Day 247 - 10 May 96 - Page 53


     
     1        convenience.  He is a busy man with a company to run.  For
     2        certainly the last hour and for much of this morning
     3        Mr. Morris and Ms. Steel appear to be using their so-called
     4        cross-examination of Mr. Preston as a way of making
     5        speeches about documents which are in the bundles.  The
     6        vast majority of the documents which they have put to Mr.
     7        Preston are either McDonald's documents which speak for
     8        themselves, or else they are documents about which he
     9        cannot possibly give any evidence, such as the Swedish
    10        broadcasting code, or whatever it is.  My Lord, I do,
    11        through your Lordship, urge the Defendants to stick to
    12        proper, defined issues in the case about which they
    13        perceive your Lordship may derive help from the answers
    14        that Mr. Preston may give.  Either that, and I hesitate to
    15        say or this is a filibuster by which ----
    16
    17   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I do not think it is a filibuster, but you
    18        must pay attention to what I said yesterday.  I have been
    19        very loathe to interrupt you because I do not want to
    20        interrupt you so that you fail to get out a good point.
    21        But what I think you have done quite a lot today, and
    22        certainly this afternoon, is just use Mr. Preston as a
    23        guide to the documents.  That is something you can
    24        perfectly well do with me direct.  If I can repeat what
    25        I said yesterday, it is only if Mr. Preston can give direct
    26        admissible evidence on a new aspect of the case or can
    27        bring a new view to an old topic that you really ought to
    28        be asking him any questions.
    29
    30   MR. MORRIS:  I think the last two examples have been good
    31        examples where, if that document we had from Sweden would
    32        not have been admissible evidence on its own without a
    33        witness to verify it ----
    34
    35   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It has become no more admissible.
    36
    37   MR. MORRIS:  No, but the witness has verified that in some
    38        countries McDonald's is banned from advertising to
    39        children, not because it is McDonald's but because all
    40        advertising is banned to children, and that is something
    41        which he accepts.
    42
    43   MR. JUSTICE BELL: It does not help me, actually, to reach a
    44        conclusion in this case, that is the trouble.
    45
    46   MR. MORRIS:  We will argue in due course that not only are we
    47        right to criticise the effects of advertising on children,
    48        but some governments in the world, surprisingly enough,
    49        actually agree with us.
    50 
    51   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  That, quite frankly, cannot help me.  Look, 
    52        I refuse to hear President Clinton's view -- because he is 
    53        not right in my judgment.  I have refused to hear of a
    54        committee of the Congress of the United States of America
    55        because they are not right in my judgment, nor is the
    56        Swedish legislature.  For better or worse, I have to reach
    57        my own decision, and I may be for or against you on
    58        advertising but I will not be for you because the Swedish
    59        legislature has passed a provision such as I have just
    60        seen, and I will not be against you because the British

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