Table of contents for 10/21/2024 in The Big Issue

Collateral is a fine word, yet add to it ‘damage’ and you have a not very nice development. It suggests something happening beyond the act that was committed. So the collateral damage of a divorce might be that your children refuse to talk to you. Fortunately, as a two-times divorcee I have not suffered this affront. But if I did it would fall into the category of ‘collateral damage’. ‘Unintended damage’ might be another way of describing what also happens when something happens. ‘Regretful damage’. ‘Unfortunate damage’. Or, as Mr Cameron and Mr Osborne did in getting the poorest among us to pay for the 2008 bankers’ crisis, it becomes a “well we had to cut social budgets to save society” sort of collateral damage. Hence when Covid hit, our…

Munya Chawawa grew up in Zimbabwe. Political and economic crises in the country, led at the time by Robert Mugabe, forced his family to move to the UK when he was 11. Since then, ‘great’ dictators have fascinated Chawawa, who is one of the biggest names in British comedy at the moment, having built up a massive following on social media by satirically skewering life in the time of Covid and beyond in short, sharp parody videos. In 2022, Chawawa made How to Survive a Dictator for Channel 4, where he tried to make sense of the situation that he had left behind in Zimbabwe decades earlier. The documentary was critically acclaimed and he’s just released a follow-up. This time, he focuses on North Korea’s supreme leader Kim Jong Un.…

Subtlety is a difficult thing to write about when it comes to novels. But while airport bookshop shelves are groaning with big, in-your-face thrillers and high-stakes romantic dramas, I always find it more interesting to examine the understated prose to be found in the hinterlands of literature’s giant ecosystem. This week we have two elegant novels that display the authors’ craft and confidence in different ways. First up is That Beautiful Atlantic Waltz by Malachy Tallack. This is the Scottish author’s fifth book, at the head of a very varied backlist of innovative fiction and non-fiction. This short and precise novel is a beautiful and moving testament to connection and the power of music, set mostly in Shetland and revolving around Jack, an old man living alone in the isolated…

In the depths of grief, I discovered a profound truth: art possesses an extraordinary power to transform our world, both within and without. When my father passed away during the pandemic, I found solace in an unexpected place – the rhythmic beeping of his final heartbeats in the hospital. He was also a musician, so I was drawn to preserve a part of him, to create something beautiful from the pain of loss. What emerged was a composition that blended the recorded sound of his last heartbeats with my piano, allowing us to play together one last time across the boundaries of life and death. I transformed his heart into a bass kick drum while classically playing with my piano, but also slowing it down three times to play with…

Fog is a quiet kind of weather. It doesn’t beat down loudly on the roof like rain, or rattle the windows like wind. Fog won’t leave red marks on your skin like the sun, and you can’t mould it with your hands like snow. It is silent and unassuming, which is probably why we have not noticed that fog seems to be slipping away. A 2009 study found that in Europe there had been a 50% drop in ‘low-visibility’ events (fog, mist and haze) since the 1970s, and around the world coastal fog is declining – which many scientists believe to be a direct result of climate change. In areas such as California, this reduction of fog – with the resultant heat and loss of moisture – could have disastrous…

Sun, sand, sangria – and being squirted with a water pistol by locals protesting about the damage tourism is having on their local area. This was the experience some tourists had this summer. The environmental, social and economic cost of tourism is more of a concern than ever – but there are also an increasing number of ways to make sure your travel plans can make a positive difference to people and planet. Whether it’s taking in the countryside on public transport or being inspired by Race Across the World to enjoy the journey as much as the destination, this Sustainable Travel Special takes a look at how to reduce your impact on holiday, ensuring you can be a benefit and not a burden to the amazing places you visit.…

Hawaii conjures up idyllic images. Necklaces of vibrant flowers; frozen cocktails housed in pineapples; hypnotic hula dancing set against picture-perfect sunsets. It’s the restful island paradise you’d seek for a once-in-a-lifetime holiday. Not for Billy Monger. When the former racing driver and broadcaster lands in Kailua-Kona later this month, there won’t be time for Mai Tais. Instead, he’s aiming to break the records for the fastest and youngest double amputee to compete in the Ironman World Championship. It’s a relentless 140.6-mile triathlon set against spiralling temperatures, open waters and desolate lava fields. It includes a 2.4-mile swim in the Pacific, a 112-mile cycle with sustained climbs in exposed terrains, and ends with a marathon in severe humidity. Effectively, Monger is doing Hawaii wrong. “Comic Relief asked if I’d be up…

AUTUMN BUDGET Real change or austerity 2.0? Here’s how Labour can deliver a transformative budget that works for everyone By Lottie Elton Big Issue reporter On 30 October, chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves will deliver the first Labour budget in almost a decade and a half. The autumn statement will contain “difficult decisions” on tax, spending and welfare, the chancellor has warned, citing a £22 billion “black hole” in the public finances. The language has fuelled speculation about cuts to public spending. Yet “nothing is inevitable”, said Robert Palmer, executive director at Tax Justice. “There are other ways the government could raise revenue.” Here are three of them. Change the fiscal rules to allow for more borrowing The government puts in place limits to restrict how much it can…

