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I S S U E # 1 4 6 3 | F R O M 2 4 M AY 2 0 2 1

ALSO INSIDE BUILDING A BETTER FUTURE The Big Issue Bill shaking up Parliament FEAR AND CONFUSION Eyewitnesses under bombardment in Israel and Gaza

£3

WHO’S A GOOD BOY? The story behind the really bad pet portraits raising a fortune to fight homelessness

CONTENTS If you can’t buy direct from a vendor – or would like to bigissue.com to subscribe

P46

Hello, my name is Josh After years on the streets I finally have a roof over my head.

Find out how it happened on page 46.

INSIDE NEWS P04 SMART INKING

Big Issue vendor Slavi’s turn in the magazine has led to portrait commissions from across the UK as well as a sale closer to home

P08 MONEY MATTERS There’s a range of apps to help you keep on top of your finances.

As part of our Ride Out Recession Alliance we profile the best ones

P10 COVER FEATURE

Badly drawn boys and girls – the rubbish pet portraits that have raised thousands to help in the fight against homelessness

P15 FACT/FICTION

Will it really cost £50bn to fix Britain’s scandalous cladding problem? We crunch the numbers

FEATURES P18 LETTER TO MY YOUNGER SELF

She produces moments of comedy gold, but The Thick of It’s Joanna Scanlan is still surprised when people want to work with her FROM 24 MAY 2021

P20 TULSA MASSACRE

P32

P36

P26

P15

A century on, the worst single incident of racial violence in US history is still little known

P25 WHITE JESUS

And the broader issue of the whitewashing of Christian faith in general

P26 ANNE BOLEYN

A new drama on the ill-fated queen shows it can be good to deviate from fact in fiction

P28 GAZA/ISRAEL

Two ordinary people from either side of the divide give voice to millions living in fear

CULTURE P32 BOOKS

The bond formed between Gurkhas in Afghanistan – and why it becomes unbreakable

P36 INTERVIEW

Christopher Eccleston is back in the Time Lord role for four new audio adventures BIGISSUE.COM | 03

news.

VENDOR SLAVI’S AT THE ART OF THE COMMUNITY A talented Big Issue vendor who recently appeared in the magazine explaining the process he uses for creating art has been rewarded with commissions from across the country.

Keen artist Slavi Slavov appeared as a Vendor Expert back in March offering tips on how to create portraits, pastels and paintings.

Soon afterwards he was delighted to receive emails from as far afield as Canterbury and Newcastle asking him to create some bespoke art.

“It was so exciting, I just couldn’t believe it,” he said. “I appreciate everything and it’s really great. The people are lovely. We just emailed each other, they sent me a picture, I did my work in a couple of days and I sent it back to them.”

Slavi (pictured left) sells The Big Issue in Aberystwyth in Wales, but in his younger days he spent a year in art school in Sofia, Bulgaria. He couldn’t afford to study for longer but the love of drawing and painting never left him.

And it’s not only people and landscapes he can turn his hand to.

One of the commissions was from a woman who wanted a portrait of her guinea pigs (pictured top right).

“There were five of them and I did it in pastel on really good paper,” Slavi said. “I told her it’s 15 quid and she said, no way! I said yeah, yeah. That’s 15 quid. But she sent me £37.50. She paid the post and she doubled the money that I asked for. It’s amazing.”

One of his paintings to appear in the magazine, Reflections, was a street scene from the window of Caffe Nero in Carmarthen. The manager of the coffee shop has now bought the picture and plans to hang it in the café for customers to enjoy.

“She gave me £100 but I gave back £20,” Slavi said. “I don’t think about money, I’m so pleased to give somebody something. I feel useful.”

Picture this Some of vendor Slavi’s varied collection of bespoke art

To contact him about buying his art email ss.slav.7@gmail.com 04 | BIGISSUE.COM

FROM 24 MAY 2021

FUTURE GENERATIONS BILL KICKS OFF JOURNEY INTO LAW Big Issue founder Lord John Bird has begun a new bid to bring his vital Wellbeing of Future Generations Bill through Parliament and into law.

At a moment when Westminster needs long-term planning more t t legislation aims to ensure all non-devolved public bodies, including the UK government, work to national wellbeing goals to improve people’s lives across the country and prevent short-term decision-making on big issues like pover y and climate change.

This time around the bill has the advantage of being drawn first in the Private Member’s Bill ballot, making it a priority during limited debate time in the Lords. As a result it received its first reading last week to begin its journey to becoming law.

Lord Bird said: “I am thrilled that my Wellbeing of Future Generations Bill came first in the ballot in the Lords. This should give it the best chance of success this year. Thanks so much to the organisations, businesses, individuals and young people from across the country who have supported the bill so far. We are at a pivotal point now, so watch this space!”

The Wellbeing of Future Generations Bill was first introduced into the House of Lords in October 2019 but the last general election curbed it ter restarting in the Commons in March 2020 the pandemic put Private Member’s Bills on hold until the recent Queen’s Speech, but the new parliamentary

Private Member’s Bills are proposed laws introduced by an MP or peer from outside of government – but very few make it into law without government support. They can start in either the House of Commons or House of Lords but must go through both houses and clear five stages of scrutiny to clear each house. The first reading just requires the member in charge to read the bill’s long title before MPs or peers get a chance to debate the bill and suggest amendments at the second reading.

Future signs Lord Bird’s bill has had its first reading

session paved the way for the bill to be reintroduced in Westminster.

The bill’s goals remain unchanged. Lord Bird is calling for a ‘future generations test’ for all new policy changes as well as a Joint Committee on Future Generations in Parliament to ensure public bodies hit wellbeing targets.

Legislation in Wales requiring 44 public bodies to improve economic, social, environmental and cultural wellbeing inspired the bill. Lord Bird’s version aims to create a commission, rather than a singular commissioner in Wales, to examine decisions and have more legal power to force changes than the Welsh Act provides.

The peer is not the only one looking to place greater emphasis on wellbeing. Grassroots activists at Wellbeing Economics Brighton have launched a parliamentary petition calling on the UK government to pursue a wellbeing economy approach rather than “fixating on short-term profit and growth” and has amassed more than 16,000 signatures.

The committee stage follows, with a detailed line-by-line analysis of the written bill. The report stage is next where the bill is discussed further and reprinted to include all amendments. The third reading is the final stage, allowing MPs and peers one last chance to debate and amend the bill. If the bill passes all these stages it must then repeat them in the other house. Both houses must be in agreement before the Queen can give the legislation royal assent to make it law.

Universal Basic Income put to the test In The Big Issue’s recent Future of Work special, we asked campaigners if now was the time to test out a Universal Basic Income – the new Welsh Government were clearly reading.

Re-elected First Minister Mark Drakeford opened the door to “new and progressive ideas” including a UBI in his Senedd acceptance speech, before tasking minister for social justice Jane ting a pilot.

Hutt wit A Welsh Government spokesperson told The Big Issue: “We have followed the progress of Universal Basic Income pilot projects around the world with interest and believe there is an opportunity to test the concept in Wales.

“There is more work to be done in this area but we are interested in developing a small pilot, potentially involving people leaving care.”

But the news has done little to move the UK government on a UBI. Chancellor Rishi Sunak has rejected the idea throughout the pandemic and Work and Pensions Secretary Thérèse Co�fey doubled down last week. ter Swansea West MP Geraint Davies quizzed her in the Commons last week, Co�fey said: “My favourite question on UBI. The answer is no.”

Don’t forget to vote Big Issue!

The Big Issue’s homage to Manchester United hero and food poverty battler Marcus Rashford has been shortlisted for the Professional Publishers Association’s Cover of the Year award – and we need your help to come out on top.

Votes can be cast daily at ppacovero�theyear.co.uk – tell your friends and family to vote Big Issue!

Support the bill by emailing your MP to ask them to attend the virtual parliamentary reception on Wednesday June 30. Find out more at bigissue.com/today-for-tomorrow/

FROM 24 MAY 2021

BIGISSUE.COM | 05

platform.

Your views on the big issues

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL VENDOR VENDORS Following a long lockdown, vendors in England, Scotland and Wales are back out selling the magazine. Please continue to support them.

SUBSCRIPTIONS AND SHOPS

Since the first lockdown in March last year, we have supported our vendors with more than £1m of financial assistance to make up for lost sales. We still need your help to make sure we can continue to support them through uncertain times.

HOW YOU CAN HELP 1. If your local vendor is selling The Big Issue, please buy from them.

Vendors buy magazines for £1.50 and sell for £3, keeping the difference and working their way out of poverty.

2. If you cannot buy from a vendor, subscriptions to the magazine are available on a three, six or 12-month basis with a new edition delivered to your door each week. Visit subs.bigissue.com to find out more.

Digital subscriptions can be purchased via The Big Issue UK app.

3. Retailers including the Co-op and Sainsbury’s are also stocking The Big Issue in many branches.

Every copy bought, whether via a subscription, a shop or through our app, makes a difference.

GET IN TOUCH letters@bigissue.com

@bigissue

For the love of Bob To celebrate Bob Dylan’s 80th birthday we put together an alternative list of the 80 best Dylan songs – listen at spoti.fi/3bi4vBG

Readers responsed to the choices...

Titus Kojder Brownsville Girl at number one! Good list! @wingedmarsupial What? No room for When the Night Comes Falling From the Sky (Alternate Take) from Bootleg Series Vol 1-3? @TruesdellJYoung This is a great list, though in my opinion Emotionally Yours has no business among such august company (but I’m perfectly happy to go along with the out-of-the-box inclusion of Diamonds & Rust). Insightful & wide-ranging.

I knew it was going to be a fun read when it started with Tweeter and The Monkey Man. Tom Joens The Groom’s Still Waiting at the Altar and Clean Cut Kid are two Dylan songs that don’t get their due!

06 | BIGISSUE.COM

@Alastair_J_Reid Now my default 80th playlist!

Martin Richards That’s a pretty good list. I would have included Shot of Love (the title track), and Band of the Hand, taken from a film I don’t think many people rated and which I have never seen – but the song, which may not be his most poetic, has a groove. Had it existed at the time, it would have sat comfortably on Street-Legal in that respect. Again, had it existed at the time, it would have fitted well as a cover version by the Stones, on Goats Head Soup or Black and Blue.

@NaDawson1979 Good to see Born in Time getting some love.

Kieran Flood Some great stuff on there, reminds me that listening to Bob every day isn’t enough! I need to listen more...

letters@bigissue.com

Holy trinity

To fnd out more visit bigissue.com/support

@bigissueuk

DYLAN AT 80

Wendell Evans What, no Gates of Eden? ck #BigIssueIsBa

/bigissueUK

I usually buy my Big Issue either in my local town of King’s Lynn or nearby city of Cambridge.

I was, therefore delighted to see my ‘local Cambridge vendor’ featured in the 1457 – ‘We’re Back!’ Edition [April 12]. Page 25, bottom of!

When buying my copy in Cambridge, Trinity Street, Eamonn Kelly and I often have a chat and laugh together, and I wish him well; I hope his worthwhile goals in life are fulfilled. Good luck, thanks, and all the best to the Big Issue vendors, here, there and everywhere!

Andy Tyler, King’s Lynn

Labouring badly

The catastrophic local elections – stunned is not the word! How on earth had Labour become so detached from the very people it vows to represent, that it completely missed the very essence of what the people wanted!

Hartlepool and many others fell like the proverbial dominos. I don’t want to add fuel to the “who needs to lead Labour” debate, however this reality check must not go unheeded.

AC Zacharski, email

FROM 24 MAY 2021

@bigissue

EDITOR'S LETTER

@AlisonMBailey There is a lovely lady in #Salisbury who stands on the corner where Old George Mall meets the High Street. (I didn’t ask her name, sorry.) My son was in town and wanted to buy the @BigIssue because he knows I like it (it really is very good). But he’s never bought it before. He only had a pound on him. The lovely lady insisted he take one for free, even though I know it cost her some of her income to do that. I want to do something nice in return. I thought how wonderful it would be if lots and lots of people in Salisbury all decided to buy a copy. @JonathanRees_ Thanks for this @mrjamesoband @BigIssue. More needs to said about Boarding School syndrome and its impact, as well as the benefits of therapy. @DrCarolHomden Honest and touching insight from @mrjamesob reminds us to remind ourselves of the sources of love and support in our lives and to cherish them no matter what. @Laurenrbrown95 Please, please go and speak to the amazing @BigIssue vendor stationed on the corner by the Round Church [in Cambridge].

