Day 037 - 14 Oct 94 - Page 61
1 Mr. Rampton jumped in.
2
3 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I prefer you to stand up and say it out
4 loud, so we can all hear what it is.
5
6 MS. STEEL: All right. I will say sorry, but Mr. Rampton
7 actually does do it quite a lot from his point of view.
8 He mutters in the back row as well.
9
10 MR. JUSTICE BELL: If he does he should not. The fact is one
11 either makes an objection, if you are talking to
12 Mr. Morris about things or to one of your helpers, that
13 I understand. That is none of my business. But if you
14 are talking, as it were, to raise an objection, stand up,
15 say it loud and clear and we can hear it.
16
17 THE WITNESS: Can I answer the question, please?
18
19 MR. RAMPTON: No, not just yet, Mr. Cox. My Lord, I do wish to
20 make it clear to Ms. Steel. She is absolutely right, I do
21 mutter, the difference is I do not expect anybody to pay
22 any attention to it. One get used to muttering over a
23 long career. I do not mind at all if Ms. Steel mutters,
24 but I do need to know if there is a formal objection
25 because if so I will sit down.
26
27 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Quite frankly, I think it is better if
28 no-one says anything to anyone apart members of their own
29 team, unless they are prepared to stand up and make some
30 formal objection or the matter gets out of hand, otherwise
31 everyone gets ratty which seems to be a regular feature on
32 Friday afternoon. So that is best avoided.
33
34 MR. RAMPTON: Maybe one can go back.
35
36 THE WITNESS: I did want to try to answer -- I am sorry it is
37 taking so long to understand it but, as you say, it is
38 Friday afternoon. Now, the point of this section in the
39 book here is talking about meat consumption in terms of
40 being what scientists call, as I understand, an
41 independent risk factor. That is to say, that it is not
42 necessarily vegetables, Beta-carotene, the fruit, and so
43 on in the vegetarian diet or a meat free diet. It is
44 only, the unique health-promoting factor.
45
46 The presence of meat itself also seems to be a significant
47 factor in the promotion of ill-health. I precis'd the
48 study in a few lines here and I think you are being
49 excessively hard on me for not including other bits and
50 pieces. It is a very big study and there is lot else
51 which I could include. The most important fact made here
52 is that meat consumption does increase the relative risk,
53 as I say, two-and-a-half times more likely to contract
54 colon cancer when compared to those who ate meat less than
55 once a month. An important thing here too is that you get
56 a quotation from one of the scientists. You do not often
57 do that. Scientists are very, very cautious people. They
58 do not commit themselves usually in public to statements
59 such as this. When you get a scientist saying: Reducing
60 red meat consumption is likely to reduce the risk, there