Get in touch The Big Issue, 2nd floor, 43 Bath Street, Glasgow G2 1HW letters@bigissue.com @bigissue /bigissueUK @bigissueuk @thebigissue Preaching to the choir Andrew Ford’s article The Rhythm of Life [Issue 1635, 30 September-6 October] is full of interest, but surely music began long before humans existed – with birdsong and other animal calls! In fact, the sound of water, perhaps in a waterfall or with the lap or crash of waves, could also be called music. Certainly, rhythm is very important – sea shanties and other work songs are helpful for people doing jobs which require rhythm. Marches, including funeral marches, are helpful in the same way, while dance rhythms will set people’s feet tapping. All these things, along with melodies and harmonies, may trigger emotional responses in the…

I’d just left school when I turned 16. I wasn’t happy there so a lot of the time I just didn’t go in. I would go to a place called Camp Hill – a nice field on the way to the airport in Liverpool – and get stoned and read books. Whenever I left the house I took my guitar, just on the off chance. The only things I was good at was playing football and playing guitar. And they were the two things I loved. It was all Bill Shankly and The Beatles when I was growing up. And nothing’s really changed. I didn’t have much of a plan. Like most musicians in Liverpool, I was on the dole. At school, they weren’t big on careers, but once a…

Interstellar space lies beyond the solar system. Traditionally, we used telescopes to observe remotely what lies in our neighbour’s yard. But remote observing is limited to extremely bright or large objects. If we ever discover an interstellar car, similar to the dummy payload launched in 2018 by SpaceX, we would know that Elon Musk is not the most accomplished space entrepreneur since the Big Bang. Over the past decade, astronomers discovered the first interstellar objects. As described in my book Interstellar, the first among them was an interstellar meteor named IM1, half a metre in size that collided with Earth on 8 January 2014. Outside the Solar System, IM1 was moving at 60 kilometres per second. Despite its high speed, it disintegrated in the lower atmosphere, where the air is…

It is a thin line between naivety and stupidity, empathy and being taken for a ride. I am not sure where I am sitting now, but I feel raw and possibly foolish. My deadline means that I must write this before I know which of them I am – or if I am both. I was walking back from an evening of talking about the science of elasticity with a trampoline gold medalist: the normal kind of night. I spied a regular at my gigs, Susan, and called after her and we walked together in the thin rain. Nearing Shepherd’s Bush Market station, someone approached and asked if they could use my phone to call their boyfriend. I asked if they were OK and they nodded. I worry about friends…

Keir Starmer said he’d be as bold as Clem Attlee. In an interview with Big Issue in the days before July’s general election he made that pledge. He also said there’d be no return to austerity; there’d be “a decade of national renewal instead, with ambitious investment and reform.” One of Attlee’s first moves as PM was to roll out the National Insurance Act, a means of collecting contributions from those of working age to fund “unemployment benefit, sickness benefit, maternity benefit, retirement pension, widows’ benefit, guardian’s allowance and death grant”. It was an incredible step, coming, in 1946, as the country teetered on the edge of postwar bankruptcy. It was part of a wider implementation of the Beveridge Report. We all know how radical that was, establishing the NHS…

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, and the inspiration of her mother, 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. Find out more at 240project.org.uk View more of Zakia’s artworks at instagram.com/zakiasworld.1 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…

A new Pedro Almodóvar movie is always something to relish. The shock-haired Spanish sensualist embraces emotionally charged drama, bold colours, sex, history, politics, classic cinema… all the good stuff. Almodóvar also loves to centre women in many of his screen stories, and has been such a productive film-maker since the 1980s that even if a recent effort does not set fireworks off in your brain, another will be along shortly. His latest arrives in the UK after triumphing at the Venice Film Festival, where it took home the Golden Lion (in my initial draft, I typed “Golden Loin” – make of that what you will). Helpfully for such a prolific artist, it also comes with a new marketing angle: The Room Next Door is Almodóvar’s first full-length English-language feature. In…

The skaters gather in Leeds’s Millennium Square. They take turns to mount the jumps that jut from the smooth paving. A skateboard makes contact with the wood; the skater pushes forward, leaning into a clean finish. His friend is not so lucky; midway through the ascent, the wheels clip the frame and skater and skateboard part company in an inelegant separation. Giggling ensues; shards of pride are collected and the process is repeated. This isn’t your average skateboard park – the half-pipes are formed from upright pianos cut at an angle and set into the ground, seemingly embedded by a giant foot. The surrealist Sinking Pianos sculpture is part of a series created to coincide with the Leeds International Piano Competition. Opposite the square, an enormous split ivory plinth stands…

BRADLEY DUGGAN I’ve been selling Big Issue for three months. I’m really loving it. I’ve got my proper pitch now. I used to beg here before, then someone from Big Issue came down and asked: “Do you want to sell the magazine? You’ll be working, you’ll make money, you’ll enjoy it.” I said, “I’ll give it a go,” and they gave me the job. I asked Asda [the shop near Bradley’s pitch], and they said “We’re happy for you to do it!” It’s better to be working, not begging. I’m earning money, so I wake up happy. I feel better for it. I’ve been street homeless on and off for five years. I’m from here, I grew up in Bristol – I’m a Bristol boy, my family are here. They’re…