Is universal basic income possible here?

In Jarrow, where jobless men once marched for work, a radical experiment in free money is unfolding.

In the Jarrow Crusade in 1936, 200 unemployed men marched from the south Tyneside town to parliament. Photo by Keystone/Getty Images

What would you do with an extra £1,600 a month? In Jarrow, a town on the south bank of the Tyne in northeast England, 15 residents are about to find out.

Here, on 5 October 1936, 200 jobless men gathered to journey on-foot to London in protest against poverty, after losing their shipyard and steelworks. In the Jarrow March, led by the local Labour MP Ellen Wilkinson, they tramped down a soggy, depression-stricken England to parliament to demand work.