The best form of defence is not attack, as the proverb has it, but success. And as the London Stock Exchange waits to see whether the Competition Commission will permit it to be taken over, it is only natural for it to present itself as a strongly dynamic business.

For this may help push up the price a bidder has to pay for it, and could conceivably push the price so far that potential bidders withdraw - an outcome that would not displease those within the Exchange who would prefer it to retain its independence.