Day 255 - 23 May 96 - Page 42
1 Nicholson which I have not twigged but, at the moment, when
2 it comes to whether there was any justification for saying
3 "lies", or anything which is remotely or otherwise
4 connected with any question of that kind, Mr. Nicholson
5 does not seem to me to be your man.
6
7 MR. MORRIS: Apart from the fact that we could argue that the
8 information he has given us about what he said about giving
9 information to those people that did do the leaflets and
10 press statements, we could argue, of course, is certainly
11 recklessness.
12
13 MR. JUSTICE BELL: We have points about you not answering but,
14 in the ordinary world I would have thought you might take
15 the view that it is more serious to call someone a liar
16 than someone who does not answer letters. I am not
17 ignoring the fact that they did not answer their letters.
18
19 MS. STEEL: It is more a case of making the point that they just
20 put down any old thing to try and spread it to their
21 critics.
22
23 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Whether Mr. Nicholson can help on that,
24 I really do not know. I mean, one of your points in this
25 case is that whatever else is said about McDonald's, they
26 put their PR runs on a pretty loose lead, if indeed there
27 is any lead at all. But I do not think Mr. Nicholson is
28 your man so far as that is concerned.
29
30 MS. STEEL: (To the witness): If you could look at page 8 and
31 if you could tell us whether or not that is the draft that
32 you remember having read at that meeting?
33 A. No.
34
35 Q. That is not it?
36 A. No. The draft I saw was 10 bullet points; they were in
37 a bullet point form.
38
39 Q. You are 100 per cent clear about that?
40 A. About 10, but there were bullet points.
41
42 Q. I do not mean whether or not there were 10?
43 A. As I remember, yes. The document that had been
44 prepared before we went there, we were all asked to read it
45 and it was put out for discussion. I looked at it from the
46 point of view "was there anything in there that was
47 factually incorrect" and, frankly, I did not see anything
48 there that was.
49
50 Q. OK.
51
52 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Just check: Do you want to ask some more
53 questions about this particular part?
54
55 MS. STEEL: Not about the page I was just on, no.
56
57 MR. JUSTICE BELL: But about the other pages in the new
58 documents?
59
60 MS. STEEL: Yes, possibly about the meeting that Mr. Nicholson
