Day 177 - 26 Oct 95 - Page 28
1 small one, proportionately, to the rest of the readership.
2
3 We would urge your Lordship really to take the man in the
4 street in its literal sense, or the woman in the street, as
5 the standard for this particular person, or the person who
6 went to the anti-McDonald's fair, or whatever it was, and
7 picked up one of these from a pile which was like that, so
8 that they could see the handsome man on the front and they
9 would look at it and they see how it opens out like that;
10 no doubt the eyecatching headlines served their purpose.
11 Then one must assume, as I have said, that they read it,
12 the whole of it; and then I do not know what they do with
13 it, perhaps put it back or put on the floor or in the bin;
14 maybe they take it home with them.
15
16 One does not see such a person -- whether in the street or
17 at the anti-McDonald's fair or having just got it at
18 random, as it were, through the post without having asked
19 for it -- sitting down and studying it carefully or
20 bothering to read it more than once.
21
22 As I shall submit later on, it would not make any
23 difference if they did. But I am very anxious, if it can
24 be avoided, not to become locked into a careful but
25 linguistic analysis of what is in that.
26
27 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. I understand your point on that. It is
28 not always easy, because the fact is that by the time you
29 come to decide it you have read it several times yourself.
30 I do not mind saying that it is not possible in my case to
31 remember just what my reaction was to this part of the
32 leaflet or that part of the leaflet when I first read it.
33
34 MR. RAMPTON: To that end, my Lord -- and maybe this is a
35 convenient moment to do it -- can I ask your Lordship to
36 look that piece of the judgment of Drake J., not of course
37 because anything that he said binds your Lordship, or
38 anything like that, but simply because at the stage -----
39
40 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Just pause a moment. Quite frankly,
41 Ms. Steel, if you try and get every word of this down, you
42 are going to get hopelessly lost. I think it is important
43 that you understand just what Mr. Rampton is arguing. You
44 are not short of intelligence; I am sure you will. In so
45 far as you want to get anything down verbatim, I will break
46 off at five to one, I will come back at ten past two, and
47 ask Mr. Riley if he would be kind enough to open the court
48 at five to two again; and I will ask, if no one any
49 objection, that your Caseview is not turned off and reset
50 for the afternoon in the meantime.
51
52 MS. STEEL: Thank you.
53
54 MR. RAMPTON: I am sorry if I sometimes -----
55
56 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No. You are going at a steady pace. I was
57 worried that Ms. Steel might be distracted by trying to
58 make too perfect a note.
59
60 MR. RAMPTON: It is terribly important, if I may say so -- at
