The Big Issue 5/16/2022

Jiangwan Stadium in Shanghai has hosted the National Games of China, the X Games and is also home to Aussie Rules Football in the country, hosting the first AFL premiership games held outside of Oceania. Now, it’s the site of a makeshift hospital as Covid has locked down some of the biggest urban centres in the world. Twenty-five million people have to stay at their homes as the authorities push for zero transmissions. The economy is suffering as a result, and the knock-on effect is being felt everywhere else. Exports have slowed to their lowest figure in two years and some of the country’s needs are being met by a neighbour. In the last year, imports from Russia have increased by 56.6 per cent to over £7 billion – the highest figure…

The housing crisis has been with us for decades, with too few homes built and too many lost to short-term lets and through Right to Buy. As property prices continue to go through the roof, new responses are coming from unlikely sources. Michael Eavis is best known for putting on the Glastonbury Festival for over 50 years. But the veteran farmer turned globally renowned promoter has insisted that building affordable homes is the thing he’s most “proud of ”. Eavis has offered up part of the 900 acres of land he owns around Pilton in Somerset – a mile or so from the world-famous Pyramid Stage – to build 20 homes for social rent. It would take number of homes he has developed in the area to 52. The latest development will…

There are “significant concerns” that stretched local authority services will not be able to cope with an influx of refugees from Ukraine presenting to councils as homeless, MPs have warned. Clive Betts, chair of the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Committee, made the admission in a letter to refugees minister Lord Harrington, following reports that people from Ukraine who have arrived in the UK are now ending up without a home. Refugees have been able to come to the UK since the conflict broke in February if they have family members in the UK and if they have a willing sponsor through the Ukraine Family Scheme and the Homes for Ukraine Scheme respectively. But some refugees have reported to councils after falling out with hosts or finding family members cannot accommodate them. A…

Priti Patel says people are now being told they will be sent to Rwanda – but she faces a fight with human rights lawyers over the hugely controversial policy. The Home Secretary has already blamed “specialist lawyers” for delays to the scheme, which was met with widespread condemnation when it was announced last month. Think tank IPPR called the scheme “unethical, unsustainable, and likely to come at a huge cost to the UK taxpayer”. Last week Patel announced the first group of people, including migrants who have crossed the Channel, were about to be informed of their fate. Now, the fightback has begun. Charity Freedom from Torture became the first to launch a crowd-funder for legal action, hot on the heels of its successful challenge that put a stop to Patel’s policy of forcibly…

Muse completed a triumphant return to live performance with an electrifying show to support The Big Issue in London last week (May 10). The gig, at Hammersmith Eventim Apollo, was opened by fellow rock veterans Razorlight as part of The Big Issue’s 30th anniversary celebrations, with all funds raised going to The Big Issue. It was the second of two gigs by Muse at the venue, with the first, on May 9, in support of charities Medécins Sans Frontières and War Child. Big Issue vendors Dave Martin, John Gregg and George Anderson, who sold a special commemorative Big Issue edition at the show, also enjoyed a moment in the spotlight. They were welcomed onstage and introduced to the 5,000 fans.…

Tie-dye, Tory sleaze and now a good old fashioned rock star feud – the ’90s really are back in fashion. In an interview with The Big Issue, Mike Scott, frontman of Scottish folk rock veterans The Water-boys, took aim at Damon Albarn (pictured below) for his comments about Taylor Swift – of whom Scott is quite the fan. “I think Taylor Swift is the best songwriter active in the world right now, at least in Western culture that I know about,” Scott told us. “I think she’s the number one. “I remember Damon Albarn quite recently dissed her and said she didn’t write her own songs. I thought, ‘You silly twit… You should be apologising to her. She’s light years ahead of you.’” Scott was referring to an interview Albarn did with the LA…