Reassurance today, excitement tomorrow: your UK Optimist Fund portfolio

The nation certainly needs optimism this week, so what better moment to start building our ‘UK Optimist Fund’ of shares with exciting prospects for the post-Brexit era, for which I invited suggestions last week? I’m grateful to all  respondents but was particularly glad to hear from former minister Edwina Currie — whose stock picks show a penchant for high dividend yields — and this column’s very own veteran investor Robin Andrews, whose market eye has stood Spectator readers in such good stead over the years.

Our underlying quest is a serious one. We’re heading into new territory in which businesses will clearly suffer if they previously depended on tariff-free access to European markets. But others will thrive if they have strong prospects within the UK, or unique technologies, or growing non-EU export demand that will be boosted by a cheap pound. So our portfolio needs a base of blue-chips with big footprints at home (though some will also have interests abroad) and a second layer of smaller stocks that are potential world-beaters.