Day 308 - 28 Nov 96 - Page 40
1 One of the particular areas in which I have faced the
2 problem which I mentioned a moment ago is in relation to
3 rainforests. If the message of the leaflet is as direct
4 and obvious as your Lordship will see in these submissions
5 we believe it to be, then it must follow as night follows
6 day that 100 per cent of the evidence given on that issue
7 in this case on both sides was in fact totally irrelevant.
8 Not that I have, I fear, actually dealt with the various
9 questions of fact which were put into the case under the
10 guise of an issue which does not really exist.
11
12 There are only two other things, my Lord, at this stage,
13 that I believe that I need to say. The first is, so far as
14 it is necessary, to give a brief explanation of how these
15 volumes work. Volume 1, which is nutrition, is the longest
16 section. I should say, I put it first for two reasons;
17 first, because it is, to my mind at least, the most
18 important issue in the case, and, secondly, because it
19 leads naturally on to food poisoning and then advertising.
20
21 Nutrition. I ask your Lordship not to be alarmed at the
22 sight that there are both text and tables in part 1, and
23 tables in part 2; the tables in part 2 are merely the
24 tables in part 1 reproduced for ease of reference. They
25 are not an additional set of tables, but there were so many
26 of them we thought it appropriate to put them in a separate
27 section so that one could have them by the side when one
28 reads the text.
29
30 In relation to Colchester, Bath and Heathrow, it is only
31 right I should say, as your Lordship I think may see in
32 some parts, that to a large extent the summaries of the
33 evidence and the calculations which have been done,
34 sometimes in tabular form, are to a large extent the work
35 of Mr. Atkinson and Mrs. Brinley-Codd. I do not say that
36 in case they may be wrong, but because I think credit ought
37 to be given to them for the work that they have done.
38
39 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
40
41 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, apart from that I do not believe there is
42 anything else I need to say except that 3A in volume 2,
43 animals, again is a summary done by Mr. Atkinson of really
44 the whole of the evidence on the animals, answering the
45 submissions made by Ms. Steel on behalf of both the
46 Defendants.
47
48 My Lord, finally this: as I probably foreshadowed a moment
49 ago, the approach which I have adopted, and making
50 reservation for the fact that I have, as I say, chickened
51 out to some extent, is to ask myself what is the natural
52 and ordinary meaning of the words? To ask myself, in that
53 meaning are the words defamatory of one or both of the
54 Plaintiffs? Then to ask where it is appropriate -- because
55 sometimes it is so obvious it does not need to be asked --
56 is the allegation an allegation of fact or is it of
57 comment?
58
59 If, as in all but, as I have concluded, one possible case
60 they are allegations of fact, I then go on to consider the
