I agree that it is unwise to take work in a country whose laws you would be liable to break. I vehemently disagree with your characterisation of the man as an old toper with filthy manners who was alcoholic. It's intemperate and judgemental and quite likely incorrect in detail. I don't care if the Times prints your letter. It's a filthy rag owned by a foreigner in this country who cynically oversaw the breaking of our laws by his employees. Spot the irony.

I'm not going to judge the old boy like you do. Yesterday I had to drive at 90 on the A30 to catch a very early train. I got away with it. There's a big pile of cast-out beams just outside my back door.

But I question whether we should have any dealings at all with a regime that publicly beheads or crucifies hundreds of people a year, often for things that wouldn't even be crimes here, and their lashings are also barbaric. We should tell the antediluvian buggers where to get off until they clean up their act. Oh, I forgot. Our weapons of mass destruction industry would suffer badly if we did that....