Towards a modern New Deal

Good to see Will Hutton writing about Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration in today’s Observer. I am convinced that the government needs to start looking at some seriously imaginative work creation schemes. Not everyone will be capable of putting in roof insulation or laying broadband cables. The WPA produced a generation of artists, writers and actors who benefitted from state support in the 1930s. This may smack of socialism but these are desperate times, and who knows what crazy ideas will be needed to bring us through this recession?

Since I wrote about my idea for a New Deal of the Mind for the 21st century, I have been contacted by several people who want to get involved. So watch this space for news of the project.

I write this from Portmeirion in North Wales, where Editorial Intelligence has gathered together a group of weirdos and freaks to reimagine the way we live.