LOOKING through the Echo I found Julia Breen aka the Prophet of Doom whining on about what a desperate place the UK will be once we are on the far side of Brexit (Echo, Feb 14).

Never happy words from Julia, just doom and gloom and of course as we know doom and gloom festers and takes even happy people down with it.

In the past Julia has had the UK in a crisis – this time it’s doom gloom and the excitement of a half spent jam pot.

Lets look to see what is really going on. Is it all doom and gloom?

We missed going into an economic depression by 0.1%. Yes we did miss economic depression but that’s if you are German!

We’ve got regular riots and unrest in the major cities. Yes we have if we are French and wearing a yellow hi-viz vests.

Our economy is poor. Yes the economy is poor if you are Italian or Spanish. It’s amazing how adding the odd word such as French or German can totally change an outcome.

On balance had the EU been run with honesty and integrity I believe it would have been a good thing. The Swiss saw where things were going, changed their mind about joining the EU and in 2016 withdrew their application. Switzerland is trading quite nicely with the EU through bilateral agreements and doesn’t appear to have an acute shortage of medication, food or even jam.

Often big is beautiful but in the tragic event of the RMS Titanic in April 1912 the smaller lifeboats that went out on their own proved to be the better option and many of those who got on them lived to tell the tale. (Note: unlikely to be any jam in a small lifeboat).

There is a rumour that the UK still has the resource and know-how to make jam so hopefully Theresa, whoever she May be, and Julia’s jam pots will never be empty.

Michael McLaren, Witton le Wear