BIRMINGHAM City Council are to outsource IT jobs to Mumbai. This means 100 jobs currently occupied by local people in the city will cease to exist by the end of the year, which makes good economic sense. Creating jobs half a world away and leaving 100 skilled people unemployed in your own city.

Off-shoring has become common. How often have you phoned your bank and discovered you are talking to someone where the spoken English is different and the idioms you use may not be understood?

But the Birmingham decision takes the practice to new levels. It is the first time a council has moved posts abroad. You can bet your bottom dollar it will not be the last.

Before long, other councils could do the same. Any jobs that are done via telephone or computer could be at risk. Finance could be relocated to Karachi, planning to Hong Kong, the chief executive to the room above Cafe Nawa in Palembang. Everyone in management can go.

Blips, of course, might occur. Those libraries that are still open might only stock books in Vietnamese because of an ordering mistake by head of department in Ho Chi Minh City.

Never mind. It will just prove people aren’t borrowing like they used to so more libraries can be closed with a clear conscience, saving even more money and sacking even more staff.

Birmingham, what have you started?