Shareholders get a bad press for putting our life savings at risk in the hope of receiving capital growth or dividend income. Yah, boo, hiss!

However, we also help to pay for medical research that can find cures for illnesses that kill millions of people. For example, obesity is now linked to a wide range of potentially fatal conditions – including cancer, heart attacks and strokes – that mean many folk are effectively digging their own graves, one spoonful at a time.

It is never difficult to distinguish between a Scotsman with a grievance and a ray of sunshine, said the English comic writer PG Wodehouse. Baillie Gifford, the great Edinburgh-based fund manager, has more reason than most to feel aggrieved after its high-flying fund, Edinburgh Worldwide Investment Trust (stock market ticker: EWI) fell victim to a hostile takeover bid by American arbitrageurs.