He’s full of the joys of spring this morning and excitedly asking every single passerby if they’re on the way to the pub. @SharonGChiara Great piece in latest @BigIssue showcasing photographic work of @marybethmeehan depicting the vast di�ferences in experiences, lives and livelihoods in Silicon Valley. Well worth a look and a read. @KnollysSamantha @IanWright0 & @BigIssue thanks for the amazing Letter to my Younger Self. Raw, honest #inspiration #teaching @Fifibroom Good TV programme on the e�fects of domestic violence and abuse on children. Ian Wright is a hero for speaking about this.

on at Join the conversati

bigissue.com

Top stories this week Reaction to John Bird’s Future Generations Bill as it g its first reading in Parliament Personal stories of how people living with dementia and their carers coped during lockdown Billie Piper on overcomi the odds to forge a stellar acting career How the UK is sending tonnes of recycled plastic to be burned overseas

FROM 24 MAY 2021

Find your nearest vendor on our interactive map – and take out a subscription from them too!

defiance tactics

R

emember when Donald Trump threatened to ban TikTok in the US? That feels like a very long time from now. But it was less than a year ago.

Trump was angry at the growing power and in luence of the Chinese and decided that banning the Chinese-owned TikTok would show them what’s what. There were moves to find an American buyer for the app, but in the end the ban was ruled unlawful by a federal judge and the story passed.

It turns out that the move against TikTok came from Nick Clegg. The former deputy PM is now vice president of global a�fairs at Facebook. When Mark Zuckerberg was looking for a way to counter TikTok’s rise it was, reports The Sunday Times, “a Nick-inspired thing” to have Zuckerberg use Trump.

Ironically, Clegg also championed the idea of the Facebook oversight board to bring accountability to the company. It was this oversight board that voted to keep Trump o�f Facebook for another six months, pending a further review.

The longer he is o�f it, the trickier it becomes to mobilise again.

It’s a much more domestic, and divisive, Clegg initiative that could be about to cause serious ructions closer to home.

Nick Clegg wheeled in the university course fee rise. He had pledged not to. But in 2012 he did. He apologised, but they still tripled to more than £9,000 a year.

The arguments over lumbering students with the debt have been played out due to the tapered repayment structure, though it’s still debated whether or not poorer students are more likely to see university as a positive option because they aren’t faced with upfront costs.

The other clear positive is that the fees bring vital income to universities to help them keep existing.

But there is a structural problem coming because of Covid.

A number of universities announced this week they’d still be teaching next semester using online resources rather than in-person. And already students are asking if in England everything else is due to open and remove distancing at the end of June, why aren’t universities? It’s a legitimate question.

We’re seeing rising levels of unrest among students over accommodation costs. Some courses in the current academic year were moved online, but students were still billed for halls of residence they have no reason to remain in. A rent strike in Bristol brought about a 25 per cent rebate. Students are holding o�f for 30 per cent. As we reported last week, the university is now threatening to send in the baili�fs, an incredible thing to do to their own students.

There has been an understanding from students over the fees issues this year as the world was disrupted. But it’s di�ficult to see that extending. If you create a marketplace, and give it another name if you fancy, people will want to receive value for money. And if they feel that remote learning for over £9,000 a year is not what they consider value for money, there will be consequences. It’s not hard to envisage things getting messy.

Wonder if we could get a ‘Nick-inspired thing’ to sort this.

Paul McNamee is editor of The Big Issue Paul.McNamee@bigissue.com @PauldMcNamee BIGISSUE.COM | 07

RIDE OUT RECESSION ALLIANCE: FIGHTING TO KEEP PEOPLE IN WORK AND IN HOMES

APPY GO LUCKY

TURN2US

turn2us.org.uk There are also many grants available to support those in financial di�ficulty, but it can be hard to know where to find them, and you can face a lengthy wait to receive the money. Turn2Us has a new digital grants delivery platform to speed up the process.

Thomas Lawson, chief executive of Turn2Us, says this rapid response to the many challenging and di�ficult personal income shocks of the Covid-19 pandemic will enable people in financial hardship to cope more quickly and e�fectively. “Through the new platform, individuals requiring financial support can apply and be verified online with a few streamlined, one-stop steps. Once approved, payment can be received within a day,” This will also, they hope, allow all grant providers to scale up and help even more people.

An array of digital money management tools have come online just as the pandemic is leaving many people worried about their finances.

Laura Whateley explains how these handy sites can help What has the pandemic meant for your personal finances? Some people have never felt richer, unable to spend their earnings – the money normally haemorrhaged on rounds of drinks, foreign travel, smart clothes for the bottom half of your body – quickly enough.

The Bank of England reported earlier this year that households were paying down credit card debts in record numbers, using the opportunity of less social pressure to spend to get on top of their bills.

But this is only a small part of the Covid money picture.

There are still more than four million people on furlough, unsure if their jobs will return. Particular groups, including young people, the low-paid, women who have had to homeschool and care for relatives, and those nearer retirement, forced out of work in disproportionate numbers, have seen their savings dissipate, and are facing a financially uncertain future.

Debt charities say they’ve seen a change in the demographic of those using their services in recent months – people who have never claimed benefits, been in financial di�ficulty or owed money before.

As we emerge from lockdown, and the usual cost of living picks up, along with pressures and temptations to spend, there is a need for new ways to help us manage our money.

There is a growing number of apps and tools, which have been launched during the pandemic, to make this easier.

08 | BIGISSUE.COM

Nesta, the innovation foundation, which has been collaborating with The Big Issue’s Ride Out Recession Alliance to support more people to become financially resilient in the wake of Covid, has pledged to support the one million people hardest hit by the economic shock by 2023, through funding innovative tools and online services.

Its innovator finalists, announced this month as part of the £3m Rapid Recovery Challenge, in partnership with DWP, JPMorgan Chase Foundation and Money and Pensions Service, aim to support the financial security and job prospects of low-paid workers, people in insecure roles and those under 25.

Here are how they, and some of our other favourite money management apps, can help you:

INCOMEMAX

incomemax.org.uk Millions of people miss out on benefits each year, things that they are entitled to but don’t realise or know about such as Universal Credit, council tax support or help with utility bills.

IncomeMax digital, which says many essential funds for families with children, disabilities and caring responsibilities also go unclaimed, o�fers a way to quickly check what you’re entitled to with support from a trained expert to guide you through the process, and manage your debt, too.

It prides itself on being “human-centred”: you can choose how you speak to the expert. That may be through a messaging service if you’re busy at work or looking a�ter kids, or you can schedule a phone call.

You can also log into your IncomeMax account to see all your saved conversations, advice and links in one place.

FROM 24 MAY 2021

Laura Whateley is The Big Issue’s RORA correspondent. Contact her with questions, concerns and ideas at laura.whateley@bigissue.com @LWhateley

STARLING ACCOUNT AND CONNECTED CARDS starlingbank.com As well as a current account, the digital bank Starling is also a great budgeting tool, categorising all your spending so you can see exactly where your money goes. It features a virtual piggy bank and lets you set savings aside at a tap, as soon as they land in your account. Handy if your normal saving technique is “see what’s le�t at the end of the month”.

During lockdown it became one of the first banks to introduce “connected cards”, allowing you to give someone else access to your bank account without any risk of fraud.

You get a second debit card for a trusted person, friends, a neighbour, childminder or NHS worker, that enables them to go to the supermarket or chemist, or buy things for you or your kids without having to hand over your PIN. The money comes out of a designated space that you set up, and is capped at £200 a time.

HASTEE PAY hastee.com Hastee says that Covid-19 has had a devastating impact on workers, with 63 per cent relying on high-cost credit between paydays in 2020.

Its founder James Herbert started the business a�ter noticing sta�f in his previous venture, a hospitality sta�fing recruitment business, were turning down jobs because they didn’t have enough cash to pay for a train journey to get to them, even though they were due to be paid within a few days.

He saw an opportunity to restructure the way people receive their wages, an alternative to costly payday loans. Hastee allows you to withdraw some of your earnings early, before you o�ficially receive them, breaking what it calls “the outdated monthly pay-cycle that forces many into debt and financial stress”.

It is using the grant money from Nesta to launch a bespoke financial education platform, free for all 16 to 24-year olds for a year, and make its earnings on demand accessible to an additional 97,000 people.

YOLT yolt.com Yolt helps you analyse what’s really going on with your finances by connecting all your bank accounts, credit cards and bills so you can get a holistic picture in one place. It will also alert you to any upcoming payments so you don’t go overdrawn and helps you switch your bills to better deals.

During the pandemic, it has updated its app to encourage people to save more, a�ter finding that 6.6 million people in the UK have nothing set aside for a rainy day.

Now, there’s a new pre-paid debit card that you can use for shopping and saving, also o�fering cashback. Every time you use the card your purchases are rounded up to the nearest pound (or more, you can choose) and the di�ference is saved in a virtual money jar to make it easier to build an emergency fund.

FROM 24 MAY 2021

THE BIG ISSUE TOOLKIT If you’re looking for work, we’ll help you keep up to date with new job and training opportunities. Find out more at bigissue.com/jobs-training

JOBS HELPLINE 0204 534 2810* *Calls to the helpline will be billed at local rates from landlines. Mobile phone providers may charge. Check with your provider for details.

BIGISSUE.COM | 09

the big picture.

PET PIC BOY Lockdown brought out the best and worst in people. For Phil Heckels from Worthing, his best intentions were equalled only by his awful artistic skills.

During lockdown, attempting to encourage his six-year-old son Sam to pick up some pencils instead of playing computer games, Heckels decided to draw their dog Nala. The result was rubbish – so bad in fact Heckels shared it on Facebook, jokily o�fering his services: “Just send me a photo and I can produce a unique and wonderful piece of art that will grace any home and make the memories of your furry friends last a lifetime.” Amazingly, he got six commissions straight away.

Heckels – who gave himself a pretentious sounding nom de plume, Hercule Van Wolfwinkle – explains: “Two days later my portrait requests were into double figures and I was beginning to receive friend requests from people I didn’t know, asking for pictures. By day three, I had a waiting list of over 20 people, so to see how far the joke might go, I set up the Facebook page ‘Pet Portraits By Hercule’.”

Though Hercule may be cheeky, he certainly didn’t have the nerve to charge for artworks. Instead in October he set up a Just Giving fundraiser for homeless charity Turning Tides and began raising hundreds, then thousands of pounds.

“There’s the old saying, ‘Charity begins at home’, and homelessness is an issue that it is quite literally on our doorsteps,” Heckels/Hercule says. “But not only does charity begin at home, EVERYTHING begins at home ... with a home.”

So far, rubbish pet portraits have raised a staggering £75,000 and that figure is set to increase with the publication of a book collecting Hercule’s masterpieces together. For your delight, we share some of them here, with Hercule’s thoughts on each.

Rubbish Pet Portraits by Hercule Van Wolfwinkle is out on May 27

10 | BIGISSUE.COM

FROM 24 MAY 2021

“I’ve had to use all of my artistry to imagine what a Chihuahua would look like without a Dentastix in its mouth.

I think I’ve nailed it.”

“This is the lovely Marley, who looks extremely dashing in his wellies. Sadly, Marley is no longer with us, and I really wanted to do his family proud with this one.”

Owner review: “We really miss Marley. If I ever think I might be forgetting what he looked like, I can gaze at your portrait and know it was nothing like that.”

FROM 24 MAY 2021

“I loved drawing this handsome chap. And what a clever boy he is; apparently he can balance that ball on his head for about 20 minutes.”

BIGISSUE.COM | 11

“This mischievous-looking creature belongs to Allie Jane. I don’t know what his name is but I’ve been calling him Leonardo Caprichos. Leo likes pouncing at the milkman, chasing vans and mooching around the charity shops.”

“I’ve named this pooch Cassius Stay. I couldn’t draw this in my usual ultrarealistic style as I had to put a pair of pants on him.

I mean, I’m no vet, but I’m assuming he’s a boy.”

FROM 24 MAY 2021

“This beautiful cat belongs to Joanna. I’ve named her Olivia Ovaltine. Ms Ovaltine is no stranger to a bit of fame as she once appeared in the local newspaper at a protest about the closure of the public toilets.”

BIGISSUE.COM | 13

fact/fiction.

Will it cost £50bn to fix the cladding crisis?

