Comment: Optician helps you study the facts

Everyone is an economist these days. Turn on the TV and you will be confronted by a legion of hacks chatting to each other about the ramifications of the comprehensive spending review, the impact of the national debt and the likelihood of a double dip.

When journalists aren't talking to each other they call on the lobbyists and pressure groups to spout off their own schoolboy theories about the economy. Even the Chancellor of the Exchequer's economic credentials have been questioned while the shadow chancellor is, according to the media, a bit of a stranger to the Treasury.

We have to hope there are some professionals within the Treasury. They have drawn up the CSR and it certainly wasn't designed to win votes. If it teaches us one thing it is that for the next few years we have got to listen to our heads and not our hearts when it comes to business. The positive spending intentions of practices were highlighted by the Birmingham Optical Group-sponsored research revealed in Optician (08.10.10) and this has been backed up by other finance providers (see News).