The temperature at the London Metal Exchange's annual black-tie dinner had reached melting point.

Michael Farmer, a founding partner of metals hedge fund Red Kite who has attended more than 50 of the dinners in a career dating back to 1963, offered the 1,900-strong audience in November 2016 a series of strongly worded criticisms, including that trading costs on the LME were "too high". He warned of a risk that "the golden goose will die of malnutrition".