The London Metal Exchange must give the Ring a stay of execution or risk embarrassing Nigel Farage’s Brexit Britain

Given that the London Metal Exchange’s most famous son was the architect of Brexit, it’s ironic that the centuries-old institution is trying to nobble itself just as Britain needs it most.

Nigel Farage might not be much concerned about the LME’s plans to kill open outcry. When I asked him once if he kept in touch with his old buddies there, he said most of them were dead. A hard-living culture, he explained.

But anyone keen on post-EU London thriving as an international centre should care.

While 100% electronic trading is inevitable one day, the tech is just not there yet to synthesise what the LME’s lightning-minded Essex boy traders do so brilliantly — make accurate prices for metals months and years in advance.

For everyone from Mercedes in Germany to an Essex scrapdealer, that is uniquely valuable to manage their future cashflow.

And, while the market has muddled through while the Ring has been closed for Covid, the electronic service has been throwing up wrong prices on a daily basis. Customers and brokers will put up with that while we’re on a war footing, but not when lockdown ends.