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
