The Big Issue: Working for 23 years

Go and get some candles…

The Big Issue is 23. That’s beginning to feel like a good, long time. And we’re not done yet.

To celebrate our landmark, readers celebrate their vendors. From across Britain, the men and women who have become vital parts of their community are noted and thanked. From 91-year-old Mrs E Handford, for whom a vendor is one of the only people she has to speak to in the world, to celebrity supporters like Noel Fielding, readers salute. Dive in.

“And so Michael Caine told me this joke…” Our Letter To My Younger Self is with Roger Moore. It’s as good and reflective and self-deprecating as you’d imagine. Do you how many James Bond films he’s seen? Or which is his wife’s favourite? Find out here. It’ll shock Alan Partridge.

MP Chris Bryant, who has written a fantastic biography of Parliament (called Parliament: The Biography), unpicks David Cameron’s English votes for English laws plan. Yes, devolve more, but learn from history and beware of overly-simplistic, pandering, ill-thought out policies, he warns.

John Bird is this week is also looking to learn from history. Beware of the well-intentioned rescuer of the poor, he says, adding, “The best thing you can do for the poor is give them the privilege of joining the same class as the helper.”

Also, we have MacKenzie Crook on his obsession with collecting coins, Sam Delaney attempting to go viral and news from inside the Newham Focus E15 occupation.

Our featured vendor telling their story in My Pitch is Bill Webb, who works in Bournemouth. A breakdown lead to the collapse of the life he knew and he ended up living in a cave. He’s on the way back now.