Day 307 - 27 Nov 96 - Page 49
1 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It was the last thing which was said on day
2 303, Tuesday, 19th November, which is now eight days ago.
3
4 MR. MORRIS: I got the impression it was that we would have
5 Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of next week off, but I might
6 be wrong.
7
8 MR. RAMPTON: It does not say that.
9
10 MR. MORRIS: Hang on, the judge is reading.
11
12 MR JUSTICE BELL: What I said was, the effect of it, this. It
13 was when you asked for the rest of that week off. I said
14 "I will adjourn for Wednesday 20th and Thursday 21st
15 November. Employment must finish in half an hour or so on
16 Friday 22nd. You must finish publication and counterclaim
17 by the end of today. Mr. Rampton will do his introduction
18 on Thursday, 28th, and then I will read his written
19 submissions in so far as he has prepared them and resume on
20 Monday 2nd with Mr. Rampton's legal submissions, hoping to
21 finish with Mr. Rampton's submissions, hoping to finish
22 those by Friday, 6th December". Carry on now.
23
24 MR. MORRIS: Were McDonald's under attack; is it credible that
25 they were under attack; and to what extent were they under
26 attack? Now, McDonald's cannot be under attack. For a
27 start, they are a multi-national corporation with huge
28 presence and resources and able to put themselves over in
29 any way, shape or form they wish to and they are saying
30 that they have propelled themselves into the public eye
31 and, therefore, criticisms are part and parcel of what they
32 should expect as part of that.
33
34 But was there an attack such as to justify their claim of
35 self-defence? Was it some particularly strong and current
36 attack? What was this attack that they have claimed they
37 had to defend themselves against? The fact sheet had not
38 been distributed as far as they know by anybody since 1990,
39 not counting of course the Veggies fact sheet which has
40 been distributed continuously, with their acceptance, since
41 1987, 1988.
42
43 In fact, I was just checking again, this is a side point, I
44 am checking again the Veggies' apology which was on 6th May
45 1988, second page, and they did not apologise for anything
46 in the fact sheet being untrue at all. What they said was,
47 "We are now willing to apologise for having repeated
48 claims for which we have been unable to trace specific
49 evidence concerning the connection with McDonald's and the
50 raising of beef on former rainforests", which we now say
51 anyway we have proven. But they did not apologise for
52 saying something that was wrong, just that they did not
53 have the specific proof at the time and, of course, the
54 murder and torture matter they just said, "We are willing
55 to concede it is not yet widely used in connection with the
56 killing of animals, although by our standards it is indeed
57 the case".
58
59 So there was nothing at all which was any indication that a
60 single word in the London Greenpeace fact sheet was even
