Day 186 - 10 Nov 95 - Page 56
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2 MR. RAMPTON: It depends on what one is being told. Of course,
3 as a general proposition, that is quite unexceptionable,
4 I entirely accept that. It is a matter of ordinary English
5 that there is a difference between a meal and a diet, never
6 mind any specialist nutritional knowledge.
7
8 What I say about this leaflet is something rather
9 different, not that it merely repeats what everybody knows
10 which, namely, that there is a difference between food and
11 diet, not even that it repeats what some people, perhaps
12 many people, might know, which is that what matters so far
13 as health is concerned is diet rather than food; but that
14 this leaflet, which is presumably why this passage appears
15 in the leaflet at all -- Mr. Morris is very proud that it
16 is some kind of reference document, a fact sheet, as he
17 calls it -- tells the reader something he did not already
18 know about it; otherwise one says to oneself, "What on
19 earth is it doing in this (indecipherable) shock horror
20 warning scare sheet unless it is supposed to tell people
21 something they did not already know, which is, of course,
22 the message one derives from the very front cover. Here,
23 they are going to tell you things you did not know about
24 McDonald's or their food. The risk of illness from eating
25 the food is far, far greater than you might independently
26 have supposed it to be.
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28 My Lord, I do not know if there is anything else I want to
29 say, or if there is anything else your Lordship would wish
30 me to deal with.
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32 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No, thank you.
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34 MS. STEEL: Could I just say something briefly? I think
35 Mr. Rampton does often stop us when we have misquoted him.
36 I will not go back over all the things that he said that
37 I feel he has got completely wrong about what we have said
38 in our arguments.
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40 MR. JUSTICE BELL: All I am trying to do is reassure you that I
41 have taken a careful note and I will read what you said in
42 the transcript.
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44 MS. STEEL: Right, OK.
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46 MR. JUSTICE BELL: So you should not be concerned that I will
47 take your submissions to be what Mr. Rampton says them to
48 be, rather than what is there. Mr. Rampton would hope he
49 has got it right, but you can be reassured that I will take
50 your submissions from what you said.
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52 MS. STEEL: Yes.
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54 MR. JUSTICE BELL: And Mr. Morris said.
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56 MS. STEEL: Can I say two things? He did say that I had ignored
57 the part about "What's so unhealthy about McDonald's food",
58 and I did say how I had dealt with that, that I did not
59 think it added anything because -- saying that it was the
60 kind of food that people recommended we avoid meant that it
