28 JUNE 1986, Page 25

Hoggish morals

THERE is a moral to the sad tale of RFD, which makes equipment for defence, safe- ty, and survival (those aircraft life-jackets) but could not save itself. It has fallen to a hostile bid from Wardle Storey, after supposing that it had agreed a higher and friendly bid from BBA, the ambitious conglomerate. RFD accuses BBA of fail- ing to honour a clear commitment to bid. BBA's finance director says that his com- pany decided it had better things to spend its money on, and had 'nothing more than a moral obligation'. Or, as the Hideous Hog says in Victor Mollo's bridge books: With me, moral considerations always come first, unless I am playing for very high stakes.