Day 019 - 27 Jul 94 - Page 52


     
     1   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  -- but what I suggest is that Mr. Morris
              asks his general questions in relation to the battery
     2        chickens.  If, at the end of the day, you persuade me that
              the answers, whatever they are, are not relevant to an
     3        issue, that is another matter.
 
     4   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, it is not that I am concerned with. I am
              not concerned in any sense in this area of the case about
     5        damage limitation.  Your Lordship will have noticed that
              I remained remarkably silent all day.  What I am concerned
     6        about are two things, and I will be quite frank about it.
              One is waste of time and when Mr. Morris, I say this with
     7        the greatest respect to him, him not being a professional
              advocate, ask questions, they tend to consist of speeches
     8        about his political position to a large extent; the second
              thing I am concerned about is that this court should not
     9        be used as a platform for what I might call animal right
              sentiments.  There are specific issues in this case which
    10        have to be dealt with.
 
    11   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What I think, Mr. Morris, is you ask your
              general questions about the Oasters now.  If you want to
    12        ask more specific ones, then I will make a ruling, if
              I have to, in relation to that.  But it seems to me we may
    13        very well not come to that.  You put your general
              questions in relation to any matters you want to in
    14        relation to Oasters.
 
    15   MS. STEEL:   OK.
 
    16   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  But, I repeat again, you do not have to do
              so.
    17
         MS. STEEL:   Right.
    18
         MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I am not inviting you to do that.  If you
    19        ask a question which you do not have to ask of the other
              side's witness, you may get an answer helpful to you.
    20        Equally, you may get an answer which is contrary to your
              interests which you would have never got if you had not
    21        asked the question.  But you are aware of that.
 
    22   MS. STEEL:   Right.  Yes.  I just wanted to come back on
              something Mr. Rampton said.  The Plaintiffs are suing over
    23        this issue.  It was them that brought animal welfare into
              this case.  They could have accepted that people were
    24        entitled to hold their own beliefs and not sued over this
              issue.  Also, yesterday Mr. Rampton brought in a great
    25        deal of opinion and matters that were not relevant to any
              issue in this case when he brought up about what would 
    26        happen if everybody stopped eating meat all in one go; I 
              mean, that was not relevant to any issue in this case. 
    27
         MR. JUSTICE BELL:  No.  I am not offering any opinion on that
    28        at all.  You ask a question on the generality, if you want
              to.  Then I suggest you leave over any question of whether
    29        we need, considering we have gone into the broilers who,
              I suspect, far outnumber the egg layers, it may not be so,
    30        but I would assume that there are far more broilers
              concerned with the McDonald's system than there are egg

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