Old news, truthfully retold

HOW IT WAS TOLD The nation will mark the fourth anniversary of the Grenfell Tower disaster in just a few weeks but still the row over who will pay to remove aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding shows no sign of reaching a conclusion.

The issue has been fiercely contested recently in Parliament. MPs and peers disagreed over how leaseholders will be protected during several debates over the Fire Safety Bill in the last parliamentary session.

And another fire at a London high-rise with ACM cladding, Poplar’s New Providence Wharf, put the question at the top of the news agenda once more.

But how much will it cost to help leaseholders remove the dangerous cladding? Around £50bn, according to reports in April. Construction Enquirer ran the story under the headline: “True cost of cladding crisis as high as £50bn”.

Other specialist titles PBC Today and Show House ran similar stories too.

The reports prompted a response from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, which tweeted: “There have been recent reports suggesting that our £5 billion investment in remediating unsafe buildings will only cover 10% of the total cost. This figure is unsubstantiated and the reports are unreliable and unhelpful.”

But what is the truth?

Illustration: Miles Cole

FACTS. CHECKED The fact is that the £50bn figure is an estimate and cannot be conclusively verified, but the government’s failure to show its own working on how it arrived at the £5bn figure means it cannot be trusted either.

Where does the £50bn figure come from? It is an estimate from East Midlands contractor Colmore Tang Construction.

The firm used prices for remedial projects on more than 20 typical developments in Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester to come up with the estimate. It found works cost around £4.65m for buildings above 18 metres in height and £2m for jobs between 11 metres and 18 metres.

No conclusive survey has been carried out to determine exactly how many buildings of all heights require work to remove ACM cladding. So Colmore Tang uses Government Building Safety Programme estimates of how many buildings need an EWS1 (External Wall System) certificate as well as remedial works.

This data shows 5,000 buildings over 18 metres needed the certificate, as well as 35,000 medium-sized buildings between 11 and 18 metres in height. That adds up to a cost of £25bn for the higher buildings and £70bn for the smaller ones. News reports stated that “given the paucity of information generally available and taking an optimistic view” the firm opted to halve their estimate to arrive at a £50bn figure plus VAT. This is a rough estimate based on first-hand experience of similar work so cannot be completely relied upon, but it does FROM 24 MAY 2021

WORTH give an idea of the scale of the problem. Colmore Tang are not the only ones who doubt the £5bn Building Safety Fund will be enough. Last June the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government estimated that addressing all fire safety defects in every high-risk residential building could potentially cost up to £15bn.

The committee’s report said: “If the government doesn’t provide additional funding, let us be clear: it means tens of thousands of residents sent massive bills for problems that aren’t their fault, and which, in many cases, will be a financial burden from which they will never recover.”

While the government may well have been right to criticise these stories, this was an opportunity to show its own arithmetic to clear up the debate and prevent more speculation from industry experts.

Ministers face increasing calls from leaseholders in homes with dangerous cladding to ensure they don’t foot the bill for the removal, leaving some at risk of financial ruin. A loans scheme to pay for the work on top of the fund is set to be included in the forthcoming Building Safety Bill, which was announced in the Queen’s Speech.

But one thing is certain: no one must be l t living in a dangerous home or pushed into homelessness by the costs of removing cladding once the crisis is over.

Words: Liam Geraghty @LGeraghty23

June 14 will mark the fourth anniversary of the Grenfell disaster 72 people died in the tragedy It not known exactly how many people lived in Grenfell Tower but it is thought 255 people escaped the blaze, according to the Metropolitan Police Is it safe to exercise with a face mask on?

Read all our Fact/ Fictions online at bigissue.com/tag/ fact-fiction/

BIGISSUE.COM | 15

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opinion.

JOHN BIRD

There’s no time like the present to create a better past

T

he past, the present and the future are like three di�ferent things. For instance like a hairbrush, a spinning top and a jar of marmalade.

Or that’s what you would think if you spoke to any practising politician whose immediate, continuous and permanent job is to win an election. They are stuck in the present and can only think of the future if it in some ways solves the eternal problem that they may be given the big elbow at the next election.

So you have this very pressing requirement if you are a full-time, elected professional politician. Your mind has to acclimatise to this very strange rearrangement of the world in a neurosis of feared rejection, in the same way that a youngster getting a job on a cross-channel ferry might have to get used to the swells and rough seas. Or maybe a trainee doctor to the sight of blood and pus or the smell of shit.

You have to find a way of accommodating competition for your seat, and at the same time get used to the temporariness of it all.

The past is everything that has ever happened. The present is everything that is happening. The future is everything that just might happen. And into this you have to factor in ensuring as well as you can that you have a future that involves you winning o�fice again.

Recently I spoke to a politician of a particularly impressive kind. She was part of the ‘new wave’: action-packed and devoted to her constituents. When I spoke about how I was going to bring a bill in the House of Lords that hopefully will go to the House of Commons, where she sat, and that it was called ‘The Wellbeing of Future Generations Bill’, she did not warm to the idea.

“How does it help my constituent who comes to me with a big problem now? Will the future help? Will the wellbeing of some later time stop her going through a meltdown now?”

This was not an MP shirking her responsibility. This was a committed MP who you could tell was sincerely there for her constituents.

“OK,” I said, “the reason your constituent might today have a big problem is because the previous incumbent of your job might not have done their job properly. For most problems, in fact all of them, come from the past.”

She looked at me and smiled.

“Let’s see if we can look at this Future Generations Bill then.”

And we le�t it at that. Some time later I will try and take the argument further.

I had got her to pause. To see that the past comes up to bite the world of today. And that we have to find a way of accommodating the past. We have in some sense to end the FROM 24 MAY 2021

Going in the right direction By focusing on the here and now, we can make sure the legacy we leave is a good one

dominance of the past over our current world. Or bad past practices dominating the current world order.

The Palestine-Israel fighting is not just about current disagreements. It’s about what was done in the past that keeps this problem reigniting. It wasn’t sorted out in the past so it’s likely to carry on presenting itself again and again. And o�ten, because it was not resolved some time back, each time it reappears it becomes more venomous on both sides.

The constituent who runs into a problem now may well have been nursing the problem for quite a time. It might have been small at some time. But the longer it is ignored, the deeper the damage. The longer the roof tile is le�t unrepaired, the more damage it does to the roof and the house.

The past should teach us to address the future in the here and now. Because the past was once a future, and it was then that the constituent’s problem was created, or then that the big issues of politics and history should have been sorted out.

The past, present and future are not di�ferent objects, as they are treated by politicians intent on surviving. They are �luid and they �low into each other, the past and present having once been a future. And the future will one day be a past.

So much of our past comes back to haunt us now. So much of our present is trying to cope with the past and its problems, whether it’s slavery, or sexist politicians, or homophobic TV programmes of former times.

The future generations legislation that we propose in the Wellbeing of Future Generations Bill will put dynamite under the accumulating bad practices that savage us later. That is the only sensible thing. We cannot keep projecting into the future the poor practices of the past, making us behave in a way that illustrates we were not conscious in the past of the demands that would be put upon us in the future.

This is all likely to turn into a rigmarole of classic proportions, for which forgive me. What I am saying is that there will come a time when we will have to create a di�ferent past that does not tread on and exploit the weak for our own advantage. And there is no better time to begin that new past than now, for the future. Which begins – yes: in the here and now.

John Bird is the founder and Editor in Chief of The Big Issue. @johnbirdswords linkedin.com/in/johnbirdswords john.bird@bigissue.com

THIS WEEK JOHN WILL BE READING: Migrants in the Profane: Critical Theory and the Question of Secularization

by Peter Gordon WATCHING: The movie The King of Staten Island

LISTENING TO: Songs of the Auvergne

by Joseph Canteloube CONTINUING: With his Ride Out Recession Alliance (RORA) campaign

BIGISSUE.COM | 17

letter to my younger self.

A

Joanna Scanlan

In the thick of a great acting career

I was very close to my grandparents. They lived very close to us when we were all growing up. I feel my grandparents’ presence in my life all the time, I feel them around me. My grandmother was a great cook. She was very sociable, very homely. She was somebody you could turn to, very warm. And my grandfather was very funny, he had a wonderful sense of humour. He adored his grandchildren, he spent a lot of time playing with us. They were level-headed, they were kind. My grandfather died when I was in my twenties, my grandmother just before I became 30. But the longer they’ve been gone the more connected to them I’ve felt.

2005

As Terri Coverley in The Thick of It with Peter Capaldi’s sharp-tongued Malcolm Tucker

Photo: Andy Paradise / © BBC / Everett Collection Inc / Alamy Stock Photo

With presenter Rick Edwards and Getting On co-stars Jo Brand and Vicki Pepperdine at the Women in Film and TV Awards Photo: Ian Gavan/Getty Images

2021 Starring in her latest movie After Love

18 | BIGISSUE.COM

I was always ambitious. To be an actor, that was my dream. I was a little bit torn because there was always a side of me which would have liked to stay in North Wales, and live and work on a farm and have animals.

But I felt like I was put on Earth to act. So I worked hard at it. As a child I did plays and pantomimes at school and I did all the associated board exams. It was a huge part of who I was, and I got up every morning and did it every day.

I’m not absolutely sure where I got that desire for acting from. One of my grandmothers was a very good singer at a semi-professional level. But I think her dreams had been thwarted by the lack of opportunity at that time for a woman and also a wife, a mother who wasn’t wealthy. And I spent a lot of time as a child with my uncle, who lived next door to a West End actress. I think that probably planted a kind of seed. But the thing I most remember is reading a Walter de la Mare poem in front of a few teachers at school when I was four and feeling like I had gone to a better place, like the poem was a place I wanted to be in. That is a bit dreamy, that idea of a fantasy kind of environment. But it was such a beautiful poem and I remember thinking, I’d like to spend my life in this.

2011

Photo: TCD/Prod.DB / Alamy Stock Photo

At 16 I was at a very pleasant girls’ boarding school in North Wales. I enjoyed that life, I had bags of fabulous friends – I’ve enjoyed friendship all through my life. Until I was 16 I always took it upon myself to stand up for what I saw as injustices, as very, very small as they were at that school. I would just break every possible rule I could, in order to get into trouble and get the punishment.

You had to stand in a place called the Death Trap, which was just a glass corridor, so everybody could see you had been naughty. It was a sort of shaming process, but I took it as a badge of honour. I was very, very naughty. Then when I got to 16, one day just I woke up and thought, I can’t be bothered to break a rule today. It’s too much like hard work. So I gave up being a naughty schoolgirl. And two years later I was made head girl. I turned from poacher to gamekeeper, on the grounds of exhaustion.

I think I still have a rebellious streak, but I’m pretty pragmatic about how to exercise it. I don’t see conformity as a good thing, but I’ve realised it’s really important to get along with as many people as you possibly can and to understand their points of view,

I was confident that I had talent, enough to sufficiently be able to give acting a good go. But I was not confdent that I had the temperament to be an actor, because it does require you to be able to handle a lot of knocks. Having said that, I would always work unprofessionally. I love working in community theatre; I believe that plays and performance is a healing experience for people. And an educative experience. So for me it’s not necessarily about earning a living. If I had to earn a living doing something else I would. But I would never give up.

I hit a major brick wall in my twenties. I think it was about not having the life skills required to support my adult life. Although my girls boarding school had been a very nice place to be, with my friendships and all the wonderful teaching we had and all the theatre and everything, I hadn’t grown up. I hadn’t worked out the basics about living an adult life. I was extremely naive. So I rushed headlong into relationships with boys which just broke my heart. I was like a Labrador puppy galloping towards the jaws of a crocodile. Curiosity took me into dangerous situations and places and experiences that I wasn’t equipped to handle at that point.

I’d tell my younger self, you need support. This isn’t something you can do alone.

I know this will sound ridiculous, but I think the thing that would surprise the younger me most about my life now – and it still surprises me every day – is that anybody would rate me and want to work with me. I know it FROM 24 MAY 2021

1977

THE YEAR JOANNA TURNS 16 • Jimmy Carter is sworn in as US president • Sex Pistols release their only studio album, Never Mind The Bollocks…

• Red Rum wins a record third Grand National

Photo: Justin Sutcliffe / eyevine

sounds silly because I should have enough evidence by now to prove that is the case. But every time somebody says, “Oh, would you like to do this?” or “We’d like to talk to you about that”, I’m like, really? Me? Maybe that Labrador puppy is still inside me somewhere. I’m still surprised every single day that I’m allowed to join the club and play the game.

