Issue 1210

20 Nov 2017
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About this issue: Overview

Big Issue North’s new calendar features vendors and their much loved dogs, and is another opportunity for them to make some much needed income. On the cover and on our feature pages, meet some of its stars. The calendar’s available from vendors and shop.bigissuenorth.com.

If children are hungry they can’t learn. If supermarket waste food is not collected it goes to landfill. Former head teacher Nathan Atkinson made the connection in a Leeds primary school, with remarkable results, writes Julie Tomlin.

A rich menu of street food shows how North Korean people have survived in recent decades, but also makes it hard for outsiders to see if sanctions are hurting ordinary people. By James Pearson and Seung-Woo Yeom.

In arts and entertainment, folk singer Peggy Seeger is still touring at the age of 82, there’s a new Taylor Swift record to be reviewed and there are books by psychological thriller writer Linda Green and former prime minister Gordon Brown.

On the news pages, we ask whether universities can justify huge salaries for chief executives when academics are being laid off and students are plunged into huge debts.

Columnist Roger Ratcliffe has a front seat at a new pantomime version of Brexit, there’s our crossword and Sudoku – and a chance to win great Big Issue North merchandise.