The Big Issue seller in our town is the size of a small planet. At the end of his day he goes into the supermarket where my friend works and spends what we can only assume is his day's take on cream cakes, up to about 20 of them, which he then sits and eats. This leads us to think that while the Big Issue concept is probably a good and worthy one helping all sorts of vulnerable people, it is also open to a certain amount of abuse.