The Big Issue - September 12, 2022

48 Pages·2022·37.3 MB·English

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ISSUE 1530 / 12 SEPTEMBER 2022
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PAGE 20
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From 12 September 2022 CONTENTS / 3
IF YOU CAN’T BUY DIRECT FROM A VENDOR — OR WOULD LIKE TO GIFT A PERFECT PRESENT — VISIT BIGISSUE.COM TO LEARN HOW TO SUBSCRIBE
This
Inside
week’s
Big Issue
UP FRONT
6 / The Dispatch
‘OUR GREATEST
Our round-up of news, including
how The Big Issue caused
Arctic Monkeys mania

WISH IS FOR
13 / John Bird
Forget about Conservative
ideology – right now we’re in
a state of emergency
HELP NOT TO
FEATURES
BE NEEDED’
20 / What the PM needs to do in
the first 100 days
Liz Truss’s to-do pile is a big one, but
this is what should be at the top of it
PAGE 8
WE MUST NOT NORMALISE FOODBANKS
26 / Letter to my Younger Self
GERMANY’S RADICAL HOUSING PLAN PAGE 18 Paul O’Grady’s journey to national
treasure has been good for animals,
PAGE 34
TOLKIEN’S TAKE ON PEACE AND UNITY
but bad for Cilla Black’s sofa
PAGE 39
START UP YOUR OWN NATION
CULTURE
29-39 / Books/Film/Arts/Music
A guide through the week’s highlights
with our Big Issue critics
HOW
MY PITCH
THE BIG ISSUE
Simone Gill
WORKS
Our vendors buy magazines for £1.50
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and sell them for £3, keeping the
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working longer
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on her pitch – they may be homeless, at risk of losing
their home, long-term unemployed or
to boost her dealing with mental health issues.
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r the cost of
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m living rises.
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ati in many branches.
r
t
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u
r ill EVERY COPY BOUGHT MAKES A DIFFERENCE.
e IT’S A HAND UP, NOT A HANDOUT.
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C Photo: Exposure Photo Agency
4 / BIG PICTURE bigissue.com
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5
From 12 September 2022
Rock the boats
To protect the environment,
sometimes you have to make a
splash. The South West Deeps Con-
servation Zone lies almost 120 miles
from Land’s End. In the last 18
months, despite its designation, the
Conservation Zone has seen almost
19,000 hours of industrial fishing, a
large chunk of which was catastrophi-
cally damaging bottom-trawling.
Who’s to blame? French and Span-
ish ships represented 53 and 30 per
cent of industrial fishing boats respec-
tively, with UK vessels being more
respectful of the area, making up
only nine per cent.
So in an attempt to end bottom
trawling, Greenpeace ship Arctic Sun-
rise sailed into the zone to dump 18
limestone boulders overboard – some
with the stencilled names of support-
ers including Simon Pegg, Stephen
Fry and Conservative MPs Henry
Smith and Peter Bottomley – which
will make bottom trawling much
riskier, hopefully ending the prac-
tice and helping the UK government
achieve its aim of 30 per cent ocean
protection by 2030.
Will McCallum, head of oceans at
Greenpeace UK, said: “It is outrageous
that bottom trawlers are allowed to
scrape along the sea bed in most of our
Marine Protected Areas every single
day. They destroy huge swathes of the
marine ecosystem and make a mock-
ery of our so-called ‘protection’.”
6 / THE DISPATCH bigissue.com
THE TOP 5 DESIGN
THE STORIES ON Could ethical
BIGISSUE.COM
LAST WEEK housing really
DISPATCH
1. 8 DIY tips to have a future
keep your home
warm for less as beyond high-end
News, views & miscellany
energy bills rise
vanity projects?
2. Going green: how
Big Issue’s new EV
vans will help vendors Turns out, it
and the planet
works
3. Martin Lewis’s
energy cap calculator
lets you see how
much you’ll be paying
in bills this winter
4. Arctic Monkeys’
Alex Turner shares
details of new
album The Car in
RENT
Big Issue exclusive
Scotland is freezing rents and
5. Here’s how much
banning evictions to protect tenants. money people
actually need to
live on during the
Will Liz Truss follow suit?
cost-of-living crisis
With record rents and rising bills, Sturgeon also confirmed the Scottish
Nicola Sturgeon unveiled an eviction child payment would increase to £25 a
ban and a rent freeze to protect tenants week per eligible child from November
from the cost-of-living crisis. Coming 14 and the fuel insecurity fund would
on the day of Liz Truss’s new job, it be increased to £20 million.
