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.