Letter: The ethics of arms sales

Sir: Your leading article "Arms and the rhetoric of ethics" (26 May) spends half a column failing to point out the obvious truth that the only ethical policy on selling arms is not to do it at all. Attempts to be just a little bit ethical - like attempts to be just a little bit pregnant - are always doomed to failure, as Robin Cook's well-meaning contortions demonstrate.

Whether the world - let alone British industry - is ready for such a policy is another question, but let us be clear about what we are aiming at.

BILL LINTON

London N13