The Big Issue

Schools and public parks have been closed in central Mexico, as the volcano Popocatépetl spews out ash, smoke and incandescent rock. Huge swathes of the country were carpeted in grey ash as three million local people were advised to prepare for evacuation. Situated 43 miles southeast of Mexico City, and with 25 million people living within a 60-mile radius, Popocatépetl is considered one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world. On 21 May, Mexico’s National Centre for Prevention of Disasters raised the alert level to Phase 3, one step below an evacuation order. At this level, volcanoes may produce mild to moderate explosions that can hurl fragments of rock. It may even expel magma. At a news conference the next day civil defence coordinator Laura Velázquez said there was “no risk to…

POLITICS Big Issue founder Lord Bird wants to ‘redesign’ government to end poverty Big Issue founder Lord John Bird has launched a new plan to help governments finally end endemic poverty. He wants it to “redesign the ways governments work” and create as much of an impact as the launch of The Big Issue. Bird will co-chair a new All-Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Business Responses to Social Crises, launched to tackle issues such as poverty and the housing crisis through entrepreneurship. “I want to redesign the ways governments work and I want to begin with poverty,” Bird said at the APPG’s first event, which brought together leading figures from businesses, charities and financial institutions on 17 May. There are more than 14 million people living in poverty in the UK, and hundreds of thousands of…

I went to Cork last week. I’d never been before, shamefully. It was only down the road, growing up. Well, a few hundred miles. But still. I heard so often about the micro-climate and the joyful Corkness of the locals I felt I knew it. Cork people carry real pride. If you tell them that you like Cork, which I found myself doing a lot, they affirm that it’s great. There are a lot of prints around the place featuring the outline of Ireland. The county of Cork is drawn in. Everything outside the line is called simply Not Cork. Though, frankly, I expected more murals of Roy Keane. One evening we drove to Kinsale and beyond to Charles Fort, an old 17th century citadel, hanging on the rock pointing out…

A ministry of poverty could help us change course I am taking through the Lords what has been called the Friday release Bill, barring letting people out of prison on a Friday. A difficult, at times impossible day to get the support services you need to see you over the weekend. With a third of people leaving prison without accommodation and work or financial support, someone becoming homeless on release is a real possibility. It is made even more likely if you are let out on a Friday. And you are more likely to get back into trouble if there is nothing for you in those crucial days following being de-institutioned. Suddenly the roof over your head and regular meals and some kind of social association is removed from you. And you’re…

Get in touch The Big Issue, 2nd floor, 43 Bath Street, Glasgow G2 1HW letters@bigissue.com @bigissue /bigissueUK @bigissueuk @thebigissue Taking care of business I agree with John Bird that there is a need to “redesign the ways governments work” in order to end poverty [Issue 1565, 22 May]. However, his argument that governments need to be “businesslike” raises a question. Governments should be businesslike in the sense that they should be efficient and practical. But it is important to recognise that many businesses are neither efficient nor practical. In addition, being efficient and practical is at best useless and at worst dangerous if one lacks the correct values. Poverty will not be overcome without essential services that work for everyone. This is as true here in the UK (where our essential services are largely failing) as it is in…

Can the Renters Reform Bill be transformative for tenants? The long-awaited Renters Reform Bill is finally unveiled. Was it worth the wait? In April 2019, then-prime minister Theresa May promised “the biggest change to the private rental sector for a generation”. There have been four prime ministers, a new monarch, eight housing ministers, six housing secretaries (including Michael Gove twice), one whole pandemic and nine Ed Sheeran number ones since the Renters Reform Bill was first promised. Who knew that it would take four years for the bill to come into view? May was talking about banning no-fault evictions, also know as Section 21 evictions, which allow landlords to evict a tenant without giving a reason. “With little notice, and often little justification” as she put it. The government finally revealed the legislation that would…