With Deutsche Boerse deal all but off, London Stock Exchange must now focus on finding a new leader 

But Rolet, who was little known outside of investment banking circles before getting the job, has always appreciated that no matter how much he expands the LSE’s footprint on his own, without a major partner it will not be able to compete over the long term.

The world of exchanges is a consolidating one, with space for perhaps two or three major players globally. It was with this in mind that Rolet tried and failed to unite with the Toronto Stock Exchange in 2011, and it has been at the heart of its year-long flirtation with Deutsche Boerse.

But, as we report this weekend, 11th-hour efforts to keep that multi-billion-pound union seem ultimately doomed. In truth, it probably has been since June 23, when the UK voted to leave the European Union. The suggestion that the good burghers of Hesse – the German state which is home to DB – were going to allow their bourse to be headquartered in London was a stretch even when the UK was still a member state. But the minute the referendum result was known, the writing was on the wall.

In the short term, there are some who will argue that from a British perspective the apparent collapse of the deal is a good thing because it allows the UK to have control of its equity raising platform, which should form a key part of our post-Brexit industrial strategy.

That argument slightly misses the point of the merger – the business was going to be domiciled and run from London by an Anglophile banker (DB chief Carsten Kengeter) who would have essentially continued Rolet’s work, albeit at a faster speed and with more financial clout. The only real change would have been on the share register – again somewhat of a moot point given 40pc of LSE Group’s investors are already non-UK.

But it is over the long term that the effect of the end of this deal will really be felt. Missing out on playing an active role in consolidating the exchange market means LSE Group will become the hunted rather than the hunter.

For that reason, Rolet, who has spent most of the past year cheerleading the deal and looking forward to heading off into the sunset and a cushty FTSE chairmanship, cannot stay on to lead this new chapter. Sure he will probably want to, and in the interim period until a suitable successor can be identified, he maybe should.

But if a year from now Rolet is still in the LSE hot seat, that will hamper its long-term trajectory, a trajectory which needs to be reset after such a significant blow to its ambitions.

Varney a realist on red tape

Nick Varney is a relatively quiet man. Working in Poole, and having done the same job for the best part of two decades, he spends more of his time visiting Merlin’s legion of worldwide attractions than oscillating around the London bubble favoured by so many chief executives and chairmen. It is for that reason that his comments on the Government’s relationship with big business should be listened to.

Varney is not arcane, he is not old-fashioned. When he questions diversity reporting, it’s not because he’s some Luddite. But what he is is realistic. After I met him on Wednesday, he emailed me a slightly redacted version of his board’s corporate governance tracker.

There are 15 separate major items on it, colour coded to reflect urgency of each item. Although a handful stem from Europe, the majority are of the making of our own Government and its various arms. Clearly we need our big companies to be well run and to work for all and not just the few. But in certain areas there needs to be an actual bonfire of red tape to free up directors like Varney to give them more time to continue to create value and indeed jobs.

james.quinn@telegraph.co.uk