Day 245 - 07 May 96 - Page 35


     
     1        A.  I object to that.
     2
     3   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I do not think that is an answer this witness
     4        can answer.  It is not going to help me decide this case
     5        anyway whatever their motives were.
     6
     7   MS. STEEL:  The reality is that the choice was yours Mr.
     8        Preston, or rather McDonalds. It was your choice to sue.
     9        You did not need to sue, did you?
    10        A.  I wanted to stop the leaflet.  I had no other choice.
    11
    12   Q.   You could have written to us.  You could have shown us all
    13        your records and shown us round all your supplier's
    14        premises if you were so convinced of the truth of what you
    15        were saying in order to convince us that the leaflet was
    16        wrong, could you not?
    17
    18   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Are you suggesting that you would not have
    19        defended the case if you had been granted those facilities
    20        because, otherwise, again it is not going to help me decide
    21        this case.
    22
    23   MR. MORRIS:  He has said in his press statement, twice, in fact
    24        it is also in the second bulletin point on that page as
    25        well as the fifth one, that we, me and Helen, have chosen
    26        to defend the leaflet and we are saying it was you.
    27
    28   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I think that is just semantics.  The fact is
    29        you have been sued and you have defended it. I do not need
    30        anything more into it than that.
    31
    32   MS. STEEL:  (To the witness): You could have chosen not to sue
    33        and to accept that people have a legitimate right to
    34        criticise your business practices?
    35        A.  People do have a legitimate right to criticise our
    36        business as long as it is legitimate, operative word. When
    37        it is not legitimate, when it is not truthful, they have no
    38        right to do so and I will defend that until my last day on
    39        earth.
    40
    41   Q.   We will come back to that.
    42
    43   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I hope you will be come back to it in a way
    44        you did not deal with it in July because you did ask some
    45        questions about this and we went through this before.  So
    46        be selective and do not ask questions which you asked on
    47        I think it was 4th July, Day 5.
    48
    49   MS. STEEL: (To the witness): The next thing I want to turn to is
    50        document number 14 in that bundle.  This is a letter from 
    51        Mike Love to The Scotsman. 
    52 
    53   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  14?
    54
    55   MS. STEEL:  It is not.  It is a letter from Mike Love to The
    56        guardian, on 18th January 1995.
    57        A.  I have it.  It is number 14 in red.
    58
    59   Q.   Did you see this letter before it was sent to The Guardian?
    60        A.  I do not remember if I did or not, I do not think so.

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