The knickers bringing UK manufacturing home

As China's workers want higher salaries and better working conditions, manufacturing is returning to Britain. And leading the way is Mary Portas, with a new line in British-made underwear.

I went to listen to the FT's editor, Lionel Barber, speak last week. He's very good. He had about 30 minutes, but he still managed to take us through Europe (the euro will stay but the zone won't be intact); the UK (expect labour unrest as the real cuts come through); the US (it has "definitely turned"); China (fine for now thanks to its "vast internal market") but could turn nasty as the new middle class look for more democracy); Iran (no attack); and the shale gas revolution ("very big political conequences" as it cuts US dependency on the Middle East).

However, slipped in between all this was a mention of reshoring, a theme we've been looking at here at MoneyWeek over the last month or so. You can read our cover story on it from 10February (and see our consequent investment suggestions) here: China's had its day and manufacturing is coming home.

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Merryn Somerset Webb

Merryn Somerset Webb started her career in Tokyo at public broadcaster NHK before becoming a Japanese equity broker at what was then Warburgs. She went on to work at SBC and UBS without moving from her desk in Kamiyacho (it was the age of mergers).

After five years in Japan she returned to work in the UK at Paribas. This soon became BNP Paribas. Again, no desk move was required. On leaving the City, Merryn helped The Week magazine with its City pages before becoming the launch editor of MoneyWeek in 2000 and taking on columns first in the Sunday Times and then in 2009 in the Financial Times

Twenty years on, MoneyWeek is the best-selling financial magazine in the UK. Merryn was its Editor in Chief until 2022. She is now a senior columnist at Bloomberg and host of the Merryn Talks Money podcast -  but still writes for Moneyweek monthly. 

Merryn is also is a non executive director of two investment trusts – BlackRock Throgmorton, and the Murray Income Investment Trust.