Day 030 - 03 Oct 94 - Page 56
1 should say -----
2
3 Q. This has cropped up before in diabetes.
4
5 MR. JUSTICE BELL: There are all sorts of things to do with
6 diet which have not cropped up before. If that is
7 justification for asking about them, this is going to see
8 me to retirement!
9
10 MR. MORRIS: That is probably my mistake. I thought it had
11 cropped up before but that was diabetes. The thing is I
12 wanted to refer to specific points which -----
13
14 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You have to take the witness with you and he
15 has said that ----
16
17 MR. MORRIS: Yes, that is fine by me.
18
19 MR. RAMPTON: To be quite honest, my Lord, the views of this
20 committee, whatever it was, body of persons that produced
21 this report, really speak for themselves. Unless
22 Mr. Cannon has something by way of explanation, expansion,
23 confirmation or support to offer for this document or
24 reviews expressed in it then, frankly, it is not really a
25 matter to be gone through in evidence.
26
27 I am happy for it to be there and for the defendants to
28 place, as I will, such reliance on it as they should wish,
29 but it is a terrible waste of this witness's time and ours
30 to go through a document seeing whether he agrees with it
31 or not.
32
33 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I do not mind that which I might object to
34 if you were represented. You are asking a witness to
35 stress for you the parts of a report which might help me
36 to a conclusion. That might normally be done by counsel.
37 I am quite happy you say to the witness: Are there
38 particular pages which you think the judge should look at
39 it? But, you see, Mr. Cannon has done that. He asked me,
40 for instance, to look at page 166, paragraph 339. Once
41 I have the reference in my notebook, I can then read it
42 for myself. If Mr. Cannon has a particular point in
43 relation to it which he wants to enlarge, so be it, but if
44 the only point is, please, look at page 66, then we need
45 not go into it in further detail at this stage.
46
47 MR. MORRIS: I believe that page 109 may be worth looking at.
48
49 THE WITNESS: If I can respond to the point which has just been
50 made, I agree with Mr. Rampton that my function here is to
51 point out which are the relevant reports and which are the
52 relevant passages. Those generally are the passages
53 marked "conclusion" or "recommendation". I do not think
54 it is for me, indeed, I do not think it is for any
55 individual in the place where I am now to venture their
56 own opinion on that, whether they are a research scientist
57 or not. I do not think that is the point of this
58 exercise.
59
60 Q. I will move on from that report to the next report which
