THE ridiculously spun Tory budget was so dull and unimaginative yet illuminated unintentionally by the backdrop provided by the Mini car plant in Oxford during the BBC news Budget report.

Was this the future of British employment before our very eyes?

Because there were no human workers to be seen, just robot after robot.

In fact we learnt there are now 1,000 robot workers “employed” at the plant.

The economic problem is that robots don’t buy cars even though they will soon be driving them if Google have their way. Google and Amazon have acquired robotics companies and Amazon already uses them to assist human workers.

As robotics advances, people will price themselves out of jobs if they become too “greedy” by demanding a living wage.

Will it take a new breed of politician to realise that benefits will have to be replaced with direct social intervention as robotics devalues human labour?

One thing about robots is that they do as they are instructed, rather like Labour MPs supporting the Tory Welfare cap.

Yet more evidence that Labour is not representing the working class but Tory cuts instead.

Tom Scaife, Manor Drive, York.