moved pressure onto her to follow suit. The question is whether Truss will
Scotland’s First Minister announced do similar in England. Generation Rent
that emergency legislation would be has called for a freeze to help private
introduced to bring in measures for tenants avoid destitution while Social
both private and social renters until at Housing Action Campaign is mak- People having to move out of major
least March as part of her Programme ing similar pleas for social renters. The cities due to soaring costs or a lack of
for Government last week. Westminster government is currently space is nothing new – but could a new
“The practical effect of this state- deliberating whether to cap social rent ethical housing model make leaving for
ment is that rents are frozen from increases to three, five or seven per cent the suburbs a thing of the past?
today,” Sturgeon told MSPs. from next April. Austin Maynard Architects has
She added: “The Scottish govern- Other leaders are urging the gov- designed Terrace House, a self-funded
Last month Living
ment does not have the power to stop ernment to act. Sadiq Khan has been apartment building in Melbourne,
Rent held a protest
your energy bills soaring but we can calling for powers to tackle London’s Australia, that is low-cost, eco-friendly
in Glasgow after a
take action to ensure your rent does sky-high rents for two years. Following and has enough space for families.
landlord put single
not rise. Two of the most important Sturgeon’s announcement, he said: “I’ll mum Jemma The six-storey building has 20
and fundamental sources of security continue to call on the UK government Maclaren’s (centre) apartments and three ground-level
rent up by £200 a
for any of us are a job and a home. In to grant me the power to freeze rents in shop units. The architects wanted to
month to bring it
times of economic and financial crisis, our capital. Londoners face record rents create an alternative for those who tra-
“in line with open
these can be the foundations that help at the worst possible time.” market rates” ditionally would leave for the suburbs.
people through.” The homes are designed to offer
Tenants union Living Rent said the qualities that typically wouldn’t be
move is a “huge step in the right direc- affordable in inner-city apartments,
tion”, but sounded a note of caution. such as high ceilings, large windows and
“The devil will be in the detail and access to outdoor space. The building is
it is important that this rent freeze also low on energy consumption.
applies across the board,” said Living “These are highly sustainable terrace
Rent secretary Meg Bishop. homes in an engaged community, at a
“But this rent freeze is a great emer- relatively affordable price, with super-
gency response, and will need to stay low running costs and without the con-
in place until the Scottish govern- stant demands for maintenance and
ment brings in proper rent controls poor thermal performance of typical
that push rents down.” terrace houses,” said the architects.
7
From 12 September 2022
IN PICTURES
A UNIQUE VIEW
OF LONDON
Every year an art
project puts 100
single-use cameras in
the hands of 100
people affected by
homelessness and
sets them loose in
London – these shots
are this year’s striking
result (right). Charity
Café Art turns the
resulting photos into
the annual calendar,
which is sold on
London’s streets and
markets with an
identical model to The
Big Issue – for each
one sold, half of the
£12 cover price goes
to the vendor.
Maurice Woolger
from Shepherd’s Bush
was among the 100
people who received
a camera at St Paul’s
Cathedral on July 6.
The 50-year-old’s
snap of Battersea
Power Station made it
into the final calendar.
He said: “It would
be easy for people to
try and get photos of
aspects of homeless -
ness or what they’ve
been exposed to in
London from their
own experiences.
But this project is
about being more
positive than that.”
To support Café Art
and bag yourself a HIGH COURT
2023 calendar head Former Children’s Laureate Michael Rosen slams
to cafeart.org.uk
Rwanda deportation plans, likening the fight to
‘legal’ arguments used during the Holocaust
S
H
T The government was at the High pean-wide, worldwide consensus The case, brought by the PCS
FI
F
RI Court in London last week seeking to about refugees.” union of civil servants, and charities
G
E
NI win its fight to send asylum seekers to Liz Truss has promised to continue Detention Action and Care4Calais, is
A
H
EP Rwanda. And for much-loved poet, – and extend – the government’s con- an attempt to challenge the legality of
T
S
B / children’s author and activist Michael troversial plan to fly asylum seekers the policy.
A
K
M Rosen, it conjured memories of the to Rwanda. Rosen spoke alongside former
RI
KA grim fate of his family members. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, as well
A /
N As a case to stop the scheme rum- as Labour MPs Richard Burgon and
LE Rosen said at the
MI bled on inside, Rosen, who joined Bell Ribeiro-Addy, as more than 100
E / protest: “There will
TL protesters outside the court, spoke always be people that people gathered outside the court.