I don’t watch anything that I’m in. I watch the screening they put on for the actors and the crew but otherwise I would never put it on purposefully. Sometimes I get my husband to watch it for me and tell me how it went, because I’m interested to know whether it works or not. But I really find it hard to watch. And I’ve never been particularly motivated by applause. When I do theatre, I’d much rather not do a curtain call. I’d really rather hide my head in shame.

I was especially delighted with Getting On [the BBC Four comedy set in a geriatric ward she created with Jo Brand and Vicki Pepperdine]. I’ve got a friend who’s training to be a nurse at the moment and we’re still talking about the plotlines because they’re still really relevant. I mean, our first episode is all about infection control! And also, you realise as you get older, that so much of what constituted our lives as young people is no longer relevant to the new young people. I’m sort of shocked by that, I’m still trying to learn, what’s the new world like? It’s a shock to get old. One of the main messages of Getting On was about respecting older people who no longer seem to have any relevance, who are regarded as ‘past it’, and remembering they were once young just like you.

FROM 24 MAY 2021

I still have the tears of loss for all the dogs I’ve had in my life. There was Candy, there was Bill, there was Bella... Isn’t it one of the ironies, that we have one life, but in our one life we have, if we’re lucky, the lives of five or six dogs. And you don’t ever, ever get over losing them. If I had to choose one dog to have one last day with, it would probably be my childhood terrier Bella. I would love to just take her out for a walk again.

If I could live just one day over again, it would be my wedding day. It was just such a wonderful thing, to have everybody you love in the same room at the same time. Looking forward to a happy future. I mean, that was something, to get married to a man I completely trusted and knew I was going to be happy with. There are two moments which really stand out in my mind. One was when the vicar said something like, do you all support this marriage? And everyone says, we do. That was really touching. The other was when we were alone. We got from the church to the wedding venue before anyone else and there was a big mirror in the empty room. And we just paused and looked at each other in the mirror.

Afterwards I misremembered that moment as a photograph. I kept saying, where’s that photograph? And then I remembered it wasn’t a photograph, it was just a frozen image I had in my mind of us looking at each other in the mirror.

Joanna Scanlan stars in After Love, which is out in cinemas on June 4 Interview: Jane Graham @Janeannie BIGISSUE.COM | 19

a warning from history.

In May 2020, George Floyd was murdered by Derek Chauvin, a serving police officer. The killing shocked the world and galvanised the Black Lives Matter movement.

Change is coming but it is long overdue.

In May 1921, the worst incident of racial violence in America took place in Tulsa.

The Greenwood district of the city was known as the Black Wall Street, its destruction likened to Kristallnacht.

Dozens, perhaps hundreds, died.

Only now, nearing the 100th anniversary, is its story being told.

Scott Ellsworth is a historian leading efforts next month to exhume unmarked graves of victims. He explains why we need to remember.

20 | BIGISSUE.COM

FROM 24 MAY 2021

Image:Greenwood Cultural Center/Getty Images

Images from the Department of Special Collections, McFarlin Library, The University of Tulsa

Fire and fury This picture taken around midday on June 1 shows stores on Greenwood Avenue were being looted and set ablaze

The Big Issue: What was the Greenwood district of Tulsa like before the events of late May 1921?

Scott Ellsworth: Greenwood was an incredibly vibrant community, and home to 10,000 African American men, women and children. It was home to two newspapers, two schools, a hospital, a public library and a dozen churches. Thirty restaurants served everything from sandwiches and bowls of chilli to barbecue and steaks and chops with all of the trimmings. Two theatres – the Dreamland, which sat 750, and the Dixie, that had seats for 1,000 – offered motion pictures, jazz concerts, lectures and boxing matches. In Greenwood, there were three dozen grocery stores and meat markets, as well as clothing and dry goods stores, a photography studio, a feed and grain store, tailor shops, billiard halls, five hotels and the offices of more than a dozen African American physicians, surgeons, dentists, and lawyers. The wealthiest of Greenwood’s merchants lived in beautiful one and two-storey homes, complete with pianos, fine china and garages for their automobiles, while most citizens lived in simple wooden homes. But throughout the community there was a deep, abiding sense of pride. This was their neighbourhood.

They had built it. And soon they would have to fight to defend it.

What were the roots of unrest and what was the spark that led to the riot?

The late 1910s an early 1920s were an especially dark time for race relations in America. Segregation was on the rise, in 1915 there was a rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan, the largest and most powerful terrorist group in US history. Race riots and lynchings were common nationwide. In 1920, an 18-year-old accused murderer was lynched by an all-white mob in Tulsa. From that moment on, Black Tulsans knew that they could not rely on white Tulsa police officers to protect African American prisoners from mob violence.

22 | BIGISSUE.COM

What happened on May 31 and June 1?

On the afternoon of May 31, the Tulsa Tribune, one of the city’s white daily newspapers, published an inflammatory front-page story claiming that a 19-year-old African American shoe shiner named Dick Rowland had sexually assaulted a 17-year-old white female elevator operator in a downtown office building. The Tribune also published an editorial titled “To Lynch Negro Tonight.” Within a half hour of the newspaper hitting the streets, a lynch mob began to gather outside the courthouse in whose jail Dick Rowland was being held. When word hit Greenwood that evening that the white mob was storming the courthouse, a group of 75 African American World War I veterans went down to the courthouse and offered their services to the sheriff to help protect the prisoner. As they were leaving to return to Greenwood, an elderly white man attempted to disarm one of the veterans, a shot was fired, and the massacre had begun. The Tulsa police then showed up. But instead of stopping the violence, they deputised members of the lynch mob and provided them with arms, telling them to “Get a gun, and get a n*****.”

For the next few hours, crowds of whites murdered innocent African Americans – who were just getting off work – downtown, while gangs of whites took part in drive-by-shootings along residential streets in Greenwood, firing into parlours and children’s bedrooms. Some fires were set, and there was an attempt to invade the African American business district, but that was repulsed by armed Black home and business owners. By three o’clock in the morning, it seemed like the worst of the violence was over. It was not.

The next morning, just before dawn on June 1, thousands of whites invaded Greenwood, killing any African Americans who resisted, and imprisoning those who did not. Then the white mobs systematically looted and set fire to Greenwood. Not only did the police and local National Guard units fail to stop the invasion, but they also fired on Black citizens. Machine guns were unleashed upon Greenwood, and in at least one instance, an airplane dropped sticks of dynamite. Before the violence finally ended that afternoon, more than 1,000 African American homes were destroyed, while 10,000 Black citizens were now homeless. Thirty-five square blocks, the entirety of Greenwood, had been reduced to ash and rubble.

FROM 24 MAY 2021

How many people were killed?

To this day, we still don’t know. Reasonable estimates run from somewhere in the 70s to 300. Nor do we know what the ratio is between white and Black casualties.

Not many people in the UK have heard of the Tulsa Race Massacre – is it better known in America?

Only fairly recently. I’ve been researching and writing about the massacre off and on for 45 years, and I still regularly hear from people who say, “Why haven’t I ever heard of this before?” The Watchmen series introduced the massacre to millions of television viewers worldwide.

Why isn’t it better known?

Initially, the massacre was front page news across the United States. Indeed, the massacre was even mentioned in London newspapers. But the white politicians and businessmen who ran Tulsa soon realised that the massacre was a big public relations problem, and so they planned to bury it. And that is exactly what they did. Official records were stolen, incriminating articles were cut out of newspapers, photographs were seized. For 50 years, the city’s white newspapers went out of their way to not mention the riot, while researchers who attempted to look into, talk about, or write about the massacre were threatened – some even with their lives.

But the massacre wasn’t discussed, at least in public, in the African American community either. Some survivors suffered from PTSD as late as the 1990s. And many survivors didn’t want to burden their children and grandchildren with the painful stories of what they had endured. So they just didn’t talk about it.

So for 50 years the story of the massacre was actively suppressed. During the past 50 years, we’ve finally been getting the story out again. It’s been a long haul. But we’re getting there.

What happened after the riot and what is its legacy?

Tulsa was then touted as being the Oil Capital of the World, and Greenwood rebuilt itself. In less than two years, there were again two and three-storey brick buildings along Greenwood Avenue.

Many old-timers told me that the Greenwood of the 1930s and 1940s was even bigger than the one that had existed before the massacre. And pride among the African American community skyrocketed. They had fought to defend their district, and after it had been destroyed, they rebuilt it again.

But there were also undeniable losses. It’s been recently estimated that had the massacre not occurred, there would be an additional £600m in generational wealth in Greenwood today.

That represents decades of university fees, childcare payment, books for children, down payments on houses, seed money to create new businesses. Then, Greenwood was attacked once again, beginning in the 1960s, by the forces of urban renewal.

An eight-lane interstate highway was built right through the Greenwood commercial district, while racist practices prevented African Americans from securing home and business loans. Today,

Shocking aftermath Much of the Greenwood area was reduced to ash and rubble

Mob rule Black civilians were rounded up and removed from the area while their homes and businesses were destroyed

while the heart of Greenwood Avenue is experiencing a renaissance, including the construction of a brand new, state-of-the-art museum, Tulsa’s African American citizens are burdened with significantly higher rates of poverty than their white neighbours on the other side of town.

What has recent research uncovered?

Nearly 25 years ago, I launched a search for the unmarked graves of massacre victims, most of them African American, who were hastily buried by the white authorities while their family members were still being held under armed guard in detention camps. Well, after getting a lot of help, and after interviewing some 300 survivors and eyewitnesses, this past October we discovered a mass grave in Oaklawn Cemetery in Tulsa of what we believe contains the remains of at least a dozen African American massacre victims. On June 1, our team of archaeologists and forensic scientists will begin exhuming the remains. The scientists will study the bones for clues as to the age, gender and ethnicity of the victims, as well as to seek to determine the causes of death. The surrounding soil will be carefully sifted for bullet fragments and other artefacts, while DNA will likely be extracted in order to attempt to identify some of the victims by name. The remains will then be buried with honour, and an appropriate memorial will be constructed.

Ninety-nine years after the riot, also in May, the murder of George Floyd reignited debate around race and racism in America. Can better understanding the Tulsa Race Massacre lead to a better understanding of the issue today?

Yes, absolutely. The famous African American historian Dr John Hope Franklin – who grew up in Tulsa and whose father was a survivor of the massacre – once remarked that in the aftermath of the tragedy, “Tulsa lost its sense of honesty.”

Well, even though there’s been real progress made in terms of Americans gaining a fuller sense of our past, we still have a long way to go. I know that the same is happening in the UK. It isn’t easy to do, especially after people have been taught one version of history all their lives to learn that, in fact, our past was significantly different. But it’s important that, as best as we can, we tell it like it was, the good and the bad and the in-between, without pulling any punches.

A century on, is there a way to pay a fitting tribute to the victims?

There are many ways to do so. The first is to learn about, and tell, their stories.

The second will be to properly honour the dead, which is what we are doing now. And the third way, in my opinion, is to pay some form of restitution to the remaining survivors and their descendants. There is no doubt whatsoever that the citizens of Greenwood in 1921 were let down by their city, their state, and their country. Even the insurance companies refused to honour their claims. We need to do something to right this wrong.

The Ground Breaking: The Tulsa Race Massacre and an American City’s Search for Justice by Scott Ellsworth is out now (Icon Books, £16.99) Interview: Steven MacKenzie @stevenmackenzie

FROM 24 MAY 2021

BIGISSUE.COM | 23

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faith and identity.

THE PROBLEM WITH WHITE JESUS

By Chine McDonald

T

he first time I encountered God in my likeness was in the middle of a shack. Although I had read the New York Times bestseller by William P Young some years before, there was something shockingly wonderful about watching the big screen adaptation of The Shack.

The film tells the story of a man who – a�ter an unspeakable family tragedy – encounters God the form of three persons – the Holy Spirit depicted as an Asian woman, Jesus, a Middle Eastern man, and God the Father as a curvy black woman named ‘Papa’, played by Octavia Spencer.

Despite a theology degree from Cambridge, in some ways it took a Hollywood film to help me shatter the illusion that I had been under all my life – that God was not a white man.

The God in The Shack looked a little bit like me; and it wasn’t until then I realised how the whiteness and maleness in my image of God had created a sense of distance. In a world where white men have been seen as the dominant and default human, what did that say about my place in the world – as someone who is neither white nor male?

Although intellectually and theologically most Christians know that God doesn’t look like Father Christmas and Jesus doesn’t look like a 1970s hippie, the reality is that is the picture most people – even many Black and brown ones – have in our heads.

