The Big Issue

Does anyone else buy this magazine?The vendor that i get my copy from told me today that his most regular customers are middle aged women.He then went on to tell me that he never manages to flog any to people between the ages of 16-30. So does anyone here buy it? and how much do you give?

I always try to as a point of principle. The mag is £1.50 so £2 seems fair. I take it you are a recent arrival, if so all the best:)

Found an old copy i'd forgot i had from 2002 recently.Ian Curtis , Barney and Shaun Ryder on the front with a piece inside about the release of 24 Hour Party People.The only other time i bought it was when Doves were on the front in 2005 when Some Cities came out.Oh and aslo have a copy that coincided with the release of Lemon Jelly's 64-95 album also in 2005.Hope those titbits of important info are of help

Most of the vendors ive seen selling it are junkies,

so we just point and laugh at them...

I don't buy it. Turning these unfortunates into mini-capitalists aint gonna begin to solve their problems. Focus on the root cause of personalised drug-use; unemployment, lack of opportunity, decrepit housing schemes full of the dispossesed etc etc if you want to make a difference. Buying the magazine is just an exercise in easing your conscience.

And while you can understand and empathise with the circumstances which have led to someone becoming a junkie scumbag, they're still, at the end of the day, a junkie scumbag and they'll not be getting any cashmoney out of me. As Gaz points out, every one of them up here is a shuffling skeleton of a smackhead. Apart from the wee Romanian lady outside my local Greggs who bitterly curses you in Romanian if you walk past without buying one!

I was walking through Stockport with my Mum a few years ago. A young girl offered her a Big Issue and my Mum declined. "Oh go on," said the girl, "it's my last one." My Mum agreed to buy it, then offered the killer line "Can you go home when you've sold them all?"

"Err no." said the girl.

(Sorry Mum)

I haven't bought one yet. I'd rather give them money, when I feel rich, rather than buying something out of pity I'm not going to read. They get like half their turnover to keep.