UK pledges ‘Rooseveltian’ response to virus crisis

Britain has gone through a profound shock, says prime minister

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday the coronavirus crisis needed the type of massive economic response US president Franklin D. Roosevelt mobilized to deal with the Great Depression.

Johnson told The Times newspaper’s new radio station that Britain was heading for “bumpy times” as it struggles through its biggest economic contraction on record. He intends to unveil a spending program in a speech on Tuesday his office has simply dubbed “build, build, build.”

“I think this is the moment for a Rooseveltian approach to the UK,” said Johnson. “I really think the investment will pay off.”

Roosevelt launched the New Deal program in the 1930s that created a comprehensive social care system whose legacy lives on to this day.

The first part of Johnson’s initiative earmarks £1 billion ($1.2 billion) for school repairs.

“The country has gone through a profound shock,” he said.

“We really want to build back better, to do things differently, to invest in infrastructure, transport, broadband — you name it.” Johnson won an impressive 80-seat majority in December by