My tale necessarily comes to an arbitrary halt as narrative of the past gives way to speculation about the future. The forward thrust of developing events will undoubtedly continue but for me, this is a moment for reflection. In the Introduction I lamented the fact that ‘we never learn’ from past experience. It is incumbent on me, therefore, at this point to demonstrate the relevance of my backward look to the process of planning for the future. What lessons are to be learned from the past, what guidance derived as we make our way into the unpredictable territory of the next century?

I could respond by meticulously itemising every incident in the narrative on which my argument is based because every conclusion I have come to is solidly grounded in my own experience. But to do so would be tedious in the extreme; all the more so because much of my evidence is anecdotal or comes from reports and committee records that are no longer readily available.