Advertisement
Opinion

Paul McNamee: We’ve got to grab 2018 and shake it up. Together

Of course, it’s easy to focus on the bleak things around us. But there is hope. Always. Everybody who buys The Big Issue is helping to make a positive change.

The year started with concern over a transatlantic special relationship. Would he like her? Would she take his hand? Would they ride off into the sunset proclaiming that the people had spoken and to challenge them was the way to madness.

It’d be November before Harry and Meghan announced their engagement.

For Donald and Theresa the road was rockier. By the end of the year, they were barely speaking. Also, by the end of the year, councillors in Bristol were putting metal spikes to stop birds landing IN TREES for fear of messing up some residents’ nice cars beneath. What a time to be alive!

Clearly, nobody can see what is around the corner.

Plans and predictions will make fools of us all. Had Theresa May had second sight, there is little chance she’d have called an election. There is little chance she’d have suffered such a bloodied nose. And there is little chance The Big Issue/UNILAD interview with Jeremy Corbyn would have happened, clearly tipping the scales and affecting the outcome. Clearly.

Of course, it’s easy to focus on the bleak things around us. To the Universal Credit crush that is tipping some of the most impoverished into deeper crisis. To the spike in homelessness figures, to the flattening of wages, to a sense of things closing in.

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
Advertisement

But there is hope. Always. Everybody who buys The Big Issue is helping to make a positive change. Every community has champions, some unheralded, who are fighting to bring those around them back up. There are social enterprises and third sector heroes who, with help and support, can grow and flourish. If 2018 can be anything, it can be year of looking around, seeing where a hand can be offered and step by step change can come.

It’s not going to trickle down. We’ve got to grab it and shake it up.

Also, there is a chance we’re not alone in the universe. THAT is a hell of a thought.

Here’s to 2018 and the good things that can come.

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty

SIGN THE PETITION

Will you sign Big Issue's petition to ask Keir Starmer to pass a Poverty Zero law? It's time to hold government to account on poverty once and for all.

Recommended for you

Read All
MPs must vote down Labour's benefits cuts – the health of the nation is at stake
disability benefits cuts protest
Mikey Erhardt

MPs must vote down Labour's benefits cuts – the health of the nation is at stake

Delivery bikes outside hotels prove only one thing: The ban on work for asylum seekers must be lifted
Deliveroo delivery person on a bicycle
Nathan Philips

Delivery bikes outside hotels prove only one thing: The ban on work for asylum seekers must be lifted

Oasis songs speak to people in a way other artists only dream of
Paul McNamee

Oasis songs speak to people in a way other artists only dream of

The broken driving test system proves our public services are fraying at the edges
Stock image of a London street with cars and buses
James Rose

The broken driving test system proves our public services are fraying at the edges

Most Popular

Read All
Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits
Renters: A mortgage lender's window advertising buy-to-let products
1.

Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal
Pound coins on a piece of paper with disability living allowancve
2.

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over
next dwp cost of living payment 2023
3.

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over

Citroën Ami: the tiny electric vehicle driving change with The Big Issue
4.

Citroën Ami: the tiny electric vehicle driving change with The Big Issue