T
N LI of how his family members were will try to relive the With counter-protesters trying to
O
R 1930s and 1940s”
A ‘legally’ deported to Auschwitz during disrupt the rally, Rosen drew on an
A
R;
A the Holocaust. analogy for the need to be vigilant
K
R
DO “Quite often it’s talked about in against prejudice and anti-immigrant
N
A
H terms of legality. My relatives were sentiment
C
A
Y deported legally – sometimes you “It takes different twists each time.
E
R
T
AI have to challenge the law,” he said. It’s like Morph, it keeps changing
M
S: “What the Tories are doing is shape, you have to identify it the next
O
T
O
H reneging on a deal that was a Euro- time you see it.”
P
8 / THE DISPATCH bigissue.com
OPINION ARTS TRENDING
‘Our greatest wish is for ‘FESTIVAL OF Do I Wanna
BREXIT’
our help not to be needed’ COUNTS THE Know?
COST OF
POLITICISING ART Apparently so!
Diary of a foodbank 66M
Sabine Goodwin, co-ordinator of the Independent Food Aid Network
visitors promised
When I heard about plans for The government has taken bold When the biggest band in the coun-

National Food Bank Day (September steps before. At the start of the pan- 238,000 try returns after a four-year hiatus, you
2), happening as our country’s poverty demic, it introduced a clear, cash-first can expect a lot of interest. So when
crisis reaches new depths, my immedi- measure to help people, increasing The Big Issue carried a world exclusive
ate thought was one of despair. Universal Credit by £20 a week. visitors attended interview with the band, and details on
Foodbank teams have worked tire- The Department for Work and the new Arctic Monkeys record The
Unboxed, the arts
lessly to support people faced with Pension’s own evidence demonstrates Car it marked quite the week. Over
festival coined as the
hunger, but their greatest wish is for increasing people’s income works. It’s ‘Festival of Brexit’ by 100,000 people went to bigissue.com
their help not to be needed. Despite hardly rocket science, but making sure Jacob Rees-Mogg, to read what Alex Turner had to say
the best efforts of countless campaign- people’s incomes keep pace with their has suffered thanks to about the new album, and his interview
its political tag.
ers to ensure raising income is the first costs helps them put food on the table. with Line of Duty star Martin Comp-
Political journal The
response to food poverty, the normal- The DWP Family Resources Survey ston was picked up by news outlets and
House revealed the
isation of foodbanks in the UK feels saw a 16 per cent drop in food insecu- £120 million event music press around the world.
closer than ever. rity in households on Universal Credit announced by Fans from Manchester to Mexico
Theresa May in 2018
But is it? Can we be hopeful that, as in the year following the £20 increase. flocked to get their hands on a copy,
has pulled in 238,000
poverty-induced catastrophe unfolds, Food aid workers and volunteers with our online shop seeing huge
visitors to its four
much needed changes to our social are caught in an impossible, paradox- events, well shy of global interest. Hundreds of thousands
security system and work practices will ical position and they’re exhausted, organisers’ ‘stretch of fans also saw our tweets, praising the
finally come? overstretched, and demoralised in the target’ of 66 million. band for working with The Big Issue
Unboxed’s chief
National Food Bank Day was initi- face of rising demand. They can’t go on again and sharing photos of themselves
creative officer Martin
ated by “the world’s first foodbank” in strike as people would go hungry but with their – multiple – copies of the
Green blamed the
Phoenix, Arizona. Reaching its 55th they’re resisting the normalisation of association with magazine bought from vendors.
anniversary and supporting 150,000 charitable food aid in the UK nonethe- Brexit despite efforts
to downplay the
families in August this year, it’s clear less. Momentum is building.
connection, saying
the mission “to end hunger in Arizona” As the stark reality of escalating
“Rule number one of
is not imminent in its completion. poverty grows, the inevitable is hap- major events: don’t
Our society’s descent into food pening. Food aid providers are run- politicise them.”
poverty acquiescence over the last 12 ning out of road. However incredible
Above: PoliNations
years is all too plain to see. Times have and heartening the efforts of volunteers
by Trigger
been changing, however. The Inde- to stave off hunger in our communities
pendent Food Aid Network (IFAN), are, the ultimate goal means National
alongside the Trussell Trust and Food Bank Day will have taken its place
many other anti-poverty charities, has in the history books.
been calling for years for cash-first or
income-based solutions. foodaidnetwork.org.uk
HEALTH
“Which GP would accept a man or a woman
walking in, saying ‘the woman who smells
Parkinson’s has told me I have it’?
