Day 186 - 10 Nov 95 - Page 30
1 your submissions?
2
3 MS. STEEL: Really, it was to answer some of the points made by
4 Mr. Rampton.
5
6 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
7
8 MS. STEEL: Some of these are going to be a bit kind of bitty,
9 I am afraid.
10
11 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What I suggest you do is you just knock them
12 off one by one; you can probably take them fairly shortly.
13
14 MS. STEEL: Just he made a point about headline writers playing
15 with fire which was quoted from some case, and that the
16 ordinary reader might not notice curative words tucked away
17 further down in the article. I just wanted to say that
18 I think that is hardly appropriate to a situation where the
19 whole paragraph is the explanation of what the leaflet is
20 saying. It is not as though it is tucked away in small
21 print at the bottom somewhere.
22
23 There is a point about the once over reader, or whether
24 someone was going to read it twice. I do not actually know
25 that it makes much difference because I think that the text
26 is totally clear anyway. But I would say, in case you do
27 feel it is an important point, that there is only one
28 allegation which is just against me and not against
29 Mr. Morris of distribution in the street. The rest of the
30 allegations with regard to distribution are at meetings or
31 putting in envelopes in response to enquiries.
32
33 People who attend public meetings of the London Greenpeace
34 or any such organisations are going to be attending because
35 they have an interest in the issues that are being
36 discussed. Therefore, if they do pick up a leaflet, they
37 are likely to read it more than once because they do have a
38 particular interest in the subject. That is the same with
39 somebody writing in asking for information about
40 something. It is very likely that they are going to read
41 that not just twice but probably several times and to read
42 it very carefully. But, as I say, to be honest, I think
43 the meaning is clear anyway, so I do not know that it makes
44 much difference.
45
46 Can I also say that Mr. Rampton said something about if
47 someone was going to take an important decision they might
48 read something twice before deciding what action to take,
49 and it might be thought that if someone was going to stop
50 eating at McDonald's -----
51
52 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You say the contemplation of changing your
53 diet or altering it in any way would be acting upon it,
54 which was the phrase which Lord Reid used in ------
55
56 MS. STEEL: Was it? I cannot remember -- just that they would
57 be likely to read it more than once.
58
59 Mr. Rampton also said that the effect on the ordinary
60 reader would be to say to his wife -- I do not know why it
