What's real?

As I write this, I'm sitting in central London waiting to present a tax seminar. It's a glorious day outside (almost as good weather as we experienced at our recent overseas conference, but that's a story for another day...!) and it's made me think about how sometimes a gloss can be put on things. Just as the sun can brighten the darkest corners of our cities, so can glossy marketing material mask a darker reality. Only last week, we found a contractor website stating quite proudly that their loans were "never repayable". Oh really?! You can guess what we'll be talking about at our tax seminar this afternoon....!