Six o'clock on a fuck freezing night in Sheffield City Centre, and entering WH Smiths as per usual requires the habitual task of avoiding the dreaded obstacles otherwise known as Big Issue vendors. I find them so tiring but on this occasion, after a second glance I noticed that I recognised the vendor: Tim. Usually sitting like a puddle of human decay, begging outside some other public outlet, Tim had come across some spare copies of the magazine and was making a small fortune in illicit trade this bleak and blustery Sheffield eve. 'Do you want to buy a copy?' he said. 'No thanks' I replied, 'It's shit'. 'Yeh, I know', came the rejoinder.

That took me a back somewhat. 'Look' said Tim, 'I'll give you one for free'. I refused again. Over the past half decade my body has learned to equate possession of the Big Issue with inefficiency. Having trolled through a fair few copies I think it's a fair thing to say that desperately boring interviews written by half-witted pseudo-journalists on endless numbers of toss bands with nothing to say cannot sufficiently warrant the energy expended in carrying this excess weight. And add to that the numerous pathetic poems written by self-infatuated homeless people satiated with remorse for themselves. It's not even good for toilet roll there's that much cancer inducing carbon smeared over the pages.

You may disagree. You may be one of the sanctimonious few who enumerate rather than skilfully sidestep Big Issue vendors and you may think that the Big Issue is actually a good read. But would you seriously buy it in a shop if it was for sale at whatever price it retails for right now? No, I doubt it. The Big Issue thrives on people feeling charitable. Standing on it's own in the cut throat market of journalism, such bog standard journalism printed on bog standard paper wouldn't stand a chance. After all what's the selling pitch that you most often hear to persuade you to buy the magazine? Great interviews? Fascinating viewpoints? Interesting and enlightening documentaries? No. Help the homeless? Yes.

You might find this hard to swallow but it's a fallacy to think that buying the Big Issue is anything more than an elevated form of charity. Forget the: Yeh we give the dood some money and because he's selling a magazine it's like he's part of society thing. The Big Issue is nothing to do with the homeless helping themselves. It's simply a case of the homeless doing something that doesn't look like begging but is in reality.

But why should this contrived form of begging come about in the first place, what's wrong with normal begging? Well everything for starters. If there's one thing politicians and sanctimonious zealots can't stand it's people crumpled up in little balls of dirt begging on the street. It ruins the aesthetics of a place, is bad for business and breeds fear. So the Big Issue peeps get together and think well if we can't have people begging then perhaps we can have people begging but in a way which makes it look as if they're playing a useful part in capitalist society. Politicians get consulted and they like the idea. And Big Issue vendors are go.

So maybe there's not too much bad in the Big Issue then. It's just a political compromise. Asking beggars to smarten up a bit.

I would disagree. People don't actually see Big Issue vendors for what they are: glorified beggars, and the consequence is that normal beggars are compared with them and stigmatised even more. In addition to this, with an influx of beggars taking up the Big Issue trade, being homeless doesn't seem like such a rough ride anymore. They're earning a living aren't they and they've got nice trainers. We can forget about their problems.

As a political compromise over how we can stop beggars playing on the conscience of the city centre public, the whole concept of Big Issue contributes nothing to the eradication of homelessness. In fact it could be argued that in being responsible for giving the nasty face of homelessness a public image makeover, the Big Issue takes us even further from persuading the public that homelessness is a problem that needs to be tackled once and for all.