I was stopped on Bold Street this evening by a woman wearing a Big Issue jacket. “Hello beautiful,” she said. That put me on my guard straight away — no-one calls me beautiful unless they want something.
She went on: “Got any money for me so I can sleep indoors tonight?”
I mumbled something about not having change and walked off.
The point is, the Big Issue make a big deal out of the whole “working, not begging” thing. In fact, their Vendor Code of Conduct explicitly says begging is not allowed. So what was she playing at?