Road to the future lined with signposts to the past

The internet seemed like speedy boarding to the future, but it reeks of the past. The net's ubiquity is accompanied by the ubiquity of almost anything anyone can be bothered to dredge up, from whenever.

Why, just this week an innocent search for ITV Racing (the quest goes on) turned up the Wikipedia entry for the ITV Seven. For modern-shaped readers, the ITV Seven consisted of seven races (weather permitting) on ITV every Saturday in the old times. It was also the name of a tricky associated bet ("exceptionally hard" says Wikipedia).

Now it's been announced that Brough Scott, an ITV Seven presenter, will be back on ITV racing next year. Sadly, parts of racing sometimes express a stubborn desire to avoid the present, and possibly the future, preferring to make like a lamplighters' convention with 8oz of bacon and 3oz of lard for the catering. But it's good to have a link to your foundations and a bit of gravitas - otherwise we'd all be sort of floating in the air - and the addition of Scott to the ITV team provides both.