John Elsom:
I should warn you that there is more than a touch of irony about my title. I’m sorry. I can’t help it. I’m English from a certain generation and irony was our native language – but not any longer, as I shall explain. I have attended so many conferences with the title of “The Way Ahead”, or something similar, and they have often been alarmingly futuristic or defiantly backward looking – and often both. That is the great advantage of the future: it is like an inkblot. You can see almost anything into it.