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

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