Big Issue Sellers

Big Issue sellers, right. Now, before I start ranting on, I of all people are the first to reward enterprise over plain and simple begging. These guys are out there in all sorts flogging a shite magazine when they could be simply sat there with a mongrel and an old McDonalds cup asking for money. So there. Enterprise is good. Enterprise works. God I sound like Gordon Gheko from Wall St.

Anyway, I wonder how many of the Manchester Big Issue sellers actually read the thing before they try and flog it? I ask this because I reckon most of them can't speak English. I'll grant you they're virtually all immigrants, so I applaud them for getting out there and working instead of claiming asylum and associated benefits (they wouldn't do both, would they, and even Manchester in February must be warmer than Kurdistan with an AK47 up your arse).

I digress. The reason I don't think they can speak English is their pitch, which basically consists of standing there in a high viz jacket saying, "Big Issue, please?" with an inflection that leaves you in no doubt their asking a begging question. And you just feel like saying, "Mate, you've got a pile of the sodding things in your other arm, so stop asking me for one!!". And if that doesn't work, look around you. In St Anne's Square the other day there were four Big Issue sellers. They're springing up like fucking Starbucks!