Day 053 - 22 Nov 94 - Page 15


     
     1        I mean, it is people and a cow in a bun, as in they are
     2        being crushed by the burger industry.
     3
     4   MR. MORRIS:  Just going back to the meal, our contention is the
     5        context -- as far as we are concerned, that section on
     6        nutrition, to us, is very clear about diet-linked diseases,
     7        whatever you feel "linked" could or could not mean.  The
     8        point is, it is very clear as well to us about diet, and it
     9        may be said that the heading says:  "What's so unhealthy
    10        about McDonald's food?"  But if we look at other sections
    11        of the leaflet, for example:  "What is the connection
    12        between McDonald's and starvation in the Third World?" the
    13        first section, all the references to McDonald's in that
    14        section are as part of a system.  Sometimes it does not
    15        even mention McDonald's at all.  For example, the first
    16        paragraph:  "....does nothing to change the power of
    17        multinational corporations"; and then it says: "McDonald's
    18        is one of several giant corporations" -- part of
    19        something.
    20
    21        That also applies to the section on working for
    22        McDonald's: "What's it like working for McDonald's?"  Then
    23        it talks about the catering industry.  Sorry, the first
    24        paragraph mentions McDonald's, but the "No unions allowed"
    25        talks about workers in catering.
    26
    27   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I accept that it is an attack on
    28        multinationals of a certain kind.  When I say you, because
    29        are you doing the case very much in harness, one or other
    30        or both of you say that McDonald's is picked as an
    31        example.  The fact is, whether directly by name or "at
    32        McDonald's", as an example, McDonald's is a target, is it
    33        not?
    34
    35   MR. MORRIS:  Of this leaflet as a whole, yes.
    36
    37   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Of every criticism which is made in the
    38        leaflet.
    39
    40   MR. MORRIS:  Yes, but that does not mean to say that if there is
    41        a sentence that says -----
    42
    43   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I think we are getting a bit away from the
    44        point.  The point we started with this -- and I will just
    45        make it again, and then you must proceed with your
    46        submissions -- is that although the original words referred
    47        to the contents of an average McDonald's meal, and in the
    48        proposed amendment the words "meals" appears, at the moment
    49        I am having difficulty seeing any difference in substance
    50        between the words "the contents of an average McDonald's 
    51        meal are linked with cancers of the breast and bowel and 
    52        heart disease" and the words "sell meals which cause cancer 
    53        of the breast and bowel and heart disease in their
    54        customers", if one reads "linked" in the original to mean
    55        "causally linked".
    56
    57   MS. STEEL:  The implication in the amended meaning is that the
    58        individual meals can cause cancer, whereas that is not the
    59        meaning of the first one.
    60

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