Buy British: it will help defend the UK against Trump

Invest in Britain. You may make a fortune. Take a punt on a fintech company or an artificial intelligence startup. Better still, join the rest of the world by targeting property, which is the go-to asset class for 80% of global investments seeking a stellar payout.

- Phillip Inman

Whatever you do, avoid retail. And steer clear of manufacturing, which needs lots of startup capital and precision engineering, and offers only slim margins and modest returns as a reward for all that effort.

This is what Rachel Reeves is up against when she urges pension funds and Isa savers to channel funds into businesses that make physical stuff.

The chancellor wants everyone with money to back Britain. Initially, she talked mostly about attracting foreign investors. These days the focus is on domestic funds that have — contrary to a Britain First agenda — spread their investments across the world, and especially the US, where stock markets have boomed in the wake of the 2008 crash. Why bother with the UK when all the action is in fast-growing, emerging markets or the US, fund managers ask.

British manufacturing is back in the spotlight now that Donald Trump is in the White House, threatening the withdrawal of US defence cover. His trade tariffs are part of the same story. They are aimed at manufactured imports, to illustrate the cost to Europe, China and others of not agreeing to all of Trump's main political aims. Then they are withdrawn or delayed at a moment's notice, as Mexico's government can attest, to make sure countries cannot adjust to cope with the new regime.