How Ira Gershwin foresaw the success of online shopping

That Ira Gershwin knew what he was writing about with his lyrics, you know. Noting that they all laughed when Edison recorded sound, and that they told Marconi his wireless was a phony, Ira observed it was the same old cry – and he had learnt from history how many times the worm had turned.

We, of course, down here, take absolutely no pleasure in the discomfiture of naysayers at the news that spending on online shopping is set to double this Christmas while more earthbound retailers report a bit of a struggle and are having to bring their New Year sales season forward.

No, let us, as ever, be positive. Apart from dusting down our Sinclair C5, plugging in the eight-track cartridge player and checking the Lymeswold recipe, we thought it might be instructive to further point up the dangers of premature rejection with this selection of quotations:

"This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us." – Western Union internal memo, 1876. "Airplanes are interesting toys, but of no military value." – Marshal Foch.

"Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're crazy." – reaction to Edwin L Drake, the father of the petroleum industry and first man to drill for oil, 1859. "Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?" – HM Warner of Warner Brothers, 1927. "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." – Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.

We found them on the internet. Ha, ha, ha, who's got the last laugh now?