John Bird

1 day ago | bigissue.com | John Bird

Our class system is unchanged since the Victorian times. That's why we're in such a mess The ninepenny wash and brush-up at Waverley station in Edinburgh was the best I have ever had. A wash and brush-up was where you got to half-strip in a bathroom and got in a good clean, with razors for shaving to add to the sense of cleanliness. Going into J Sainsbury pre-supermarket – when it was an old-fashioned Victorian-looking place – to buy a halfpenny’s worth of broken biscuits was a joy.

1 week ago | bigissue.com | John Bird

In all of John's weekly columns for Big Issue, there's one overriding topic that keeps the ink and ideas flowing Each Wednesday morning I rise early and begin the process of writing my 800/900 word column. For 30 years I have been doing the same. That’s about 45,000 words a year, multiplied by 30 equals 1,350,000 words. One day I hope to go through this mountain of words and extract the most useful of them. Some, I remember, are precise and clever, thoughtful and clear.

2 weeks ago | bigissue.com | John Bird

Too many people suggest we have entered a ‘truthless’ time, when the old politenesses of hiding reality has simply been kicked around and devalued The Guardian insists that we need truth now more than ever, at a time when we are led to believe that truth has been devalued wholesale. ‘Truth’, what is true, they say, is being destroyed; and that leads to a weakening and potential collapse of our civilisation.

3 weeks ago | sourceglobalresearch.com | John Bird

The story of the consulting market in Europe can’t be told by looking at this market in isolation. The geopolitical shifts of 2024 and 2025 that have created a climate of uncertainty in Europe have been driven as much by the actions of the new US administration as decisions closer to home. With the US becoming more unpredictable, sectors like manufacturing may take a direct hit from trade policy changes, and there could be a ripple of other impacts.

3 weeks ago | bigissue.com | John Bird

Skip to header Skip to main content Don’t miss this offer - 8 issues for just £9.99 Why not convert the natural and deeply human desire to help into something more useful than a food parcel? The only time I met with the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, it was to discuss poverty, and replacing ‘handouts’ with ‘hand-ups’.