Day 052 - 21 Nov 94 - Page 34


     
     1   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What I suggest you do is be very careful to
     2        make a note.  For instance, that one I referred to there is
     3        day 15, it is 21st July 1994, and it is pages 59 to 60.
     4        You can then look at them overnight.
     5
     6   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, the purpose of these references is really
     7        only this -- I am not trying to make a case now on the
     8        merits of the matter -- that even if it be accepted by your
     9        Lordship that the Defendants for some really
    10        incomprehensible reason had overlooked everything that I
    11        had read to your Lordship this morning by way of prior
    12        notification of the nature of the Plaintiffs' case, it is
    13        quite apparent that during the course of the evidence in
    14        July and early September they had both been reminded by me
    15        and, what shall I say, guided by your Lordship what the
    16        real issue was likely to be and that they ought to deal
    17        with it, and that when it came to the cross-examination of
    18        Dr. Arnott in September, it is quite apparent that they had
    19        taken the message, perhaps with the benefit of a six week
    20        break, and taken it fully on board and had used it as a way
    21        of -- as the sole way, practically -- of cross-examining
    22        Dr. Arnott.
    23
    24        My Lord, may I start on the 22nd July -- this is Professor
    25        Wheelock -- which is day 16 of 1994.
    26
    27   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.
    28
    29   MR. RAMPTON:  At page 16.  My Lord, at line 10, Ms. Steel asked
    30        the question of Professor Wheelock:  "Is it reasonable to
    31        give advice such as a diet high in fat, sugar and sodium
    32        and low in fibre is linked with cancers of the breast,
    33        bowel and heart disease?"  The answer was, as one might
    34        expect, somewhat equivocal, he said:  "Well, I would just
    35        repeat what I have already said, as you have repeated the
    36        question".   Ms. Steel:  "I want a direct answer".
    37        Professor Wheelock:  "I have told you".
    38
    39        Then I stood up and I said this:  "If Ms. Steel is
    40        insisting on a direct answer then, with respect, she should
    41        say what she means by the word 'linked'.  It is a weasel
    42        word.  Causally linked or statistically associated?  The
    43        two things are not the same".
    44
    45        Then, my Lord, on the same day, two pages on, page 18 at
    46        line 24, just below your Lordship said this, and I think
    47        Mr. Morris was now on his feet, although Ms. Steel seems to
    48        have intervened as well:  "We must know what you mean by
    49        'link'.  At the moment I am treating you as meaning, for
    50        the purposes of the question, identified as a cause or 
    51        possible cause".  Ms. Steel:  "As a risk".  Me:  "Which is 
    52        it?  It is very important".  Your Lordship:  "You must say 
    53        what you mean so I can understand where we are going".
    54
    55   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  That is page 18?
    56
    57   MR. RAMPTON:  Page 18 of the same day.
    58
    59   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Line?
    60

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