Ira Fishman (Letters, August 16, 'Life will go on post-Brexit') tries to draw an analogy between Brexit planning and the Millennium (Y2K) Bug. He really shouldn't.

What Ira (and every other Brexiteer who references the Y2K Bug) fails to understand is that the lack of serious computer issues at the Millennium did not happen by magic or as a result of ;shared optimism'.

The problems were identified early and many years of planning and effort were required before the Millennium to ensure that everything worked correctly.

Analysis afterwards (Gartner Group) estimates that nearly $600Bn was spent (along with tens of thousands of person-years of effort) addressing the issues in places such as air traffic control systems, nuclear power plants and other national infrastructure. As someone who spent long hours fixing software in critical infrastructure, I can testify to the seriousness with which we tackled and solved the various problems.

If our current government had spent even one tenth of this effort preparing for Brexit, we'd all be in much better shape.

Whatever your views on Brexit, the lack of serious planning for this outcome is something that should worry and concern everyone. As the hoary old military saying goes: 'Failing to prepare is to prepare to fail'.

Scott Mackie

Kendal