The Big Issue 3/15/2021

Political prankster Count Binface will ask the royal family to give up their palaces to house people experiencing homelessness in his bid to become Mayor of London. Harry and Meghan’s bombshell Oprah Winfrey interview has sparked widespread debate on the state of the royal family. But Count Binface, who is hoping to unseat the incumbent Sadiq Khan, insisted the monarchy should keep just one of their four London palaces – Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace, St James’ Palace and Clarence House. The rest should be given up to solve homelessness in London, Binface suggested, in a manifesto list of pledges that included making Ross Kemp the next poet laureate and renaming London Bridge Phoebe Waller in honour of the Fleabag star. But while the campaign may be tongue-in-cheek, Binface is serious about homelessness. An…

Six-time Olympic gold medallist Sir Chris Hoy will be getting back on his bike later this year to raise £1m to fund two ‘homeless villages’. Sir Chris, 44, will lead 1,000 fellow riders from the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome in Glasgow to the Social Bite Village in Edinburgh in September. Social enterprise Social Bite opened the village in 2018, providing homes for 39 formerly homeless residents in a first foray into the Housing First model where rough sleepers are given a home alongside wraparound support to help them keep it. Just over 80 per cent of residents are either still living at the village or moving on to permanent home almost three years later. The Break the Cycle fundraising campaign aims to create two more villages in Glasgow and London. “Now that we…

People experiencing homelessness in Wales and England will be given priority access to a Covid-19 vaccine following a dramatic U-turn last week. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation changed its guidance to enable rough sleepers and people protected in emergency or supported accommodation to be vaccinated in priority group six alongside people aged between 16 and 65 deemed to be at higher risk of Covid-19. Previously vaccine advisors had stuck with an age-based approach to rolling out jabs. But in a letter to Health Secretary Matt Hancock, the JCVI’s Covid-19 chair Professor Wei Shen Lim said that the Everyone In scheme means there is a “unique opportunity” to reach people without a secure home. The scheme has protected 37,000 people from the virus in the last year, with thousands still housed in hotels…

It will take big ideas to combat the climate crisis but tiny forests are making a dent in emissions in some of the most deprived areas of the UK. Forests with 600 trees planted in a space the size of a tennis court have sprung up across the UK in recent weeks bringing greenery to London, Glasgow and Oxfordshire. A total of 12 tiny forests have been earmarked for across the country with local school children tasked with planting the trees and monitoring their progress. Earthwatch Europe’s urban tree planting project is based on a forest management method developed in the 1970s by Japanese botanist Dr Akira Miyawaki, with each forest’s dense, fast-growing woodland intended to absorb 30 times more carbon than traditional planting schemes. As well as boosting the planet, the 3,000 tiny…

VENDORS Across the country vendors are prevented from working on their pitches by the national lockdown. Our staff is working closely with each vendor to make sure there is extra support to make up for lost earnings. We also understand that apart from reduced income, the lack of social interaction will cause a lot of distress. If you would like to pass a message on to your local vendor please email editorial@bigissue.com and we’ll do our best to make sure they know they still have your support. SUBSCRIPTIONS AND SHOPS Since the first national lockdown in March, we have supported our vendors with more than £1m of financial assistance to make up for lost sales. As the only certainty is more uncertainty, we urgently need your help to make sure we can continue…

READERS ADD THEIR TRIBUTES TO CARDIFF VENDOR AMANDA HILL WHO DIED, AGED 43 Always a friendly face whenever I saw her in Cardiff. She was even in last week’s Big Issue. Very sad she passed away. Mark Faulkner I bought a subscription for Amanda on behalf of my sister and her family for Christmas as she was their local vendor. Really really sad to read this. Rest in peace Amanda x Wendy Gyde Heartbreaking, my love and thoughts are with all who knew and loved her. Alyson Sowden Far too young ... makes me so sad. Gitte Dubbick So sad! Prayers for her family and friends! May she rest in peace. Sheila Bundick So sad. She was so friendly. Kim Howell Parental guidance What our little ones really need is to be allowed a childhood [World Book Day, February 22]. A start to that would…