30 JANUARY 1988, Page 21

Loathsome PR

Sir: Mr Douglas Smith, writing as a former Chairman of the UK Public Relations Consultants Association (Letters, 23 Janu- ary), attacking John Sweeney's article (`Speaking ill of the dead', 16 January), appalled me by his paucity of ethics when he posed the question. 'Is any cause so loathsome that it must be denied PR advice?'

As a practising PR consultant my answer to Mr Smith is very firmly yes — Hitler's 'Final Solution'; Stalin's forced collecti- visation; Amin's rogime in Uganda; Pol Pot's genocide in Cambodia; to name some of the most obvious examples.

Rosella Nicholson

Ferrensby Grange, Ferrensby, Knaresborough, Yorkshire