Day 058 - 30 Nov 94 - Page 22
1 MR. RAMPTON: I had it in mind to make an intervention such as
2 your Lordship had just made anyway. I have been doing some
3 mathematics. Your Lordship has noticed the parenthetical
4 reference to "the need for 800 square miles of forest to
5 keep McDonald's supplied with paper for one year." At the
6 bottom of that column in the leaflet it says this: "It is
7 no exaggeration to say that when you bite into a Big Mac
8 you are helping the McDonald's empire to wreck this
9 planet".
10
11 My Lord, I observe (if my arithmetic is right) that there
12 are just over or just about 1.6 million square miles of
13 productive forest resource in the United States and Canada
14 alone. The question that Mr. Morris and Ms. Steel ought,
15 with respect, to be focusing on is this, if I may suggest
16 it: What impact on that resource does McDonald's use of
17 packaging in North America have? My Lord, I put it like
18 that because Mr. Mallinson has spent one whole day and
19 nearly another half day being cross-examined. We have only
20 got as far as page 7 of his statement. I am very anxious,
21 if it can be avoided, that he does not have to come back
22 yet again.
23
24 MS. STEEL: Can I say, the fact that they may or may not be only
25 responsible for a small part of the whole industry does not
26 make them any less responsible. It is a bit like a
27 murderer -----
28
29 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am aware of that argument; it has been
30 declared in this court many times so far while I have been
31 sitting here. Do not think I am not aware of that. What
32 I am urging Mr. Morris to do (and you, if you ask questions
33 on this topic as well) is really to just touch on the
34 various heads and then move on to the next one. In due
35 course, we will hear the evidence of your witness.
36
37 It is very, very easy to get a bit bogged down by asking a
38 question, then an answer comes and something occurs that
39 you might not accept in that so you ask a question about
40 that, then something occurs in the answer to that question
41 which you might not quite agree with, so one asks a
42 question about that. You have to keep your eye on the ball
43 as you have just expounded it really.
44
45 MR. MORRIS: Yes. I will bear that in mind. The questions that
46 I will be asking should get less as we go through. We have
47 dealt with a lot of it.
48
49 MR. JUSTICE BELL: We will have our five-minute break, then we
50 will come back to it. One way in a case which has so many
51 potential issues and sub-issues and sub-sub-issues and
52 sub-sub-sub issues and sub-sub-sub-sub-issues is to ask
53 yourself: "When we come to the end of the evidence and
54 I am addressing the judge about this, is this something
55 which I am actually going to mention to him in a speech
56 which must have some finite limit on it?" And then
57 concentrate on the points which you really think you may be
58 wanting to remind me of at the end of the day. I will come
59 back in five minutes time.
60
