Paul McNamee

1 month 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.

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?

2 months 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.

2 months 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.

2 months 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.