News that UK manufacturer of weapons for killing people, and related technology, BAE Systems has sacked some people for unethical behaviour, is surely good news for the rise and rise of corporate social responsibility. And for fans of irony.
It seems the BAE has gone all ethical, and is rooting out all forms of badness at the company – especially when it eats into the firm's £1.1bn annual profits.
Some staffers were operating in an underhand way, it seems, with their wayward behaviour including "fraud, inaccurate labour charging, misuse of company IT and threatening behaviour".
The fact that these actions were considered wrong by the company famous for building slightly threatening weapons for people who like to kill and having an inquiry into a very big arms deal with Saudi Arabia closed down by Tony Blair must have come as a bit of a shock to the 260 employees concerned.
However, in light of this new found ethical cleansing at the firm, will the High Court's decision that the cancellation of the arms deal by the Serious Fraud Office was illegal mean the company will be holding up its hands, throwing open its books and co-operating fully should the inquiry be restarted?
I somehow doubt it.
But Number 10 should get out the khobz as Gordon Brown will no doubt soon be visited by a certain Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud.
