The giant arms dealer, BAE Systems has been accused of acting unethically by the former Lord Chief Justice, Lord Woolf.

We are only surprised that anyone is surprised. Have you ever heard of an arms dealer that acts ethically?

Cynics would say that such a concept is as tautological as, say, a PR company that acts ethically.

Let us leave that particular argument to one side - for the moment.

BAE Systems already stands accused of making corrupt payments to win lucrative contracts. A controversial Serious Fraud Office enquiry into allegations of huge bribes for an arms deal with Saudi Arabia was halted by Tony Blair.

Woolf now finds that BAE Systems, which employs thousands of people in the North West, is overly secretive and did not pay enough attention to ethical standards.

Not surprising when the company exists to make as much money as possible from the arms trade.

We hope that the sinner truly repenteth and that BAE, which devotes a huge slice of its web site to Corporate Social Reponsibility, is determined to change for good.

But we suspect that for all its warm words about CSR, BAE will only ever be truly ethical when it finds another, more productive purpose, for its hugely skilled workforce.