THE debate over Brexit rolls interminably on, with the BBC reporting as I write this that "President Trump has promised a 'very big trade deal' with the UK, saying its departure from the EU will be like losing 'an anchor round the ankle'.

"Mr Trump was speaking after a breakfast meeting with Mr Johnson at the G7 summit in Biarritz in France."

This is just the latest in a very long line of stories that the BBC - in common with other media outlets - had been carrying for the last few years, all concerning the uncertainties and woes that will be faced if and when the UK gets out of the EU.

There have been the scare stores, - that we will suddenly run out of food, medicines, and even electrical power, all because of Brexit.

And this is not to mention all that weird concern over the Northern Irish border; does anybody genuinely understand what nthat is or was about?

But to what extent are these the genuine worries of ordinary people in the UK?

It's certainly not the kind of thing that I have been encountering as I talk to people on trains, in coffee shops or bars.

Could it be that panicking about Brexit is largely the preserve of what might be designated the political-media class, a largely London-based and highly self-obsessed collection of people whose hopes and fears are in most ways very different to those of the ordinary residents of this country?

I am reminded of the fuss over the Millennium Bug, which was supposed to bring industrial civilization crashing to a halt at midnight on January 1, 2000. Anyone else remember that?

We were told that airliners would fall out of the sky, communications would fail across the world, nuclear missiles might spontaneously launch themselves, and all sorts of other havoc would be wreaked.

But when the time came round... nothing. Not one person's digital watch stopped working, even.

Could we be seeing a similar panic here?

Could it be that ten years from now, a few old codgers will be sitting round their pints in a pub, and one of them will say: "Hey, your remember all that hype we had about Brexit?" and they will all have a good laugh?

We live in a world that is betting better for more and more people, but yet there is that curious human urge only to see the worst.