Day 305 - 25 Nov 96 - Page 33
1 filing cabinet. When he was cross-examined about this, he
2 actually accepted that it was possible that there were
3 three or four copies of the fact sheet in the filing
4 cabinet. We would say that the clear evidence that there
5 has been on that from Mr. Gravett and Ms. Laporte was that
6 the fact sheet was out of stock, but there were some
7 reference copies which were kept in the filing cabinet.
8
9 Just another point about the statement saying that
10 the "What's wrong with McDonald's?" leaflets were kept in
11 the boxes at the side of the room and the leaflet which was
12 appended to that being the fact sheet -- I think that this
13 really just demonstrates that people do not check things
14 thoroughly; they trust their solicitors to get things right
15 for them, and they assume that -- well, they just assume
16 that solicitors are going to get it right; and that is
17 demonstrated by the fact that when Mr. Rampton questioned
18 Mr. Bishop about which leaflet he was referring to, he did
19 state that he was referring to the small leaflet, not the
20 fact sheet, which is not how the statement reads at all.
21 That was on day 260, page 83, line 51.
22
23 I am not saying this to have a dig at the solicitors, by
24 the way. I am making the point that people, throughout
25 their statements in this case, have referred to the "What's
26 wrong with McDonald's?" leaflets and have then signed to
27 say, "Yes, it is true that this was the leaflet that
28 I picked up that is appended at appendix 1 or appendix 2",
29 or something like that, and they do not actually think
30 back: "Is this the right leaflet?" They just assume: "Oh,
31 well, it is called 'What's is wrong with McDonald's?' It
32 must be the right leaflet" -- even though there are several
33 different versions all with the same title. They are not
34 necessarily aware of that or thinking about that, and so
35 they just sign to say, "Yes, that is correct", without
36 thinking about it. That is why, as Mr. Morris said this
37 morning, it is particularly important that the Plaintiffs
38 show continuity of fact sheets, that they have got somebody
39 being able to say, "I picked up this copy of the fact sheet
40 on this date, and here it is. I have put my initials on
41 it, or something, and I handed it to the solicitor, and
42 I can identify that this is the exactly the right copy."
43 Otherwise, when you are just working on the fact that the
44 title of the leaflet is "What's wrong with McDonald's?"
45 and it has a cartoon on it, it is impossible to distinguish
46 on that basis between the short or the long versions and
47 between the versions produced by Veggies and any other
48 number of groups around the country.
49
50 MR. MORRIS: I think that is a very good -- and Helen has put it
51 perfectly, really -- example of what we were saying. We
52 have to ask -- I am not saying it is deliberate -- but why
53 did have the solicitors put the wrong leaflet appended to
54 Mr. Bishop's statement? I am not saying it is deliberate
55 or whatever, but it just shows there has to be an original
56 copy in court and a pathway between that document and the
57 original event verified by the witness.
58
59 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
60
