Issue 1222

12 Feb 2018
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About this issue: Overview

If they weren’t regular customers already, the people who generously gave up their time to try selling Big Issue North for an hour last week all vowed not to walk past their vendor again. Read how everyone from Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham to DJ and author Dave Haslam got on.

Gay rights took a backward step 30 years ago with a new law prohibiting the promotion of homosexuality in schools. Fear of falling foul of the law still exists, even though it’s been repealed. But the campaign against it also galvanised gay people, writes Christian Lisseman

The streets of Moss Side may seem like an unlikely training ground for someone hoping for a medal in the Winter Olympics bobsleigh just getting underway. Lamin Deen tells Stuart Holmes he could have gone off the tracks.

Plus news, arts and entertainment, MP Jess Phillips’ letter to her younger raver self, columnist Roger Ratcliffe on the menace of plastic, crossword, Sudoku and more.