Day 292 - 01 Nov 96 - Page 08


     
     1        November to be ready.  The fact is I was ready on 14th
     2        October because I realised that I might have to start then,
     3        according to one possible scenario.  All that that would
     4        have meant is that I would have had to do the whole thing
     5        orally from the notes which I made during the summer, and
     6        indeed before that, which would have taken a very long
     7        time.  As it is, I am still hopeful that I will have the
     8        whole thing in typed form by 22nd November, which will save
     9        a lot of time.  That is the first point I wish to make.
    10
    11        The only other point is this:  I am not, and I have said it
    12        before and I say it again, I am not going to interfere, or
    13        try to interfere, in the way that your Lordship directs the
    14        Defendants should manage their closing speeches.  The only
    15        thing that concerns me a little is that I should  have --
    16        if the Defendants are going to put in, as it were,
    17        supplementary written submissions during the course of my
    18        closing speech -- sufficient time to deal with anything
    19        which I see as needing a response.  That is all.  The way
    20        your Lordship has laid it out a few moments ago, it seems
    21        to me that I will have that opportunity.
    22
    23   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I hope you will.  The main point of that is
    24        that if that is what I say when I have given the matter
    25        some further thought over the weekend, the purpose of it
    26        will be so that Ms. Steel and Mr. Morris will have an
    27        element of additional time to make specific references,
    28        albeit references only, rather than written speeches, as it
    29        were, to specific parts of the evidence which they think
    30        they may not have mentioned by reference in the course of
    31        their submissions.  But I think it was a useful
    32        discussion.
    33
    34        Let us now go on to recycling and waste.  As a target,
    35        particularly to see how we go, I think you should,
    36        Mr. Morris, have it in your mind, 'I have got to finish
    37        what I have to say by close of play on Monday', allowing
    38        some time for Ms. Steel, if she does wish, to address me on
    39        these topics as well.  Let us see how we go.
    40
    41        I think it would be helpful, Mr. Rampton, if those who
    42        instruct you are prepared for it, if a transcript of what
    43        has passed so far could be prepared and a copy given to me
    44        and to Ms. Steel and Mr. Morris, if Barnett Lenton can
    45        manage it, before we all leave court this afternoon.  That
    46        is this first half hour today.
    47
    48        Right, I will draw a line under that, and we go to
    49        recycling and waste.
    50
    51   MR. MORRIS:  We said, when we served our defence six years ago,
    52        that the meaning, effectively, of this section is that the
    53        huge scale and nature of McDonald's business inevitably
    54        involves them purchasing many tons of paper, most of which
    55        is not recycled and which therefore contributes to the
    56        destruction of trees and forests.  Further, that for many
    57        years McDonald's used materials for food packaging which
    58        were harmful to the environment, and continue to use
    59        packaging which is harmful to the environment.
    60

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