The Big Issue 3/14/2022

Our vendors buy magazines for £1.50 and sell them for £3, keeping the proceeds and working their way out of poverty. Every vendor has a unique story – they may be homeless, at risk of losing their home, long-term unemployed or dealing with mental health issues. What they all have in common is they are earning a legitimate income while gaining valuable social and transferable skills. If you cannot buy from a vendor, take a subscription via SUBS.BIGISSUE.COM or through The Big Issue UK app. Retailers including the Co-op and Sainsbury’s also stock the magazine in many branches. EVERY COPY BOUGHT MAKES A DIFFERENCE. IT’S A HAND UP, NOT A HANDOUT.…

Two million people have now fled Ukraine, and that number may well be far higher by the time you read this. Tens of thousands of refugees have travelled to neighbouring countries Moldova, Romania and Slovakia, hundreds of thousands to Hungary and over a million have gone to Poland. The town of Przemyśl has seen its population swell over recent days. Only a few miles from the Ukrainian border, less than 100km from the major city of Lviv, refugees have crammed into any space to find shelter, including this school’s sports hall. It’s not just about providing shelter. The Polish government has pledged £1.34 billion to support Ukrainian refugees, providing a one-off payment of £50 for every person. Meanwhile, at the time of writing, the UK is struggling to keep the promises it made…

UKRAINE The reality and chaos of the UK visa system for those fleeing for their lives from Ukraine when they reach an actual office in Poland From the chaos of an office block in the Polish city of Rzeszow, converted to grant UK visas to refugees fleeing Ukraine, Marianne Kay spoke of concern for her elderly mother. “There is no order or queue. There’s no system. It’s just a crowd that tries to manage themselves,” she told The Big Issue. “My mum being 79, she can’t take it for much longer.” Kay and her mother woke up at 3.30am as they tried for a second day to get a visa granted. There were simply not enough staff to handle the number of applications. Those waiting in the pop-up Visa Application Centre (VAC) had…

Britain is more stressed than happy. This may not come as a surprise. But it’s been quantified. At present, 44 per cent of the population say they’re stressed. There are 41 per cent who say they’re happy. YouGov ask the question every week. And every week since February 25, 2021, Britons’ main feeling, above any other possible sensation, not just stressed, has been happy. On February 25, 2022 that was overtaken by stressed. There are loads of subsets applied – whether geographic location, age or, it being the times we’re in, whether the subject voted for Brexit or not. But under every single one, on that date of polling, or within a week, every section asked returned the same outcome. I’m no John Curtice, but I can see that on February…

I want Rock Trust to shut down. This is an anniversary we should not have to celebrate, because it’s an admission of failure. In spite of the best efforts of everyone involved – and I’m not suggesting for a moment that Rock Trust doesn’t make an enormous positive impact – things have got worse. There are more young homeless people now than when Rock Trust started its commitment to help young people out of homelessness. The economic geographer Danny Dorling has said, “You could argue that the Census form should start to ask: ‘Have you ever been homeless, and, if so, when and for how long?’” We talk a lot about social justice here in Scotland. We pride ourselves on championing a more equal society than in other parts of the UK. But…

This week I lay before you the start of something I have been working on for many years, a block of marble I have been chiselling this way and that in the hope it may reveal something of itself – and of me. In short, an extract from my forthcoming autobiography. Why was I such a pain in the rear aged 19? On finishing a book about Lord Byron while sitting in the living room of my in-laws’ bungalow that winter I wondered, as I read the last page, ‘how could I rise in the world?’ How could I be more than simply who I was then? How could I be a new Lord Byron for the 1960s, over 100 years since Byron’s time? I was 19, working as a printer’s devil in…