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6 days ago | 
bigissue.com | Paul McNamee |Paul Mcnamee
Where does plagiarism, theft and breach of copyright end? Where tech companies find it inconvenient and say it ends, evidently It’s never been completely clear whose interests Nick Clegg wanted to serve. In the coalition he was pitched as the tempering voice, supposedly saving the country from the worst excesses of a Conservative party desperate to cut, cut, cut. One word, Nick – austerity. Then came the university fees U-turn and his supplication.
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1 week ago | 
bigissue.com | Paul McNamee |Paul Mcnamee
Flowers can hear. This is great, if surprising news. But can they also sing? Frequently, the stories that will make you feel better are tucked away. So it is with the plants and the bees. Flowers can hear. This is great, if surprising news. They respond to the buzzing of nearby bees and produce more sugar in their nectar – by volume and concentration – making them more useful to the bees, and to the world.
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2 weeks ago | 
bigissue.com | Paul McNamee |Paul Mcnamee
Sign the Big Issue petition calling for a Poverty Zero law There is a sense of real frustration at the Labour government in Westminster, and their latest moves aren't helping Recently, Big Issue was in Cardiff. Obviously, we’re in Wales all the time. Our vendors sell the magazine across the country and have done for years. But we were there with our Big Community Roadshow. We kicked the roadshow initiative off in Newcastle last autumn.
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3 weeks ago | 
bigissue.com | Paul McNamee |Paul Mcnamee
Under 30? Your doorway to living in the EU could be about to open When is an EU-UK wide youth mobility scheme not an EU-UK wide youth mobility scheme? When the Westminster government says it’s not. Even when it really looks like it is!As one-liners go this is not exactly a zinger. The Schrödinger’s cat of international movement policy reform is not going to have the crowd calling out for more. Unless Bob Mortimer delivers it. But the change it signifies is welcome.
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1 month ago | 
bigissue.com | Paul McNamee |Paul Mcnamee
Denying the reality about climate change and net zero is a waste of energy What would you do if the lights went out, like in Spain and Portugal – if everything closed down? Go for a walk? Go native, and head for the hills, with an air rifle and a Bear Grylls book? Sit at a piano until you’d taught yourself the chord pattern for Werewolves of London?
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1 month ago | 
bigissue.com | Paul McNamee |Paul Mcnamee
The widespread fury at the failings of water companies is driving an appetite for more public ownership The Boat Race is a curious phenomenon. Two of the most recognisable universities in the world, bywords for a certain establishment elitism, compete in a sport that is closed off to most people. That the BBC still talk it up and run it live says more about the straitened times the broadcaster finds itself in than the broad desire to see the blues give it some welly at Putney Bridge.
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1 month ago | 
bigissue.com | Paul McNamee |Paul Mcnamee
The importance of trees cannot be over-estimated. Government should be supported in efforts to increase numbers From my house, I see a lot of trees. We live on the edge of the city, just before it butts into the country, and the view from the back, over rooftops, is of trees. They climb out from the White Cart river valley, and up over the hill towards Glasgow. Mostly birch, ash and some oak, they signal the seasons. In winter frost sits between them.
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1 month ago | 
bigissue.com | Paul McNamee |Paul Mcnamee
This is how the US tariff war could affect your bin collection Last week, a man dressed as a giant rat stood up at a city council meeting in Birmingham to ask about the ongoing bin-collection strikes. He said he was the ‘Selly Oak rat’. I think it was a man. The rats rummaging amongst the uncollected 21,000 tonnes (21,000!) of rubbish in the city recently hit the ‘size of a small kitten’ stage. By the time you read this, they may have got to the size of a dire wolf. Or a big man.
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2 months ago | 
bigissue.com | Paul McNamee |Paul Mcnamee
There are enough reminders that life is nasty, brutish and short. Let a little light in It comes back to Rod Stewart, as things inevitably do. Or should. Many aspects of the life we live have a Rod-shaped element. Take football. Think of knockout competitions and you will think of Rod, a little jolly following a Celtic victory, drawing teams live on TV for the fifth round of the Scottish Cup, in early 2017. We’re eight years on and few moments in football have bettered that.
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2 months ago | 
bigissue.com | Paul McNamee |Paul Mcnamee
The unpopular decision to take money from society's poorest is a lost opportunity for this government to show a little bravery Sinéad Morrissey is a very fine poet. I don’t say this because she’s Irish and because of some inherent loyalty that means I have to say the Irish are the best poets. That would be crazy. Though Irish poets ARE great – obviously. And the Irish value poetry, and when you value something you respect it and take it seriously.
