Day 177 - 26 Oct 95 - Page 50


     
     1   MR. RAMPTON:  No.  I must say I rather agree.
     2
     3   MR. JUSTICE BELL: Does not that go to the article taking the
     4        Pump, or whatever it was, case?
     5
     6   MR. RAMPTON:  It is a bit like the tallow syphons, yes, I agree
     7         -- unless it means that they made a -----
     8
     9   MR. JUSTICE BELL: For all intents and purposes, unless Ms. Steel
    10        or Mr. Morris says it has some significance so far as
    11        defamatory meaning is concerned, from your point of view,
    12        can I forget G?
    13
    14   MR. RAMPTON:  Yes, please.  Mr. Atkinson told me yesterday,
    15        I think it was, that your Lordship should forget G, not
    16        because there is any truth in it -- as your Lordship knows,
    17        it is a false statement -- but it is probably no more than
    18        that.
    19
    20   MR. JUSTICE BELL: Can I forget G as a defamatory meaning?
    21
    22   MR. RAMPTON:  I believe so, although a reader might think in the
    23        context of this leaflet that there was something deceptive
    24        about it.  But that is really to force it, I believe, a
    25        little bit further than we should.
    26
    27   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Let me just hook at H again, then.  How am
    28        I to look upon H?  I realise that the words which are
    29        quoted, particularly "clogged arteries and heart attacks
    30        for many people", may well be relevant to discerning what
    31        the meaning is so far as F is concerned.  But does H
    32        actually add anything?
    33
    34   MR. RAMPTON:  It does not maybe add anything as an allegation in
    35        itself, but the particular -- quite apart from the clogged
    36        up arteries and heart attacks in many customers quite --
    37        apart from that the particular vice or assistance in
    38        arriving at a meaning for this part of the leaflet as a
    39        whole, that one derives from that part of it (which is the
    40        bottom of the right-hand column on the third page of the
    41        leaflet) is the attribution of motive.  The actual words
    42        are:
    43
    44             "This sort of fake food encourages overeating,
    45             and the high sugar and sodium content can make
    46             people develop a kind of addiction of craving.
    47             That means more profit for McDonald's."
    48
    49        That is a recurrent, one might say, a continuous theme
    50        throughout this leaflet and it is no question, we would 
    51        submit, that as part of the context, at any rate, that is 
    52        apt to lend weight to the suggestion of, at the very least, 
    53        carelessness or recklessness so far as peoples' health is
    54        concerned.  Encouraging people to stuff their faces as
    55        often with as much as they can and go hang the fact that it
    56        is going to kill them because it makes us more money, if
    57        I may put it as a lawyer might put it to a jury.
    58
    59   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I had understood that if the allegation was
    60        that if it read, "Sell food which is purposely made so high

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