Letter: UN won't keep its message under wraps

Sir: Robert Fisk reports from the UN Population Conference with authority but in a diary article (6 September), he frowns on the sale of UN-related merchandise, especially Hanae Mori headscarfs.

It is a shame that the media will persist in projecting UN issues in the same manner as one anticipates a visit to the dentist or the bank manager. But those of us who advocate greater support for the UN and its principles know that, if our mission is to succeed, we must offer the public the opportunity to personally identify with the UN: clothing, badges, coffee mugs and, yes, those headscarfs. The banks got the message a long time ago and now dentists are in the game. Why ever not the UN? After all, it has the world's largest membership of all, 5.9 bn of us.

Yours commercially,

DAVID WARDROP

UN Association Shop

London, W1

7 September