Dirty Tricks Aren’t Cricket, U.K. Finds

Britain’s trade minister has personally intervened to withdraw a booklet sponsored by his department that recommended dirty business tricks such as going through competitors’ trash.

Trade and Industry Secretary Michael Heseltine acted after reporters quizzed ministry officials on the contents of the booklet, a ministry spokeswoman said.

She said the publication, Marketing Your Business, with the ministry’s logo on the front, had been used in government-run business seminars since 1983.

Newspapers that saw copies of the booklet before it was banned reported it also advised entrepreneurs to befriend secretaries, or to pretend to be a newspaper researcher or a student writing a thesis, to gain access to rivals’ secrets.