The Big Issue

The Big Issue is a UK-based street paper that supports the homeless, the vulnerably housed asnd those seeking to escape poverty. Vendors normally buy the magazine for £1.25 and sell to the public for £2.50. We are using Zinio digital editions to create additonal revenue opportunities to fund our street-based and pastoral care services for our vendors. We are a social enterprise company and all revenues go to support the vulnerable communities we serve. Our goal is to move our vendors away from dependency and towards full time employment

The taste of Christmas past

THE DISPATCH • We’ve been breaking vital stories all year. Here’s an update on our ongoing investigations, and how The Big Issue made headlines in 2023

2023 was a BIG year • Big names selling the magazine, brushes with the royals and life-changing support, here’s how Big Issue changed lives through enterprise over the past year

The Big Issue

EDITOR’S LETTER • So, happy Christmas. I can see a better time

BIRD’S WORDS • To eliminate poverty, we have to aim for the moon

I was welcomed into the UK after fleeing the Nazis. Government hostility towards today’s refugees is unconscionable

LETTERS

Christmas IN A HOSTEL • In tough times, community provides a vital lifeline. With the cost of living crisis more keenly felt than ever, we look at the projects making lives a little brighter this Christmas for those most in need

The WARMEST of WELCOMES

Missing AT Christmas

The man who would shape the UK’s future

THE BIG ISSUE XMAS QUIZ • It’s been a big year for our resident trivia buff Alan Woodhouse. He triumphed on BBC One’s Pointless (just don’t mention Ed Sheeran) and now he brings you his fiendishly difficult Christmas quiz

Dear AI, please draw us a Santa

Christmas, capitalism, the Conservative cabinet and my search for redemption

Rick Astley’s hair seems to be growing before my very eyes.

LETTER TO MY YOUNGER SELF BEST OF 2023 • In The Big Issue each week, we ask famous figures to look back and share words of wisdom with their younger selves. The interviews are always revealing, inspiring, hopeful and heartening. Here are some highlights from the last 12 months

ROBIN

Books

Here is The Big Issue’s other three top picks of the year... • After Time’s Echo, these three unputdownable reads deserve a special mention at the top of our chart for 2023

...and these were the favourites of readers around the country

TV

MY CULTURAL MOMENT OF THE YEAR • In a year of first-rate entertainment on screen, stage and airwaves, we asked a few famous faces to pick their standouts of the last 12 months

Puzzles

THE YEAR IN MY PITCH • Big Issue magazine exists to support the people who need it, and that is why our vendors provide the final word every week on the My Pitch page. Here’s some of the best quotes from our vendors in 2023