When The Shack came out, it caused much consternation among certain sections of evangelical Christianity. For some, to depict God as anything other than a white man is part of some woke agenda, some drive to be politically correct, just like a Black actor being cast as Hamlet or Lear. For some it is seen as an attempt to rewrite history – those who see it in the same vein as decolonising the curriculum or statue-toppling.

They are wrong, of course, but what has led to these pervasive ideas of God’s maleness and Christ’s whiteness? The answers are clear: patriarchy and white supremacy.

The story that lies at the heart of the Christian faith is the belief in the incarnation – the idea that God became human,

All-powerful It's God, but not as you know her – Octavia Spencer in The Shack

Image: AEntertainment Pictures / Alamy Stock Photo

FROM 24 MAY 2021

taking the form of a human. So, of course, that human had to be of a certain gender and a certain race.

Most who have read the Bible or know any part of its history – whether they believe in Jesus or not – know that the incarnate God in human form would have looked like a Jewish man from what we have come to call the Middle East, born in Bethlehem.

The archetypal white Jesus began to emerge during the Byzantine era, when the image of an enthroned emperor with long hair and a beard came to be the predominant way of representing Jesus. Later, a�ter the 17th century saw the introduction of the idea of ‘race’ and the suggestion that certain races have certain traits, Enlightenment European theologians saw it as important to emphasise Christ’s whiteness as a way to highlight his divinity. Some time a�ter, this evolved into the more hippie-like representation of Jesus we see today.

Unseeing and reimagining White Christ in the minds of believers is almost impossible.

In a world where whiteness is power, then, of course an omnipotent, all-knowing God must be white. God could be nothing else.

The whitewashing of Jesus over centuries has gone hand in hand with the whitewashing of the Christian faith in general. It takes some e�fort to remember that Christianity did not begin in Europe and that there are virtually no leading biblical figures who could be described as ‘white’. Colonialism sold to the world a tale of white supremacy, and gave the false impression that Christianity was the white man’s religion to be shared with unenlightened people.

Despite the fact that there are far more Christians in the world who look like me than White Jesus, it takes some e�fort for Black and brown Christians to extricate our faith from its entanglement with the white supremacy that has at times directly contributed to the oppression, brutalisation and violence that we have experienced for centuries.

The rise of the Black Lives Matter movement over the past year has accelerated the questioning and interrogation of the whitewashing of our faith – something that many Black Christians called out for decades, and centuries before the reckoning with racial justice we have experienced in recent months.

In understanding that the Christian faith itself does not suggest one particular race or gender is closest to godliness, I have come to a more authentic reading of Christianity that paints a picture of God as siding with the marginalised and the oppressed, not power and empire.

But I can understand other Black people who find the process of disentanglement too di�ficult, and instead turn their backs on the Church, no longer able to grin and bear the microaggressions, institutional racism and white supremacy that can be found in it. Some are turning back to indigenous African diasporic religions in which they can see themselves re�lected in the image of God. Getting rid of the ubiquitous White Jesus is about more than just political correctness, it is necessary if the Church is to survive in the decades and centuries to come.

Chine McDonald is a writer, broadcaster and author. God Is Not a White Man: And Other Revelations is out on May 27 (Hodder & Stoughton, £16.98). @ChineMcDonald BIGISSUE.COM | 25

anne boleyn.

26 | BIGISSUE.COM

Image: ViacomCBS Networks International

It’s fine to get the history wrong, so long as you know why you’re doing it FROM 24 MAY 2021

A new drama about Anne Boleyn cast Jodie Turner-Smith as the title character. The show’s historical advisor Dan Jones says history must be able to talk to our times

FROM 24 MAY 2021

Image: DeAgostini/Getty Images

hat’s the difference between history and historical drama?

The line between the two is thin and porous. There’s a lot of drama in history, and lot of history in drama. And many of our most cherished images of British history actually come from the stage and screen, rather than life itself.

King Richard III offering his kingdom for a horse at Bosworth? That’s Shakespeare.

A fat Tudor king chucking chicken legs over his shoulder? That’s The Private Life of Henry VIII. William Wallace yelling "Freedom!" before he has his guts yanked out? Thanks for that, Mel Gibson’s Braveheart.

For hundreds of years dramatists have mined the history books for inspiration – knowing there’s only one thing sexier than a good story. That’s a good true story.

Yet dramatists are rarely trained historians. Nor should they be. Their job is not to seek out objective, messy, Crowning glory complicated, ambiguous sets of facts – to Anne Boleyn wasn't weigh arguments and accept that we might afraid to break the never really know what happened. rules either The dramatist’s job is to drill down into the essence of a story, find truths that seem to resonate with the modern world, and craft a gripping, satisfying, well-shaped show.

In doing that, dramatists have a licence to play fast and loose with time, place, space and everything else besides. If the history seems lumpy or misshapen, they have the right to kick it into shape. To sand down the rough edges.

To mould it.

If you took that away from dramatists – be they novelists, playwrights or screenwriters – you would remove

their superpower. And the world would be a more boring place for it.

All of which is awkward. Because on the one hand, historical drama is not designed to be very accurate. But on the other hand, it has such huge popular appeal that many people get it mixed up with ‘what really happened’.

That’s where historical advisors come in.

Next week the three-part TV drama Anne Boleyn, starring Jodie Turner-Smith, premieres on Channel 5. I’m an executive producer of the show, and helped the writer, director and other producers find a balance between truth and fiction. I also helped the cast research the real characters they portray.

It’s a job I’ve done before on other shows, and one that requires trust and faith between everyone involved.

My main rule – in fact, my only rule – when advising historical dramas is this: it’s fine to get the history wrong, so long as you know why you’re doing it.

What that means in practice is that every department of a historical drama should know what really happened in the true story they’re adapting. So, for example, the costume department should know what Anne Boleyn really wore on the day of her execution. The assistant directors, who cast ‘extras’, should know how many people would typically be standing around Henry VIII’s court at any given moment, and what they ought to be doing. And so on.

The job of a historical advisor is to pass on that information, but not to insist that it is represented exactly on screen. Budgets, time, lighting, the director’s vision for a scene – all of these affect what is filmed just as much as historical accuracy, and I respect that. That’s showbiz! So long as everyone is clear where they’re deviating from the history,and why, then you can make historical drama with a clear conscience, and stand up proudly for the final product.

At the moment one of the most interesting areas in historical drama involves casting. In theatre, race and gender have seldom mattered very much to casting.

TV and film are slowly catching up. In our show Anne Boleyn is played by Jodie and the whole cast is racially diverse. The thinking is simple: you cast the actor who connects most with the spirit and essence of the character.

I know from social media that a few people have found that difficult to process.

But it’s a perfect example of what I’m talking about. Everyone knows the real Anne Boleyn was white. But we’re making a drama, and historical drama is about reinventing old stories to ask questions about the modern world.

We knew what we were changing about Anne’s story – and why. We were splicing modern themes with a familiar story.

And the effect is very powerful. That’s the point of historical drama. That’s why we do this job.

Anne Boleyn starts on June 1 at 9pm on Channel 5. @dgjones

BIGISSUE.COM | 27

eyewitness.

Deadly attacks across the Holy Land lead the world to ask, again, what can be done. With no end in sight to the current escalation, we asked a Palestinian under bombardment in Gaza and a Jewish man facing bombs in southern Israel to share the reality of their lives. Their voices paint a powerful picture of life on the ground Eman Basher is a writer in Gaza worried about the effect of trauma on her children “Mama, I am so worried about the moon these days,” my four-year-old Faisal said trying to open the window which was half closed for three days in a row – not fully closed because it might get broken under the pressure of bombardments, and not fully open because we might inhale the poisonous smell of gunpowder.

I rushed to stop him; therefore, he went into a crying jag. The two kids, Faisal and Jawad, were clearly out of patience. They haven’t been able to go out to play with their friends or at least see the sun.

When I was pregnant with Faisal, the doctor mistakenly thought he was a girl. For six months, I talked to him as a girl in my tummy, sang to him as a girl and prepared baby girl clothes for his arrival. Everyone thinks this is why he is a little bit softer than Jawad.

Since this round of Israeli aggression started, Faisal has been barely sleeping and barely eating. His face is pale and he is suffering nausea and diarrhoea. While on the other side, Jawad’s health has been stable, yet he refuses my hugs, my head pats and any attempt for me to touch him. Many people were sending me messages about how to deal with traumatised kids, including children’s therapists and psychologists. In practice, nothing has been working. Because to help a traumatised child, he first needs the cause of trauma to end.

When the tweet, that Michigan Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib read out in her speech, went viral I was confused. Though a lot of people around the world have heard my voice, there were thousands of Gazan mothers who lost their children. Or as I am writing, they are searching for their children under the rubble of Al-Wehda Street, unable to find out if they are alive or dead.

I keep thinking about every Gazan mother with her children trembling by her side unable to calm their fears. I keep thinking about every Palestinian child who came to this life unaware he had already been marked a terrorist, no matter how old he or she is.

The Gaza Strip is one of the most densely populated areas in the world, where two million people are caged in an area of 365 square kilometres, as you might already know. However, houses are also tightly close to each other. So, when the Israeli army bombs one house, at least three more get affected. Moreover, these are houses of refugees who were already displaced from their houses in 1948. Some of the families were even displaced more than twice due to previous Israeli aggressions since 2008.

For three days, the Israeli army have been targeting civilians, children, women, streets, and agricultural lands. Anything that moves. Or doesn’t.

The last night was the most horrifying night in every Gazan’s life. They destroyed houses with their residents inside them. Tens were under the rubble while others were being pulled dead. Or traumatised for life!

Whenever some of our friends stop tweeting, we send them “are you alive?” messages. When they do not reply, our hearts sink and we burst into tears. This is now our way of communication.

“If I died, will God let me see the moon first?” little Faisal asked. I didn’t know what to answer. I hugged him and wept silently.

28 | BIGISSUE.COM

THE CONFLICT WITH NO END FROM 24 MAY 2021

Lee Saunders recently returned to Israel from Manchester and wrote this from a bomb shelter in Ashkelon It is tough and surreal. I was singing Neil Diamond before and making a salad just to keep calm, while the jets rumble overhead. I just moved back here from Manchester and only moved into my flat two weeks ago, just near family.

I was planning to get stuff for the flat and instead am sat in a quiet hollow room (or mamad) which doubles as a bomb shelter and wondering how long this will last and do I have enough food in?

On the first night, there were six sirens between 5am and 6am. And that was quiet. Seventy per hour later in the day. I think. Lost count. Friends in Tel Aviv offered me wine, weed, beds, couches and Tena Ladys. My family are here and check in with me. My uncle is describing the booms like Winston Churchill and my aunt is coping through scouring pans. My teenage cousin’s school was hit so he seems excited.

Since then, in the last two days, more than 850 rockets have been fired randomly into Israel and Ashkelon has taken the brunt. We are eight miles down the road from the Gaza Strip. The distance is less than Edgware to Camden.

Bury to Central Manchester. I heard the IRA bomb in Manchester from Bury and these are over my head. Two have hit the marina nearby, about 60 seconds’ walk away. It is unsettling. I saw the ambulance go by.

You never get used to the noise of the sirens as an adult, so I have no idea how terrifying that is for the kids. As soon as the siren stops, the bangs send a shiver down you. The louder the bang, the closer it was. Like listening out for thunder, only worse. It is just so utterly pointless and yet predictable, and in a few days we will have the same result and be back to square one.

In Bury, we have a downstairs loo and that is a luxury.

Here, I would rather have the shelter. It’s a small room with reinforced concrete and a steel door you slide across in front of the window. I do feel safe in there, as long as you are there.

There is anger with Netanyahu for a lot of things here and the country is in the midst of changing government too, but Hamas has pragmatically taken advantage of the cancelled Palestinian elections to show “leadership” and go after its main goal again. Incitement and violence. I mean, among those tragically killed by rockets, an Israeli Arab girl of seven in a car yesterday. They simply don’t care.

Bibi is FAR from perfect. There are many protests about his policies and he is too aligned with some of the religious parties, but you don’t have to like Bibi. Many here don’t. You don’t have to agree with Israeli policies. Many here don’t.

You don’t have to even care. Many don’t. BUT Israel had, has and always will have the right to exist as a sovereign nation and the ONLY (‘safe’) homeland for Jewish people on the planet. Not in place of anyone. Not on top of anyone. Next to and besides. Living. Period.

