Are we going to hell in a handcart? Only if you ignore these green shoots

HOW many times, dear reader, over the last few months, in conversations with friends and colleagues, over dinner or coffee, have you discussed how depressing the UK is right now?

- Emily Sheffield

I had this very conversation with a Spanish friend of mine yesterday, who cannot wait to escape London for Madrid for two weeks. I admit I was practically begging to get on the aeroplane with her. Because there is a declinist stupor that has gripped us, a morose acceptance that, frankly, this country is heading only in one direction.

One gloomy economic forecast after the next assails us, along with dreary grey weather and inflation, rising mortgages and hideous news from Ukraine. Then there's Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt talking on and on about hard days ahead (enough now we've got the message). The temptation to stay snuggled under the covers, rather than get out and battle another day... sometimes it is overwhelming.

And yet, there is a tougher part within us. We must push back against the endless grim reapers hovering over Britain Plc and their defeatist voices. And pull back that duvet. Economists often get their forecasts wrong. This is a fact. The IMF has frequently consigned our economy to the scrapheap, only to have to reverse their doom-mongering.