Day 157 - 18 Jul 95 - Page 58
1
2 My Lord, the proposition that there should be some kind of
3 adjournment while the Lord Chancellor considers that
4 matter, we would certainly resist. I believe it to be your
5 Lordship's view that though it may be that a daily
6 transcript is marginally a more useful tool than a pen and
7 a piece of paper, there is absolutely no reason why the
8 Defendants should not go on taking notes for as long as
9 must be, given that, as I have said repeatedly, it is
10 within their own power to cure that situation. The same
11 goes for any application that they may feel impelled to
12 make to the Court of Appeal. Of course, if they need time
13 to appear in the Court of Appeal whether to ask for leave
14 or a subsequent appeal, no doubt your Lordship will set
15 aside time for that. Beyond that there is no need for this
16 case to stop. It should go on and it should finish, we
17 believe, as soon as humanly possible can.
18
19 If the absence of transcripts for the Defendants means that
20 the case goes on a bit longer and, therefore, it costs us a
21 bit more, well, that is something we are willing to live
22 with so long as the Defendants refuse to give the
23 undertaking for which we have asked.
24
25 If your Lordship is not going to call on the Defendants
26 now ----
27
28 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I think I will leave it to them. I will ask
29 them how long they are likely to be and give them the
30 option to reply in the morning if they want to rather than
31 this evening.
32
33 MR. RAMPTON: I was going to ask what I should do about the
34 evidence for Wednesday?
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36 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What I have in mind is that when argument on
37 this is complete we should go on to argument on the other
38 interlocutory matters. It did not seem to inhibit anyone,
39 as far as I recall, when we were having argument about
40 interlocutory matters before that there was not an
41 available transcript of the argument.
42
43 MR. RAMPTON: It is only a question of Mrs. Farrer who was
44 supposed to be coming tomorrow. Shall I put her off?
45
46 MR. JUSTICE BELL: If that is a proper assessment of the
47 situation, I do not think you should have a witness here
48 tomorrow.
49
50 MR. RAMPTON: I will put her off until Thursday.
51
52 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. See how we go tomorrow on the other
53 interlocutory matters.
54
55 MR. RAMPTON: There may be a difficulty about Thursday but
56 I will try to resolve it.
57
58 MR. JUSTICE BELL: All I will say for the time being is that no
59 witness need attend in anticipation of giving evidence
60 tomorrow.
