False start

As the summer marches away, we in Britain will no doubt look back in years to come and think how glorious it was. The Olympics has brought with it a definite vibe of optimism and the feel good factor from some of the great moments of the games will no doubt linger long in the memory but does the reality of the summer match the view from our red, white and blue tinted glasses? Given the summer's OFT report and the way it has been reported in the mainstream media, all those who work in dentistry should be familiar with the concept of perception being separated from reality so let's try and look at the summer objectively.

The weather was a disappointment on the whole, with record rainfall in many areas. The economic situation may have been improving but was still slow, and though the Olympics will be remembered for many gold medals – sport in general still brought us disappointment. Former British Olympic hero Amir Khan was knocked spark out to lose his title. Yes Andy Murray won gold, but the real tournament was Wimbledon where he failed in the final. And what of our national sport? England and Team GB crash out of their respective tournaments – both on penalties! So was the summer really so great? Bah humbug!