People need to be more careful with words and thoughts more than ever. We aren’t Churchill. We don’t want to fight anyone on the beaches. Remember that, when you see the version of news you see. If you want to give real hope to peace, keep your ears and minds open. Silence only means we are here again in six months. Does anyone deserve that?

FROM 24 MAY 2021

BIGISSUE.COM | 29

FILM What the 1999 London nail-bombings tell us about extremism today Nick Lowles

INTERVIEW ‘It only took a few minutes to become the Doctor again’ Christopher Eccleston

MUSIC Open-air classical season is nearly upon us, so grab a brolly Claire Jackson

STREET ART

After the Party

By David Bastin “Being in my sixties, everything hurts,” says David, who submits his artwork via the 240 Project, a London arts and health activity centre for people affected by homelessness and exclusion.

“Especially in winter. Which is why I like to travel where the sun is kinder to me when I can. I speak French and Spanish thanks to my time in the Foreign Legion: communication is key to human harmony.

“I have written poetry since I was 10 and learned to paint in prison, it was therapeutic. I hope you like my yellow period. It was Vincent Van Gogh’s favourite colour.”

FROM 24 MAY 2021

The work on this page is created by people who are marginalised. Contact street.lights@bigissue. com to see your art here.

To see more and buy prints: bigissueshop.com At least half of the profit goes to the artist.

BIGISSUE.COM | 31

CULTURE | BOOKS

REVIEW

Freeze frame

The words may confuse, but they represent the panic of a paralysed mind, says Jane Graham

T

he hit crime mystery Reservoir 13 confirmed that Nottingham novelist Jon McGregor knew his way around a gripping page-turner. But with Lean Fall Stand he takes on a more profound challenge; the language and thought processes of a brain in crisis.

Field researchers Luke, �omas and veteran guide Robert ‘Doc’ Wright are caught up in a perilous expedition in Antarctica. �e third-person narrative which describes their plight is, like them, focused, lucid and concise. But when the men are separated and panic sets in, the prose begins to unravel, repeat, and lose its bearings, like an e e Cummings poem in which the words slip o�f the page. “He rawed the rum nubness of his face.” “He sat and the colour fall. Music.” �is is the literary version of deep immersion; in a bloodfreezing, snow-blinding environment, the writing itself begins to disintegrate. In a location defined by its isolation, in which instruments of communication are constantly tested, speech is rendered useless. “Stay here. Be serve. Preserve.” It makes for an unsettling, strangely exciting reading experience, a bit like watching a Charlie Kaufman movie in an IMAX. As it turns out, Doc has su�fered a stroke. Upon returning home to his anxious and long-adri t family, he has to learn a new way of living, and he goes through waves of frustration and epiphany as he is trained to walk, speak and distinguish memory from dream. �is domestic battle proves more testing than any challenge he has faced in the world’s most hostile environment, a landscape which has become more familiar to him than his children’s faces. Lost at home, his daily tasks mirror his trials in Antarctica, from his long, painful trek to the bathroom to the infuriating inability of his broken equipment to communicate what he wants for lunch. �e ‘what really happened out there’ mystery is attended to, but more interesting is the story of Doc’s rehabilitation, as a man, husband and father. And McGregor is canny enough not to use Doc’s self-su�ficient, newly burdened wife Anna simply as a cypher for his fraught climb out of chaos, but to give her space to question her own response and, when she needs to, scream into her own void. ter being absorbed in McGregor’s lyrical slowburner, New Yorker Mateo Askaripour’s funny, fast-talking debut novel Black Buck marks a distinct change of pace. �e superfast wit, the snappy dialogue, the pleasure it takes in its own chutzpah – it’s all there from the confident start of this seductive book.

Darren is an unambitious 22-year-old Starbucks employee and comic books fan with skin the “rich caramel” colour of a Werther’s Original, and teeth “status quo and powerful, also known as white and straight”. But when he’s sweet-talked into an elite job with a hi-tech start-up he evolves, Peter Parker-style, into cool hot Buck, “the Muhammad Ali of sales”, swi tly ramping up clients like a Black Wolf of Wall Street. Swept up in his own awesomeness, he loses his grasp of what he really cares about, and when a tragic reminder smacks him in the face, he’s forced to rethink his life.

Like most debuts, there are times when clichés are presented as revelations. But this book has the ene y of a puppy spaniel, and the heart of close-knit family under fire. Oh, and be sure to read the delightful acknowledgments; they’ll leave you rooting for future star Askaripour even more.

Lean Fall Stand by Jon McGregor is out now (HarperCollins, £14.99) Black Buck by Mateo Askaripour is out on May 27 (Hodder & Stoughton, £14.99) @Janeannie

32 | BIGISSUE.COM

AUTHOR FEATURE

Brothers in arms

Captain Kailash Limbu formed an unbreakable bond with fellow Gurkhas over five Afghan tours

I

n 2016, I completed the last of five active service tours of Afghanistan with the British Army. As a soldier in the 2nd Battalion, the Royal Gurkha Ri�les, I was in the front line of the fighting in Helmand Province between 2006 and 2014. I was also, in 2016, deployed in the Afghan capital, Kabul. On dangerous resupply missions and o�fensive patrols, we Gurkhas came under frequent attack from Taliban fighters and other insurgents.

None of us will ever forget what we went through together. It formed a bond of brotherhood that nothing and no one can break – and I tell the story of it here in Gurkha Brotherhood. �e book is my personal story about what it was like to serve worldwide, including those five active FROM 24 MAY 2021

Illustration: Joseph Joyce

tours in Afghanistan. It is about what I felt, and what we had done and gone through while we were fighting behind the enemies’ lines as a brotherhood.

I o�ten thought I would not see the sun rising the following morning; that I was not going to escape from the death traps. We fought back with desperate determination, courage and fearlessness, and most of us survived and escaped.

When I returned home it was not to Nepal, the mountainous country in faraway South Asia where we Gurkhas grew up. It was to the UK – to Folkestone in Kent. I am a man with two homes. I hold both countries dear in my heart.

My childhood home was very di�ferent from the modern military quarters in the UK. It was built of mud and stone on the steep slope of a Himalayan valley. Its walls were brightly painted and sweetsmelling �lowers grew around it. We had no electricity, no television, no modern gadgets at all. My mother cooked on an open fire and it was one of my jobs as a kid to collect dry firewood from the forest.

I have a memory that still makes me feel guilty: of my mother in tears because the firewood I had FROM 24 MAY 2021

collected that day was damp and would not light.

My mountain village was a beautiful place to grow up. I had lots of friends and we had many adventures. But it was not a fairytale. �e Himalayas could be an unpredictable environment. Long before I joined the British Army and fought in Afghanistan, I learned fate can be cruel and life sometimes takes a wrong turn. Even as a child I was no stranger to danger and death.

In the first few weeks a�ter returning from my final deployment in Afghanistan, memories of what happened there were still fresh in my mind. Sometimes they gave me bad nights, when I could not sleep, or woke up crying. Other times I felt a surge of pride at what we had achieved. But these memories were slowly fading.

One day, I was on the sofa in the sitting room in Folkestone thinking about the past.

Not just Afghanistan but my childhood growing up in the Himalayas, which seemed like a di�ferent world and lifetime. A war film was on TV, the kind of film that makes war look quick and easy. In front of me my two children were playing. And I was really looking forward to the dinner my wife, Sumitra, was preparing in the kitchen next door – momos (dumplings) stu�fed with pork and chicken. �en an idea �loated into my head: get these memories down on paper while I could. �e idea excited me. �at night I could not sleep so I got up, grabbed a sheet of paper and began to write. �e words poured out of me, the childhood joys and scrapes, the times in Afghanistan when I feared I would not live to see the sun set at the end of the day. Some faces came up again and again in my mind. �ey belonged to the Gurkha brothers I lost, dear friends who stood shoulder to shoulder with me in the heat of battle. �e project got more serious. In spare moments and during those sleepless nights I sat in front of my computer and built a bigger picture of my life. �is book is the result. It is a tribute to my family and the wonderful upbringing they gave me. It is a memorial to brave friends who fell in the killing fields of Afghanistan. It is the story, above all, of a boy from a simple background who laid his life on the line for his adopted country and his Gurkha brothers.

In the battlefield scenes I do not try to give a wider military or historical perspective. �ey are how I remember them – how they looked and felt at the time, with the bullets �lying and the adrenaline pumping. Inevitably, others who were there may remember things slightly di�ferently.

But this is my reality. I dedicate it to the ones who did not make it. I hope and believe, with all my heart and soul, that in some corner of heaven they are looking down and reading it with you.

Gurkha Brotherhood: A Story of Childhood and War by Captain Kailash Limbu is out on May 27 (Michael O’Mara, £20)

Top 5 dystopian novels

by Sebastian de Souza

01

Station Eleven

by Emily St John Mandel �is book is insanely relevant. It’s about a �lu pandemic that wipes out something like 95 per cent of the world. It turns the idea of the dystopian novel on its head, presenting a discussion of whether the ‘before’ was better than the ‘a�ter’, or the ‘a�ter’ is actually better than the ‘before’.

02

Parable of the Sower

by Octavia E Butler �is is a razor-sharp, searing appraisal of our own power structures in the present day, but through the eyes of a 15-year-old African-American girl in an imaginary world.

03

Ready Player One

by Ernest Cline �is book is just so much fun because it manages somehow to pull just about every single pop culture phenomenon from the 80s into this crazy virtual reality universe. It made me wonder: if everyone is existing in this amazingly detailed, vivid, beautiful world, what does the outside world look like?

04

Animal Farm

by George Orwell Orwell frames this commentary on communism, among lots of other things, through the lens of a farm and its animals, which is something anyone and everyone can understand and connect with – however young they are.

05

A Clockwork Orange

by Anthony Burgess �ree words: Absolutely.

E�fing. Crazy.

Kid: A History of the Future

by Sebastian de Souza is out now (O��liner Press, £9.99) Watch Sebastian de Souza discuss his choices at bigissue.com

BIGISSUE.COM | 33

CULTURE | FILM A documentary about an extremist’s nail bombing campaign in London in 1999 poses questions about the rise of the right today, says Nick Lowles of campaign group HOPE not hate

In 1999, 22-year-old David Copeland set o�f three nail bombs in London, killing three people and injuring over 200 others. His first bomb targeted the Black commun y in Brixton, the second the Muslim commun y in Brick Lane and the third targeted gay revellers in London’s Soho.

By their own admission, police initially had few clues as to the motive. �e first line of enquiry looked at Irish Republicans, but a�ter ruling that out they also contemplated a Yardie gang war. It was only a�ter the second bombing that the police really zeroed in on the possibil y that the perpetrator was a far-right extremist.

One person who did immediately suspect a far-right motivation was a young man from London who was then infiltrating the British far right with the precise aim of exposing their extremism. ‘Arthur’ as he is now known, approached me in the summer of 1994 o�fering to infiltrate the far right. He was an active anti-fascist but he felt the most e�fective thing he could do was to get inside them and expose their activities. He joined the British National Par y, the largest far-right group in Britain at the time, but also got involved in Combat 18 and other violent national socialist groups.

Over the next 10 years Arthur attended more than 400 meetings, rallies, lea�leting sessions and socials, reporting back to me on everything he saw and heard.

He passed on their plans, their involvement in violent racist attacks and their desire for race war. Arthur immediately suspected far-right involvement. “Right away FROM 24 MAY 2021

Image: Net�lix

Fanning the flames

I was sure it was a racist, probably a Nazi, attack,” he later recalled. “To me it seemed so obvious. “�is is what Nazis in Britain had been talking about doing for years.

Now someone or a group of people had actually gone and done it, they had gone into Brixton and detonated a bomb with the intention of killing and injuring innocent Black people. It was ethnic cleansing. It was race war. �is is what they had dreamed of.”

Arthur had sat through meetings where race war was regularly discussed. He heard Combat 18 leaders encouraging audiences to go out and kill people. He picked up magazines and books fantasising about the white man’s armed uprising against ‘ZOG’ – the Zionist Occupation Government – that ruled the country. He attended a BNP rally in East London where the keynote speaker was William Pierce, the author of �e Turner Diaries, the book that inspired Copeland and the Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeigh. �e fact that the police did not initially suspect the far right a�ter Brixton sadly re�lected their complete failure to understand the threat they posed. As far back as 1993, colleagues of mine addressed a hearing of the Home A�fairs Select Committee to warn of the growing talk of terrorism.

