Lighten up, Britain! This country should be more trigger happy now that the historic Brexit process is well and truly underway

SHEESH, guys, cheer up!

Theresa May’s moderate and statesmanlike tone as she announced the ­triggering of Article 50 could not have been more different from the hysterical pessimism of her ­critics.

I know 48 per cent of Brits voted to stay.

I get that their defeat came as a shock.

Now that our departure from the EU is a legal reality — we must, by law, be out in two years — I understand why they feel bruised.

But the depth of their gloom, especially online, is bizarre.

To be fair, most of the 48 per cent have accepted the result.

But some rump Remainers are determined to put the worst possible spin on any conceivable outcome.

Cheaper food outside the EU? “A blow to our farmers”.

Deregulation? “Weaker rights for workers”. Lower energy bills? “More pollution”.

Why do they assume that everything will turn out for the worse?

After all, leaving the EU simply means that we will get to decide these things for ourselves.

We will choose where the right balance lies on farm subsidies, employment rules, environmental standards and the rest.

Are we not capable of making our own choices without Eurocrats to order us around?

The odd thing is that some Remainers have become angrier as the economy has improved.

During the campaign, we were told that a Leave vote would cause an immediate crash.

We were told it, not just by Remain campaigners, but by the Bank of England, the Treasury, the OECD and the IMF.

In the event, Britain grew faster in the six months following the vote than in the six months before it, and ended 2016 as the world’s most successful major economy.

Jobs, investment, shares, sales, manufacturing and exports are all up.

The only thing that continues to plummet is the mood of Continuity Remain.

Like members of some Doomsday cult, they keep putting off the date of the End of the World.

Worse, they can’t quite hide the fact that they want bad news.

The sullen Remainers have their equivalents on the Leave side.

Some Eurosceptics, after a generation of defeats, simply can’t take yes for an answer.

They continue to rage against Brussels when, after Brexit, we should surely all want the EU to prosper as a neighbour.

Rage is very important to a certain kind of person.

Rage against Jean-Claude Juncker, against Tony Blair, against David Cameron, against their boss, against their noisy neighbour, against their ex-wife.

Both sulky Remainers and sulky Leavers continue to predict the worst.

They are never put off by the failure of their previous forecasts.

Remainers used to tell us that the French would throw our immigration officers out of Calais.

In fact, four months after the referendum, the camp there was finally closed.

They used to say that it would cause separatism in Scotland.

In fact, opinion polls show that Scots are more pro-Union than before the Brexit vote.

In the same way, some Leavers slide from one glum prediction to the next, wrong each time.

“Cameron won’t give us a referendum!” “Vote Leave won’t win!” “Theresa May won’t trigger Article 50!” “It won’t be a proper Brexit!” “We won’t control our borders!”

In fact, there is every reason to be cheerful.

Yes, there will be some disruption, as there is in any worthwhile change.

When you move from a dilapidated house to a comfortable one, the move itself is still stressful. But it’s worth it.

Even after we leave, we’ll still make mistakes. But they’ll be our mistakes, and we can correct them ourselves.

We are an old, rich and serious country. We’ll manage.

I think Sun readers understand this better than Twitter whingers.

Never make the mistake of confusing social media with public opinion.

As the great philosopher Edmund Burke put it back in 1791:

“Because half a dozen grasshoppers under a fern make the field ring with their importunate chink, whilst thousands of great cattle, reposed beneath the shadow of the British oak, chew the cud and are silent, pray do not imagine that those who make the noise are the only inhabitants of the field . . . ”

On June 23, the cattle ignored the chirruping.

Though the grasshoppers are still screeching, their noise now has a pitiable quality.

Theresa May told MPs yesterday: “Britain’s best days lie ahead.”

She is right. We shall soon be a wealthier, freer, more democratic country.

Our future is back in our own hands.

In ten years’ time, the only question we’ll be asking is why we stayed in the EU as long as we did.

• Daniel Hannan is an MEP for South East England and the author of What Next: How To Get The Best From Brexit.