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