Sadly, our warnings fell on deaf ears. Not only did the police not immediately consider a far-right motive for the first attack, but their lack of monitoring of neo-Nazi groups meant that they had no knowledge of David Copeland’s far-right activ y. �is is despite him being an active member of the British National Par y and later a regional organiser for the National Socialist Movement, a C18 splinter group. �e nail bombing did little to change the mindset of the police. A recent head of MI5 dismissed the far right as “a bunch of drunken hooligans” who did not need their attention. In 2016 Labour MP Jo Cox was murdered by �omas Mair, another far-right activist who was inspired by the same American race war literature as David Copeland. Despite a two-decade involvement in the far right, he also was not known to the police. �e following year, HOPE not hate activists alerted the police to a Nazi plot to murder his local MP and a police o�ficer. Not only were the police totally unaware of this – which was days away from happening – but they did not even believe that the group the perpetrator was aligned to, National Action, was still in existence a�ter it had been proscribed the previous year. �e authorities are now, finally, taking the threat of far-right terrorism more seriously. Since the beginning of 2017, 62 far-right activists and sympathisers have been convicted under terrorism legislation, and the police are increasingly proactive in intervening.

While all this is welcome, it is also a shame that it took the murders of three people in London in 1999 and the murder of Jo Cox in 2016 for the authorities to wake up to the threat.

Nail Bomber: Manhunt is on Net�lix from May 26 Nick Lowles is CEO of HOPE not Hate @lowles_nick

BIGISSUE.COM | 35

CULTURE | INTERVIEW & RADIO

‘It all came f looding back in minutes’ “I’m currently sleeping in the Tardis, if that’s what you mean?”

Christopher Eccleston acknowledges that he likes to work. And when he isn’t working with great heart and enthusiasm for The Big Issue as one of our brand ambassadors, he likes to act.

It’s a profession that has seen him travel the world and star in some great television – from Our Friends In The North and Cracker to Hillsborough and The Leftovers.

After more than 15 years away, he has now returned to one of his most famous roles. But no, says Eccleston, he did not need to wear his timelord’s battered leather jacket to get back into character for four new Doctor Who audio adventures.

“Within minutes, it all came flooding back,” he says. “How to do it, how I like to play him, how I like to work, the joy of it. It was all there.”

So how is the Ninth Doctor when we meet him again after all this time?

“Charismatic, enigmatic, mercurial, witty, heroic, obstinate, fierce as ever,” says the actor. “He’s travelling alone. And I enjoy that element.

Because sometimes the relationship dynamics can detract from the narrative. Here he’s a lone wolf, always trying to locate decency and see if it resides in human or alien form. And he’s having great fun.

“The emotional attachments are formed on the hoof, usually with women, and not for romantic reasons, just because women know a lot more about injustice than white males, let’s be honest.

36 | BIGISSUE.COM

Back in time With Billie Piper as Rose, but this time the Doctor is flying solo

“We stayed away from the dark war Doctor, the damaged PTSD doctor that I essayed a lot in the television series. It’s very separate and distinct.”

Eccleston has been impressed, he says, by the writing of the audio dramas. And he is enjoying the chance to work again following lockdown.

“These writers are top, top drawer,” he says. “As with any other project with me, apart from when I do shite in America, and I mean film in America, not The Leftovers, which is one of the best things I have ever done, it’s all about the writing. I’m amazed none of these ideas have FROM 24 MAY 2021

Image: PictureLux / The Hollywood Archive / Alamy Stock Photo

After 15 years Christopher Eccleston returns to Doctor Who in four new audio adventures. Words: Adrian Lobb

Image: Tony Whitmore

Doctor Who – �e Ninth Doctor Adventures are out on CD, download and limited edition gatefold triple LP vinyl at bigfinish.com @adey70 FROM 24 MAY 2021

BROADCAST

Freewheelin’

In search of enlightenment, Robin Ince pulls an all-nighter on the Resonance FM highway

I

gnorance is being weaponised again as politicians use the threadbare �lag blanket of a culture war to cover up those unsightly protuberances of ineptitude and incompetence which their emperor’s new clothes failed to conceal. When museums and historical institutions have started to make more of an fort to highlight some of the less noble actions of the past concerning slavery, exploitation and exclusion it has been made clear that this is the wrong knowledge and must be discounted as a fever dream caused by Greta �unberg or a similar teenage activist. �ose who support the increase in enlightenment of the darker corners of our past will be accused of virtue signalling. Are you going to be on the right side of wrong history or the wrong side of right history? It reminds me of the old club comics who tell stories of audiences heckling, “Tell us one we know!” �ey wanted the jokes they knew and it seems in the culture wars, there are many A trip to the country people who would rather hear the same old Vincent Neil Emerson stories over and over and over again, the ones keeps Robin company in that make it clear who are the goodies and who the early hours are the baddies. Do you want your knowledge to narrow or broaden your vision? ll these tiresome bully-beef discussions remind me of how parochial so much of my cultural knowledge remains. Many of us are brought up with western European art, novels and English language films, anything else is at best exotic, at worst it is declared pretentious to even take an interest. It’s just not normal. �at is why it is time for my regular celebration of Resonance FM, whose independence means they don’t have to shy away from political opinions or fear any barbed wire that fences them into a playlist.

I started my day at midnight on the dot with Tunes from Turtle Island, a show focusing on contemporary music from indigenous musicians of North America. �is is the sort of music that used to be placed under the knitted beanie hat umbrella term of world music as if that were a genre in itself. It carried with it the descriptive limitation of someone saying, “I am a big fan of English music, now that might cover everything from Benjamin Britten to Black Sabbath, but the presumption may well be, ‘Oh, he likes folk music played on a tightly strung lute.’”

As DJ Andrew Graves-Johnston makes clear from the start of the show, the playlist includes rap, rock, indie, country and dance, and he makes good his promise.

A station like Resonance is part of the journey from a huge swathe of music being elevated from novelty and niche to, well, just being music. By 2.30am, I am in Ross’s Cantina listening to American alt country and just plain country. You can hear this at 8pm, but it feels just right at 2.30am. You can project yourself into the body of an exhausted trucker accelerating across a rocky road in Utah as you listen to Wichita Lineman and songs from Vincent Neil Emerson’s latest release Fried Chicken & Evil Women. By 5am, it is Isotopica – described as “cultural sonic detours”, it is the right noise for insomniacs who have surrendered to the realisation it is dawn and this music is the correct soundtrack for the hypnagogic visions that may well be the most they can expect when it comes to dreams on this night. To o fer you some optimism, the host, Simon Tyszko has also got some seven-year-olds (they might be eight or nine, he can’t be sure) reciting the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. �is reading is far more than a novelty, it is inspirational at a time when there is a government that seems to see human rights as woke nonsense. �e day, or the night, concludes with Debbie Golt’s �e Outerglobe, which she presents beautifully as if you are just sat around at her house as she joyously pops her latest finds on for you.

My biro is usually out of ink by the time I have finished scribbling down all the names of artists and ideas covered by a day with Resonance FM. Why people find culture that challenges preconceptions such a threat I don’t really know. I still like to find myself bouncing between all the varieties of “What the HELL is the noise?”

And “What the hell is this NOISE?” resonancefm.com @robinince

BIGISSUE.COM | 37

Image: Suzanne Cordeiro/Shutterstock

been or will be screened. We’ve met Lady Macbeth, we’ve met the Brigadier and we met a Cyberman earlier. My Doctor is very enthusiastic, very excitable – all the things I remember.

“Suddenly the physicality, the energy levels I employed – which are very much mine, I think – came back. Tom Baker said it’s not an acting role.

And it’s true. It’s partly yourself, partly the writers.”

It was Eccleston to whom former showrunner Russell T Davies entrusted the keys to the Tardis and one of the most important, beloved characters in British television history when bringing the show back to the screen in 2005 a�ter a 16-year absence.

It was a big success, re-establishing Doctor Who as a primetime sci-fi series for all the family. David Tennant, Matt Smith, Peter Capaldi and now Jodie Whittaker were all able to build on the foundations laid by Eccleston.

“I had a lovely, lovely, warm greeting from Peter Capaldi the other day,” he says. “We just bumped into each other, which was very nice.”

While Eccleston loved and still loves the character, a�ter one successful season he le�t amid acrimony.

Over the years, he has spoken many times about it and is keen to look forward not back.

“I’ve always retained a deep a fection for playing the role and what it means to people,” he says now.

“I disconnected from the politics and the lies and the bullshit, but not my relationship with the people who love the show.”

In recent years, Eccleston began attending (and enjoying) fan conventions, as well as watching some of his old episodes with his children lbert and Esme.

So does he feel he has been on a journey back to the Doctor for some time?

“I never le�t him,” says Eccleston. “From day one I was approached in the street by fans. And that’s continued. Not a day of my life has gone by without me having to interact with people who are fans of Doctor Who. I’ve always embraced them, literally and figuratively, and they me.

“People come to the conventions because they have a relationship to the show, o�ten quite profound. �e Doctor is an outsider. lways has been – with a very strong, loyal and fierce following within the gay community, for instance. And you’ve also got a huge fanbase in neurodiverse communities. Because of the contents of my book, people at conventions have spoken to me about mental health issues and what the show meant to them at times of grief and loss – so there’s been a great deal of human connection for me at them.

“It’s also meant that I can travel. I went to Muhammad li’s birthplace, I never thought I’d do that. I’d never been to Portland, a fantastic city. And I shook William Shatner’s hand. I am a Star Trek fanboy and I met William Shatner, thank you very much. He had no idea who I was, which is just how I like it. But if my dad was still around and I could tell him I’d met Captain James T Kirk, he’d be a very happy man.” �is return, we suspect, will have a similar fect on a lot of people.

“I like to make the fans happy,” says Eccleston. “I have my passions as you know – reggae, rocksteady, ska, soul music – there’s certain things that excite me. So I completely understand that in people. And I’m happy if they’re happy.”

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The new Big Issue eBikes scheme is the first of its kind and will soon launch in communities across the UK. These are eBikes with a difference...

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The Big Issue eBikes will recruit and retrain people who were previously unemployed and support them back into work to run the schemes.

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By renting an eBike from The Big Issue eBikes, not only are you doing something good for others, you are doing something good for the environment too.

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CULTURE | MUSIC

Image courtesy of Kira Barlach

Clearer skies It’s more open-air season than open season for live music, but Claire Jackson has hope (and an umbrella)

M

etal poles stuck out from the fabric at awkward angles. It looked like a giant spider that had been unceremoniously squashed. �e landlord surveyed the marquee wreckage, shaking her head. Balancing the complimentary hot water bottle on my lap, I adjusted my hood.

I had a seat in an actual pub (garden), and I was going to enjoy this glass of wine if it was the last thing I did. It’s wonderful to be journeying on this road out of lockdown, but in our excitement, we seem to have forgotten that there’s a reason our green and pleasant land doesn’t have a big tradition of outside dining. �is may well have been one of the driest springs on record (really), but it’s also one of the windiest and coldest: the Met O�fice has revealed that April had the lowest average minimum temperature since 1922.

It’s not only publicans and restaurant owners who are hoping for more hospitable weather over the coming months. Keen to keep live performances as safe as possible – and unsure what the parameters might be in the face of ever-changing policy – many festivals have opted for outside events this year. Edinburgh International Festival (EIF) has announced that all its performances will take place in large outdoor marquees this summer, something that has never been done before in the event’s 74-year

Listen to...

Spindle Ensemble – comprising pianistcomposer Daniel Inzani, percussionist Harriet Riley, cellist Jo Silverston and violinist Caelia Lunniss – releases its latest recording Inkling on boutique label Hidden Notes this week. �e quartet mixes post-classical and minimalism, with brief stylistic dalliances; Okemah Sundown hints at folksy Americana, while Waves has a neo-romantic vibe. Spindle Ensemble celebrates the launch of Inkling with a showcase at St George’s Bristol on May 27.

Civic pride Boris Charmatz’s opening night production will feature a cast of Manchester residents

history. Bespoke temporary ‘pavilions’ are to be erected in several locations, including Edinburgh Park and Edinburgh University’s Old College Quad, in which EIF will host dance, opera, theatre and music. �e programme for the festival, which runs from August 7 to 29, will be announced on June 2.

