Inside the Big Issue: Rob Delaney on housing for nurses, Robin Hood politics and Deadpool

“Big Issue? Let’s go,” says Rob Delaney. “I read the Big Issue all the time. My kids read it. I’m thrilled.” It’s been quite a week for Delaney. Not only is he promoting Deadpool & Wolverine, the biggest movie of his career, by talking to his favourite magazine, but there has also just been a general election. For the first time since settling in the UK in 2014, Boston-born writer-comedian-actor Delaney is not living under a Tory government.

How is he feeling? Is the mood music in the country noticeably different? “It does feel a little bit different. Anything that gives people a little beacon of hope is always positive,” says Delaney. “I wasn’t telling people to go vote Labour this time, for a variety of reasons, but I’m entirely prepared to give Starmer and company at least a 20-minute grace period. Because if they succeed, we all win.

“I’m one of those people that sees a vote as transactional. I want people to get something. They’re going to ban new drilling and there’s the wealth fund. So there are some good ideas. But I want nurses to be able to afford to live within 40 minutes of the Central London hospital they work in and things like that. There are real issues with housing.”

Read the full exclusive interview with Rob Delaney in this week’s magazine.

What else is in this week’s Big Issue?

Big Issue Summer Survival guide

Children are wild with excitement because the summer holidays are here (and have been for a few weeks already in Scotland). Weeks free of homework and maths lessons? Sign us up. But parents know it can be a constant challenge to keep kids entertained.

But there is support available, and the Big Issue’s Summer Survival Guide is back to help you navigate the holidays. We’ve rounded up our top tips, and we’ll keep directing families to places they can get help this summer.

One of the biggest crises facing the UK is barely talked about – the crisis of an ageing population

Despite steering the Labour Party to a landslide victory, for Keir Starmer, the hard work is only beginning. He faces an inbox full of problems, from crumbling national infrastructure to polluted rivers and ballooning NHS waiting lists. But one of the foremost crises facing the UK is barely mentioned: the ageing population. Decades of low birth rates combined with increasing life expectancy means that the UK, like many western states, is ageing rapidly.

Dame Laura Kenny’s Letter to My Younger Self

As a teenager, the UK’s most-decorated female Olympian was painfully shy at school, but down at the cycling track she showed everyone who was boss.

“When I was in the velodrome I was brimming with confidence,” she said. “And I loved the people down there, they made me feel like me. I hated school, literally hated it.”

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