Day 186 - 10 Nov 95 - Page 56


     
     1
     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.
    27
    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.
    31
    32   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  No, thank you.
    33
    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.
    39
    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.
    43
    44   MS. STEEL:   Right, OK.
    45
    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. 
    51 
    52   MS. STEEL:   Yes. 
    53
    54   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  And Mr. Morris said.
    55
    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

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