In Manchester, the biennial Manchester International Festival (MIF) will also be hoping for clear skies when it opens on July 1. More than 150 Greater Manchester residents will join a cast led by French choreographer Boris Charmatz, who will oversee Sea Change, a ‘human jigsaw’ of dancers filling Deansgate. MIF (July 1-18) will also host a large-scale installation in its spacious home �e Factory, former site of Granada Studios. �eatre and opera director Deborah Warner’s Arcadia features luminous tents and a soundscape weaving together words by Sappho, John Clare, WB Yeats, Simon Armitage, lice Oswald and Sabrina Mahfouz, among many others. Elsewhere, there are special appearances by Patti Smith and Arlo Parks. Many of the performances are due to be streamed (see mif.co.uk). ll human beings are born free and equal; in dignity and rights. �ey are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in the spirit of community.” �e lyrics to Max Richter’s Voices are intense – and with good reason: they are based on text from �e Universal Declaration Of Human Rights, the definition of humanity adopted by the United Nations in 1948. �is groundbreaking statement that seeks freedom for all, regardless of nationality, gender, religion or any other status, is woven into Richter’s haunting score. �e narration is blended with electronics and strings; although the texture is sparse, the scale is epic. �ere’s a rare opportunity to hear this work performed by Richter himself: the composer is due to headline South Facing Festival (August 5-29), a new series of open-air concerts held at London’s Crystal Palace Bowl. �e Max Richter Ensemble is a collaboration between Richter and Yulia Mahr, conducted by Robert Ziegler, with Grace Davidson (soprano), Mari Samuelsen (violin) and the choir Tenebrae (August 28). �e English National Opera is also set to appear at South Facing, with a semi-staged performance of Tosca, starring Natalya Romaniw, David Junghoon Kim and Roland Wood (August 27-29). Puccini’s rich scoring and a feverish plot (packed with passion and tragedy) make this an ideal first opera. �ere will be plenty of space to picnic – but bring a brolly. @claireiswriting

FROM 24 MAY 2021

BIGISSUE.COM | 39

CLASSIFIEDS

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RECRUIT 3

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RECRUIT 3

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puzzles and quiz.

CROSSWORD

1

1

8

8

2

3

4

4

5

6

7

CRYPTIC CLUES Across 1. Excuse for turning pale (4) 4. Jeered at having eaten greedily (7) 8. Two varieties of cheese in north London? (5,7) 9. Breathing spaces (8) 10. Stop the flow along the main axis (4) 12. Twigs that part of candle is about to be returned (6) 14. Strong drink to sing about (6) 16. Still level (4) 17. Superior blow a boxer might receive (8) 20. Ragged boy from Somerset town had feature about old city (6,6) 21. You were curtailed twice in German capital when moving rapidly up and down (2-5) 22. In County Mayo kept an oxen harness (4) Down 2. Fifty females in Sussex town (5) 3. Affirmed that red seats had been reallocated (8) 4. Upset with the French implement (6) 5. Curse, there is no fancy hat! (4) 6. Floor of tenth apartment? (7) 7. Gorgeous person might date Rambo! (9) 9. Modern island state (3,6) 11. Try chest made out of elastic! (8) 13. Distinctly free from obstruction before second half of July (7) 15. Leapt when the odds were called (6) 18. Sound of coins coming from narrow opening (5) 19. Still I follow abominable creature (4)

QUICK CLUES

Across 1. Friend (4) 4. Tied shoes (5,2) 8. Photo given too much light (12) 9. Saying little (8) 10. Modern Siamese (4) 12. Forming a hard mass (6) 14. Royal son (6) 16. In the same place (4) 17. Gallantry (8) 20. Understandable (12) 21. Eastern county (7) 22. Dismiss (4) Down 2. Chaos (5) 3. Deserving (8) 4. Sumptuousness (6) 5. Congeal (4) 6. Heir to French throne (7) 7. Exactly (9) 9. Skilful mover (9) 11. Predominates (8) 13. Trinket (anag.) (7) 15. Contract (6) 18. Flowering tree (5) 19. As well (4)

44 | BIGISSUE.COM

9

10 11

12

13 13

11

14 15

16

15

17

18

19

18

20

21

22

ughest o t d n o c e s e h T tain.

Sudoku in Bri

SUDOKU

9

7 1 5 1 3 5 9 6 4 5

4 2 6 8

3

9

7 2

1 4 9 3

ISSUE 1462 ANSWERS

CRYPTIC: Across – 1 Growling; 6 Toga; 8 Revamp; 9 Catkin; 10 Discounter; 12 Hankie; 14 Victor; 15 Crosswinds; 19 Horrid; 20 Abroad; 21 Paul; 22 Wheatear.

Down – 2 Rued; 3 Weald; 4 Impasse; 5 Gecko; 6 Titanic; 7 Guide dog; 11 Catriona; 13Kestrel; 14 Vintage; 16 Widow; 17 Strut; 18 Data.

QUICK: Across – 1 Grumbled; 6 Port; 8 Singly; 9 Trough; 10 Calumniate; 12 Spotty; 14 Day off; 15 Scurrilous; 19 Impale; 20 Mallow; 21 Anno; 22 Tennyson.

Down – 2 Rail; 3 Magic; 4 Loyalty; 5 Datum; 6 Prodigy; 7 Right off; 11 Spaceman; 13Tornado; 14 Doorman; 16 Inert; 17 Silly; 18 Como.

7 9 3 2 8 5 4 1 6

6 1 8 7 9 4 2 3 5

5 4 2 6 3 1 8 9 7

1 5 6 3 4 9 7 8 2

3 8 4 1 7 2 5 6 9

9 2 7 5 6 8 1 4 3

8 6 9 4 5 7 3 2 1

4 7 1 9 2 3 6 5 8

2 3 5 8 1 6 9 7 4

FROM 24 MAY 2021

Wise guy? Let The Big Issue's trivia buf test your brainpower NEED HELP? Why not get together with other

Big Issue readers on Twitter – @BigIssue Get the answers in next week's mag! Good luck

1. St Machar’s Cathedral is a landmark in which Scottish city?

2. Which UK police procedural show ran for 88 episodes on the BBC between 1980 and 1985?

3. Which UK band’s drummers have included Alan White and Tony McCarroll?

4. Which BBC Radio presenter’s show features the popular quiz game Popmaster?

5. In which year did former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher die?

11. Who is the current head coach of the Northern Ireland football team?

12. The Bayreuther Festspielhaus was conceived and built by which composer?

13. How many notes are on a standard grand piano?

14. Which city is served by Daxing International Airport?

15. Which UK chocolate bar has been advertised with the tagline ‘the taste of paradise’?

16. What does HSBC stand for?

6. On a dartboard, what number is directly opposite number one?

17. What is the square root of 169?

7. In Rugby Union, which country will the British Lions tour this summer?

8. Which is the common nickname of the state of California?

9. What is the name of Poland in Polish?

18. Forwards I am heavy, backwards I am not. What am I? 19. Which country hosted and won the first Eurovision Song Contest in 1956?

20. COP26 takes place in Glasgow later this year. In 2019, where was COP25 held?

10. Which legendary musician was born on November 12, 1945 in Toronto?

Alan Woodhouse is a Big Issue journalist, trivia bu�f and quizzer @Woodhouse_72 1462 answers 1. Moscow 2. Baker Street 3. Craig Phillips 4. Hussein 5. Mercredi 6. Virginia Woolf 7. My Octopus Teacher 8. 1904 9. A cob 10. Coldplay 11. The lev 12. Antimatter 13. A rabbit 14. Nevada 15. Volleyball 16. George Harrison (she later married Eric Clapton) 17. Octagon 18. Egypt 19. Islands in the Stream 20. Bacon FROM 24 MAY 2021

FOUNDERS John Bird and Gordon Roddick GROUP CHAIR Nigel Kershaw GROUP CEO Paul Cheal MANAGING DIRECTOR Russell Blackman EDITORIAL & PRODUCTION Editor Paul McNamee Deputy editor Steven MacKenzie Digital editor Alastair Reid Digital producer Laura Kelly Senior reporter Liam Geraghty Sta�f reporter Hannah Westwater Books editor Jane Graham News & entertainment Adrian Lobb Radio Robin Ince Music Malcolm Jack and Claire Jackson Art director Ross Lesley-Bayne Production editor Sarah Reid Production journalist Alan Woodhouse Senior designer Gillian Smith Junior designer Matthew Costello GENERAL ENQUIRIES Tel 0141 352 7260 Email editorial@bigissue.com Web bigissue.com Twitter @BigIssue Facebook facebook.com/bigissueuk Instagram @bigissueuk For Big Issue vendors in need of support or to find out about becoming a vendor CALL 0207 526 3200 (Option 1) EMAIL vendor.support@bigissue.com ADVERTISING 020 3890 3899 Classified and recruitment 020 3890 3744 Group advertising director Andrea Mason Advertising director Helen Ruane THE BIG ISSUE GROUP 020 7526 3200 113-115 Fonthill Road, Finsbury Park, London, N4 3HH Executive director Lara McCullagh Director of sales & operations Chris Falchi-Stead Head of partnerships & programmes Beth Thomas Group central services director Keren Segal Big Issue Invest CEO Danyal Sattar

SUBSCRIPTIONS Print: Three, six or 12-month subscriptions are available from bigissue.com/support or call us on 01604 267468, email: service@subs.bigissue.com Digital: Purchase via The Big Issue UK app AWARDS PPA Scotland magazine of the year, 2020, 2019, 2017 PPA Scotland Best Covid Response 2020 Paul McNamee PPA Scotland editor of the year 2019, BSME British editor of the year 2016, 2013 Ross Lesley-Bayne PPA Scotland designer of the year 2019 Jane Graham PPA Scotland writer of the year 2018 BSME cover of the year 2017

BIGISSUE.COM | 45

MY PITCH

JOSH CLARKE, 29

PITCH: Co-op, Henleaze Road, Bristol I struggled a bit with lockdown but I hit my sales target quite a lot when I was out in summer, which helped. When I came back out on my pitch it was slow to begin with and it’s only started picking up a few weeks later. I think it’s mainly because there are a lot of older ones in this community and if they’ve been inside for a long time it takes them a while to get used to going out again. I understand it, because of what we’ve all been through it’s got to everyone.

Everyone knows me here, they’ll tell you I’m very friendly.

I keep an eye on the older ones, and if I see something that doesn’t look right I’ll help them along. I’d been worried about them but I’ve started seeing them again now. Today was my busiest day, I’ve sold 25 magazines in just the morning – which is more than I’d sold in all the time I’d been back since April 12. I think that’s because I’ve been putting in the hours and so people are starting to realise that I’m back.

For me, selling The Big Issue goes back a couple of years to when I had nothing and was sleeping outside. Before that I was just sitting on the pavement to make my money, until the people round here told me to get on to The Big Issue. I tried out this pitch and I’ve been on it ever since. It’s nice for everyone to see that I’m on my feet now and that I’ve got the skills to deal with customers.

I’m living in the community and I’ve got a roof over my head. I was on the streets for five-and-a-half years until a lady did a crowdfunding thing for me in 2019. Everyone chipped in around the area and that’s how they got me a room in a shared house. I haven’t been back on the streets since. I feel safer, more secure, and I know I’ve got somewhere to go at night rather than worrying about where I’m going to sleep.

I’ve got a tremendous community around me. The customers like me because of who I am and because I’ve got

’I was on the streets for fve years until locals did a crowdfunder for me’ a passion about me. I suppose they just like having me around, and they know I never cause any problems or put people under pressure to buy a magazine. When I’m on my pitch, I just smile and chat.

That’s how I get people to buy from me, it’s what the people like. I just stand there with a cheerful face, always happy, and I cheer all the children up. I suppose that’s how a customer becomes a regular.

I don’t like being on my own, I like being around people. I go to various churches around Bristol for the soup runs and then I get to have a chat with the volunteers. It saves me being alone once I’ve finished on my pitch for the day.

Maybe in the future I’d like to have a job

in retail, but I’m not going to rush into it because it’s hard to get work nowadays.

I really just want to keep selling The Big Issue, because I do enjoy it.

I’ve got a community here that likes having me around so I’d rather stick with them a bit longer. I hope that I get to achieve my sales target for my magazines and that sales keep going up every week.

I’m not saving for anything in particular, but I do have to pay for my room. It’s not that cheap, but I don’t mind. Everyone’s got to pay in life, and I’m earning my money these days.

Interview: Sarah Reid Photos: Frankie Stone

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FROM 24 MAY 2021