing view to the core ethos of Big Issue. The idea of giving all of society a base level of income does signal a hand…

A new series of short films exploring why people become homeless has been made by Cardboard Citizens, a charity that uses drama and performance to transform the lives of those who have lived experienced of homelessness, in collaboration with Black Apron Entertainment. Each film is written and performed by people who have experienced homelessness, poverty or inequality and can be watched at bigissue.com The boiling frog syndrome runs as follows: if you drop a frog in boiling water it’ll jump right out. But if you put it in tepid water and turn the heat up, it won’t notice it’s being boiled alive. Screenwriter Kayleigh Llewellyn draws parallels between this and growing up in a household where domestic violence is a constant, escalating threat. Her short film Boiling Frogs is part…

Orlaine McDonald’s exquisite debut No Small Thing maps a lineage of mothers and daughters with poetic grace. The novel follows the lives of Livia, Mickey and Summer, a black British family living under the same roof after years of estrangement. As a young biracial woman, Livia longed for a freedom beyond motherhood, and left her family behind. Her daughter, Mickey, kept searching for her mum, grieving this loss of connection. Now Mickey is a grown-up with her own child, Summer, and they need a place to stay. They end up at Livia’s door on a South London estate. The uncomfortable cohabitation that follows speaks to the painful legacy of maternity, the stigma faced by single mothers trying to survive and the struggles of growing up mixed race and working class…

TONY, 66 When I was young, I fished a lot. One day I took my mum fishing with me in South Africa. I baited up for her and cast her line. As her cast hit the water, it hit a big fish and I had to talk her through it. It must have been about 15kg. I did the same again. I couldn’t even get my rod ready and hers hit another fish. It must have taken 15 minutes to get in. I did the same again, and it was another fish. She must have caught 40kg of fish. She never forgot that day, and neither have I. There’s a big estuary in Barnstaple, where I sell the magazine. One customer had a boat in their garage they hadn’t used…

PRISONS ‘We face the collapse of the criminal justice system’: New government must rethink prisons as crisis could see hundreds released into homelessness Emergency measures to release prisoners early to prevent prisons in England and Wales from reaching capacity could see as many as 800 offenders released into homelessness, Big Issue has learned. Labour’s Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood announced prisoners will be released after serving 40% of their sentences rather than 50% after occupation rates in male prisons topped 99% for the majority of the last 18 months. The early release measures, which will exclude prisoners with sentences of four years or more for serious violent offences and sexual offences, could see as many as 5,500 prisoners released early in the next few months, according to Prison Officers Association chair…

Summer – as well as other seasons, but most joyfully summer – is the time of the bike. Thirty-three years ago I was working on the launch of the Big Issue and the bike was essential as I travelled about London to meet people, always bringing my pump into meetings with me. Having been a bike thief in my youth, and a purloiner of other people’s bike pumps, I locked the bike carefully and carried the pump assiduously. Prior to being – with the help of many – the creator of the Big Issue, I was a printer. My most prestigious job was a magazine for the Tate gallery, then a mere single apple tree and not the orchard it has blossomed into. With my pump I would attend meetings…

My mother died when I was quite young, when I was five. My father brought me up with his sister. I remember a happy childhood in a small village in south Wales. There were lots of people around. By the time I was 16, I’d learned to play a couple of musical instruments. My father was a music teacher, so I learned the piano at a very early age, and then later some woodwind like the oboe and the saxophone. I was in a few orchestras and I also started playing jazz music. But I was heading for university I suppose not knowing exactly what I wanted to do. I was an only child and an introverted teenager. I’ve learned to deal with it, and I do talks and speeches…

Under the watchful eye of fauna and flora, I was standing in woodlands as a log-perched audience listened to my conversation with physicist David Tonge about the difficulty of working out how the universe began. Humans have done well. We’ve got as far back as 10 to minus 37, maybe even minus 38 of a second, it’s just that last, tiny weeny bit that’s proving difficult to work out. One of the joys of summer is to talk among the trees at festivals. This time, I was at Also Festival: a field, a lake and woodland where authors, philosophers and scientists talk to those reclining in nature about what is the self, and the possibility of life on other planets. That’s just the start of it. Across the field are…

ANALYSIS The last Labour government was undone by financial deregulation that left it bailing out banks considered too big to fail. This time, even before its electoral honeymoon is over, Keir Starmer’s new administration is facing a consolidation of the housebuilding industry that could leave its flagship policy of delivering 1.5 million homes in five years being hinged on just six companies. In her first speech as chancellor of the exchequer, Rachel Reeves said she was “going to get Britain building again” through reform of an “antiquated planning system (that) leaves too many important projects tied up in years and years of red tape before shovels ever get into the ground”. The proposed changes include reviving mandatory council targets for local housebuilding, creating a task force to unlock sites stalled…

Get in touch The Big Issue, 2nd floor, 43 Bath Street, Glasgow G2 1HW letters@bigissue.com @bigissue /bigissueUK @bigissueuk @thebigissue Misplaced anger I read with great interest Naomi Westerman’s piece about her film, Sandwiches [Issue 1623, 08-14 July], in which she describes the act of giving sandwiches to a homeless person as way of “pretending that you care”. She also goes on to say that giving food to someone with very little is a way of saying, “I think I know better than you”. Did she ever stop to think that the person giving the food may be doing it out of a genuine act of kindness and that they may not have much money themselves but want to help in the only way that they can afford? I share her…

ART As a child, regular Street Art contributor Chowdhury was enchanted by the aesthetics of the natural world around her in Dhaka, Bangladesh where she grew up. It was this passion for the wonders of the landscape that led her to pick up pencils and brushes, playing with colour and shapes to capture moods and express feelings. Chowdhury submitted this artwork via the 240Project, an activity centre empowering West London’s vulnerable community. 240project.org.uk ← BUY ME You can buy a print of this and other artworks featured in our Street Art series from Big Issue Shop. Scan the QR code or visit: bigissueshop.com/collections/art-photography to support marginalised artists. 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…

Even in the current unpredictable cinema landscape, animated movies for kids can be reliable money-spinners. Inside Out 2 (somehow not subtitled All the Feels) is easily the biggest film of 2024 so far. It is not even a close race. With $1.4 billion at the global box office and counting, Pixar’s emotional release has already racked up more than twice as much cash as second-place Dune: Part Two. It helps that Pixar has raised the bar for US kid flicks across the board: even the most reluctant adult chaperone will find a chuckle or two among sturdily constructed 2024 sequels like Kung Fu Panda 4 or Despicable Me 4. But in the spirit of pick-and-mix it feels like it would be nice to have some viable non-Hollywood options for a…

“Where would you go back in time?” asks Mark in Peep Show. “The 1960s: see The Rolling Stones and have a Coke,” replies Jeremy. “You can literally do that now,” comes Mark’s withering put-down, referencing the band’s impressive endurance and the ongoing appeal of retro pop acts. Dua Lipa might have been responsible for the best Glastonbury meme this year after she reacted awkwardly to a cringe-worthy busker, but it was Sugababes who got the surprise rave reviews. And one-time slightly embarrassing boy band Busted were at Download, as were metal legends Pantera, regrouped after a short break of 20 years. Classical music is, naturally, rooted in the past. Playing Mozart well requires an understanding of what was going on in the 18th century, and how the sound connects with…