Maybe in the future, but not now.”
Joy Milne has become known as the ‘woman who smells Parkinson’s’ after she
from Perth, Scotland, has a heightened sense of smell due to a rare
condition, and has worked with academics for a decade after she noticed
her late husband Les changed odour before his diagnosis. You can still find it at bigissue.com
9
From 12 September 2022
ROUGH SLEEPING
Homelessness Reduction Act with
We finally have the long-awaited
the backing of £316m to prevent
homelessness during 2022-23. It was
government plan to end rough
research from the Big Issue’s Stop
Mass Homelessness campaign that
sleeping in England. Here are
influenced the funding.
There is also a welcome focus
6 things we learned leafing
on preventing prison leavers and
young people from falling into street
through its 120 pages
homelessness too.

5WILL THE HOMES
BE DELIVERED?
There are plenty of promises of build-
ing affordable homes in the strategy,
most notably the 180,000 new homes
We must be
It was almost three years ago that as part of the Affordable Housing
realistic that the
Boris Johnson was elected on the Programme.
Conservative manifesto that promised cost-of-living But with record house prices and
to end rough sleeping by 2024. Only rent prices thanks in part to a shortage
crisis is going
now, as he hands over to Liz Truss, do of supply, that might be little comfort
to force more
we have the plan to do it. to people who are struggling to keep a
The 120-page strategy prom- people into roof above their head.
ises £500 million in spending on Time will tell whether those homes
homelessness
the Rough Sleeping Initiative over are delivered, delivered, delivered, as
the next three years to provide Liz Truss might put it.
14,000 beds for rough sleepers and
6 THE COST-OF-LIVING CRISIS IS
fund 3,000 staff to provide sup-
THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM
port alongside an extra 2,400
long-term supported homes.
Rough sleeping minister Eddie There are just five mentions of the
Hughes said: “We’re making great cost of living in the 120 pages, mostly
progress and this strategy is a hugely The caveat to this is that the accu- in relation to what the government has
important step towards ending rough racy of the official rough sleeping previously announced.
sleeping for good.” count is often questioned. The Lon- As Rick Henderson, chief executive
don CHAIN figures – which are con- of Homeless Link, puts it: “We must
sidered more accurate – showed a be realistic that the cost-of-living cri-
1 WE FINALLY HAVE A DEFINITION OF
more alarming picture: a 10 per cent sis is going to force more people into
WHAT ENDING ROUGH SLEEPING
rise in the number of people sleeping homelessness.”
ACTUALLY MEANS
rough between April and June. Wider cost-of-living support will
be necessary to prevent rough sleep-
3 THE POLITICAL WILL MIGHT
On the face of it, ending rough sleep- ing. In the meantime, there are things
JUST BE THERE
ing is incredibly unlikely – there will the government can do, such as
always be someone who suffers a rela- unfreezing housing benefit to reflect
tionship breakdown or ends up on the Political will is often cited as a bar- rents as Crisis and Shelter have urged,
streets at short notice. rier to tackling street homelessness and following Nicola Sturgeon’s lead in
The strategy lays out a “clear and and one of the things that came out of freezing rents.
defined vision” of what the govern- the pandemic is the acknowledgement
ment means, namely “that it is pre- that joined-up working is a must.
vented wherever possible, and where It’s one of the four prongs that

it does occur it is rare, brief and the government is citing as crucial to
non-recurring”. achieving its target. As if to underline
N
O
DS the point, the foreword of the report
FJU 2 BECOMING A is penned by eight of (Boris Johnson’s)
F
R/CLI WORLD LEADER former cabinet ministers.
K
C
LI
RIN; F The strategy starts out with a bold 4 THERE IS A MUCH-NEEDED
A OG declaration: “We want this country FOCUS ON PREVENTION
TJ
A to be a world leader in its approach to
K
O;
OT ending rough sleeping.” The Everyone In scheme showed
H
P
K That’s based on the official rough rough sleepers could be provided shel-
C
O
ST sleeping snapshot figures that show ter at the drop of a hat in the pandemic
Y
M
A there were four people sleeping rough but the cost-of-living crisis is showing
L
A
T / on a single night in autumn 2021 for that stopping others from taking their
T
WA every 100,000 people in England, place is just as important.
S
CHRI compared to three people per The government has prom- ‘Well I’ve seen a new Tory leader quicker than my GP’
S: 100,000 in world leaders South Korea ised a “prevention first” approach.
O
T
O
H and Japan. That means fully embedding the
P