The Big Issue 6/6/2022

This humpback whale was only the third ever seen off the coast of Mallorca. Disoriented and distressed, it was trapped in a type of fishing net outlawed by the UN 30 years ago. They are nicknamed “wall of death” because of indiscriminate decimation they cause to sea life. When this humpback was spotted, divers from the local marine rescue centre set out to set it free. Gigi Torras was one who spent 45 minutes cutting net from the whale. She said: “Call me crazy but I think she knew we were there to help her… she gave a little wiggle to get herself out” and gave what looked like “a little thank you sign” before disappearing into the deep. The story does not have a happy ending, however. A week later, 300km…

At least two UK energy suppliers attempted to “relax” a requirement to support customers struggling to pay their bills, The Big Issue has learned. Prior to Rishi Sunak stepping in to offer all UK households £400 towards energy bills, a letter from Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) secretary Thérèse Coffey to regulator Ofgem stated energy companies had asked trade association Energy UK whether it would support lobbying Ofgem to relax the requirement. The DWP declined to name the two energy companies concerned when asked by The Big Issue, but the story has caused quite a stir - not least because more customers are going to need help from their suppliers when the price cap rises again in October to an eye-watering £2,800. Coffey’s letter concerns a change made by the DWP to…

Experts from Basic Income Conversation and Compass have calculated that paying children a minimum of £41 a week and £63 for adults would cut poverty to its lowest point for 45 years. The findings in their recently published report, which also tested two more generous payments, found the measure could halve the number of children in relative poverty to 12.5 per cent, taking it below its historic low point of 14 per cent in 1977. The move would also slash pensioner poverty by half and reduce poverty among working-age people by a quarter. There has been resistance to a basic income from Westminster where the idea is considered an expensive one. But the experts behind the report laid out how tweaks to income tax and National Insurance contributions as a way of revenue…

Well, the Home Secretary isn’t actually asking – there have been no social media posts or adverts from her or the Home Office about the public consultation on the proposed laws. But it is taking place, so The Big Issue felt we should let you know about it. The Public Order Bill would create new criminal offences for protesters and allow the police to ban certain people from attending protests. Parliament is asking those with relevant experience, expertise or a special interest in the Bill to submit written evidence as it reaches its committee stage. New crimes in the Bill include “locking on” and interfering with key national infrastructure. It would also introduce “Serious Disruption Prevention Orders” which would ban people from going to protests if they “repeatedly engage in disruptive protest…

Soaring demand and limited supply of homes has pushed up rental costs at the fastest rate on record, with more households facing “no-fault evictions” than before the pandemic. Many landlords are cashing in on record house prices, or turfing out current tenants to re-rent at higher rates. This heated market has led to Hunger Games-esque competition between renters, forced to battle it out and emerge the “perfect tenant”. With waiting times for social homes spanning years, there’s little else to fall back on. In the absence of intervention, it could lead to homelessness for thousands with nowhere else to turn. Here are five demands that readers told The Big Issue about. 1 PET RENT “We have a dog – a chihuahua – who has been in our family for almost a decade. We applied for…

Social media was ablaze with anger when the Sue Gray report into Partygate was finally published. Most was directed at the drunken vomiting, fighting and karaoke taking place just off the corridors of power while most of the country obeyed lockdown rules. But The Big Issue, led by employment reporter Evie Breese, focused on a more telling detail in the report – the “multiple examples of a lack of respect and poor treatment of security and cleaning staff ”. “Imagine being the cleaner having to scrub red wine off the walls inside Number 10 while banned from visiting your own family at Christmas”, Breese wrote on Twitter, referring to details of a cleaner arriving in Downing Street the morning after one Christmas party to find booze sloshed up the walls. And it…