I want first to thank you very warmly for the chance to join you this evening. It is a particular pleasure for me because, having spent the main part of my career in the City of London at the global centre for gold trading , I now find myself back up the supply chain working in the country that is the leading global gold producer. So it is a great privilege for me to join this notable gathering of the glitterati of both camps, so gracefully hosted by the London Bullion Market Association. Arriving this morning from South Africa, where summer on the highveld is now in full bloom, to the cold, damp, gloom of an English October dawn was a salutary reminder of the realities of globalisation. But, as evidenced by the attendance here this evening, globalisation is no new phenomenon for the gold market. Gold has been a global monetary asset since at least the days of King Croesus of Lydia – whose habit of sprinkling gold dust on his food made me look rather carefully at the salt and pepper on the table this evening; and gold has been a store of value and a source of beauty in artefacts for a lot longer. It is by recognizing the global nature of the gold market that the LBMA has been able to raise its act in promoting and serving the gold market around the world, and in the process help strengthen London’s position as the pre-eminent international financial centre. That LBMA membership has this year exceeded the 100 mark reflects the value it is delivering, and I want therefore to pay tribute to the excellent work lead by Simon Weeks, your Chairman, Jeremy Charles, your Deputy Chairman, Stewart Murray, your Chief Executive, Martin Stokes, your immediate past Chairman, and their team of dedicated committees and staff. Their efforts have, for example, helped the Good Delivery List remain the world standard of bar quality: the procedures the LBMA have put in place for pro-actively monitoring the List are a welcome and successful initiative in ensuring that technical standards are maintained. The LBMA’s contribution to strengthening the regulatory framework, and the steps it has taken to improve the transparency of market data, are also welcome progress towards meeting modern market standards. Alongside these initiatives, the LBMA’s information and educational programme, through its conferences and seminars, has been well-focused and continues to provide valuable opportunities for industry issues to be debated. We in South Africa are particularly delighted that next year’s conference is to be held in our country and we look forward to welcoming you to a decent climate and outstanding wines. We regard your visit as good practice for hosting the soccer World Cup in 2010 – though we hope it will be a somewhat less intimidating experience. Looking back over the past year or so, there have been some notable developments in the gold market. I want to touch on just two. First, the news in April that NM Rothschild were withdrawing from gold trading marked a sad moment in the long history of the London market. That they chaired the London Gold Fixing for 85 years, continuously from its inception from 1919, may not, I suppose, be entirely in line with modern-day precepts of corporate governance, but it represents a long-running commitment to promoting the quality and international reach of the London market which has played an important part in maintaining its pre-eminence. We all owe a great debt of gratitude to the House of Rothschild and I want tonight to pay unreserved tribute to the contribution they have made over the years. The market, nonetheless, will continue, and I was delighted to see the decision to move to conducting the fixing by telephone, which I believe was the means by which it was originally conducted in 1919 before moving to more gracious surroundings at Rothschilds. This is a delicious illustration of the paradox, of which I have become increasingly aware, that part of the process by which we edge our way into the future is by inadvertently re-inventing the past. The other no