Check out our Page 3!

In this weeks issue…

Page 3. It’s here, every edition, a glorious in your face celebration – a new vendor every time. It’s why as The Big Issue we do what we do, so we thought we’d make something of it.

Ahead of his first solo exhibition as a painter, The Clash legend Paul Simonon says music now is too safe and boring. He tells Brendan O’Neill he wants the new generation to “find their voice and speak about their time”.

Our Letter to My Younger Self is with Dylan Moran. It is a belter. The “Irish Catholic thing” never leaves you, he says. But that doesn’t stop him laying into the Church and the Pope. Funny and fearless.

There has been much made this week about the Oxfam figures claiming 1% of the global population is as wealthy as much of the other 99%. We gather a panel of economists and social academics to assess the figures, question what is the reality of them and to see if there are proper solutions. The outcomes may surprise.

John Bird this week considers the fall of civilisation. Will the choking vine of smartphone addiction bring us to our knees, he wonders?

Our featured vendor this week is Andrew McCarry. He’s there on the cover, showing from page 3. More inside about his future plans.

Samira Ahmed takes a look at Hong Kong and where the state is post-protests. And where they might be going.

There is much else besides, of course – including Gavin Pretor-Pinney, chief of the Cloud Appreciation Society explaining how to properly spot clouds; our man Steven MacKenzie has constructed a curious multi-ringed Venn diagram to allow you to see how Churchill you are. Though you may be more Mandela. Or Einstein. It’s complicated. Meatloaf is also inside and very funny. There is a guide to the 5 literary heroines every young girl should meet as well as a guide to another little known hidden treasure of Britain.