Shropshire Star comment: Prepare for rise of robots

Within the next 12 years, which is hardly any time at all, one in four of Telford's jobs could be lost through automation and globalisation.

And at a stroke, it's as if we're back at the beginnings of the 19th century all over again, but this time with no Ned Ludd to rally around and smash up the mechanical job-destroyers.

The claim has come from the Centre for Cities. This is, according to its website, an independent non-partisan think tank dedicated to understanding and improving UK city economies.

Threats to employment have to be taken seriously, but how seriously should we take this particular warning?

It comes at a time in which unemployment in Telford and nationwide is low, and employment is at record highs.

Technological advances have often been accompanied by warnings that by performing roles which have been performed by humans, they will take away jobs.

There is an assumption that this would be a bad thing. There is however also that strand of sci-fi in which the humans live pleasant lives of leisure and relaxation while robots do all the work. As, so far as we know, no robot has yet been devised which asks to be paid for what it does, in theory a future of blissful idleness and content beckons for humanity.

In practice, no work means no pay. You can look at virtually any industry and see how automation and computers have created a revolution. The car industry is a good example. Railways, and the fuss over whether trains need guards any more, is another. And, as it happens, the newspaper industry too.

Experience suggests that these advances do not destroy jobs, so much as job categories. You would have to hunt around to find a farrier these days, or a blacksmith, but if you want a mechanic you have thousands to choose from.

If this report from the Centre for Cities comes over as banging the gloom drum, it is not actually like that. Chief executive Andrew Carter says: "Automation and globalisation will bring huge opportunities to increase prosperity and jobs, but there is also a real risk that many people and places will lose out."

Presumably Telford has been fingered as being particularly at risk because its business landscape is more technologically based than most.

Telford & Wrekin Council leader Councillor Shaun Davies has called on the Government to create a New Town Deal with fairer funding.

That at least is something Telford folk will agree on. Nobody objects to more money coming their way.