Day 177 - 26 Oct 95 - Page 27
1 asks him about it and he says, "You had better not go there
2 any more. The food can give you heart disease and cancer
3 and, what is more, that is apparently an accepted medical
4 fact. Anyway, these McDonald's people are a bunch of
5 crooks, because they know perfectly well that that is a
6 fact and they cover it up with a lot of soapy stuff about
7 how nutritious their food is."
8
9 My Lord, we would, if driven to it -- I say driven to it,
10 not that we are all that unwilling -- we would certainly
11 submit that that is the effect of the leaflet, this part of
12 the leaflet, whether one reads it once, twice or, as I have
13 done, about 150 times.
14
15 MS. STEEL: Can you just pause, please? (Pause)
16
17 MR. RAMPTON: In effect, we are saying two things: first, that
18 the probability -- and it is a question of probability; in
19 a sense, it is an exercise of imagination -- the
20 probability is that the ordinary person would not read this
21 more than once. It takes, I suppose, about five minutes to
22 read it quickly. Second, we submit that even if one does
23 read it twice, one's conclusion about the message which is
24 being preached to one does not change.
25
26 MR. JUSTICE BELL: While you are on that, to what extent, if at
27 all, can I take into account that someone -- and I am not
28 pointing the finger at either Ms. Steel or Mr. Morris now;
29 that is yet to be decided -- might receive this leaflet
30 because they have gone to a particular fair or exhibition
31 and picked it up, or they have written in showing an
32 interest in something or other and been sent it through the
33 post rather than being handed it on the pavement?
34
35 MR. RAMPTON: I am afraid the answer is: not at all.
36
37 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You say it is an off the street thing. But
38 do I have to assume that, or can I say people might have
39 got it in a variety of ways?
40
41 MR. RAMPTON: They might have got it in a variety of ways, and
42 it may be that somebody who sent off for it because of a
43 special interest in McDonald's, whether it benign or
44 otherwise, would have read it more than once. It is
45 perfectly possible.
46
47 The difficulty is that your Lordship has to do what is
48 really not an intellectual exercise at all, because that
49 person, as the law stands, is irreconcilable as the
50 ordinary reader with the person only reads it once and then
51 maybe throws it away or passes it to somebody else. Whilst
52 there may have been some people who were sufficiently
53 interested actually to send in for this leaflet -- and this
54 is a little difficult, because we have not had the evidence
55 on publication yet -- certainly, the stated evidence of the
56 inquiry agency is that these things were routinely put into
57 envelopes to send to anybody who wrote in for information
58 about the group generally. It is probable, if that is
59 right, that the category of people who wanted to have
60 specific information about McDonald's is really rather a
