FOLLOWING the news that the Government is asking departments across Whitehall to take on people under the new deal, we learn: "Britain is facing a looming jobs crisis" and "Every 10 minutes a job is being lost in private industry".

The Government's response is to urge departments to recruit more New Dealers as civil servants. Expanding public sector employment is the worst sort of economic policy which failed in the past.

The Government proudly claims the 20,000 employers have signed on to the New Deal. But we know that only 5,000 employers have taken on a new dealer. Government departments are as wary of the New Deal as everyone else.

R G King

Highgrove, Astley Bridge, Bolton

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.