Day 186 - 10 Nov 95 - Page 11
1 the one of the Treasury butchers is much stronger. There
2 is obviously a starving child on the butcher's cutting
3 block and John Major telling the butcher to "get
4 chopping". That has, obviously, in the literal sense, got
5 to be chopping up the child, the starving child, but nobody
6 is going to take that in its literal sense.
7
8 People are not going to take this as meaning that the
9 Government is literally chopping up starving children to
10 feed rich, overweight people that are hanging about on the
11 right-hand side of the cartoon, despite the use of the word
12 "chopping" by the character that is supposed to be John
13 Major and despite the words of the butcher, "but there is
14 hardly any meat on this". The message is that John Major
15 and his Government is responsible for taking from the poor
16 to give to the rich.
17
18 It is the same with the burger, with the cow and the person
19 in it. If this was to be taken in its literal sense, for
20 starters, dead cows and dead people do not talk. Secondly,
21 it would be suggesting that McDonald's put human remains
22 into their burgers. I do not think that even the
23 Plaintiffs would suggest that that is the meaning.
24 Additionally, obviously, it does not refer to McDonald's.
25
26 Basically, I would just say that the purpose of the cartoon
27 is to depict the crushing of people and animals by the
28 burger industry. Obviously, the leaflet is about
29 McDonald's, so McDonald's are a part of that. That
30 includes the crushing of workers, and not just customers.
31
32 I do not really know that I need to mention the other
33 cartoons, but I just thought that it was worth looking at
34 the fact that, basically, the second cartoon is showing
35 people on welfare being put in a mincer and being minced up
36 to make the dinner of a very large person who appears as if
37 they do not really need any more to eat. That is being
38 done by Kenneth Clarke. If people do not understand the
39 meaning of the cartoon initially, they were going to look
40 to the whole of the leaflet for an explanation; and it is
41 clear that the whole leaflet is talking about the
42 all-consuming nature of the burger industry taking over our
43 high streets.
44
45 There is a section in the leaflet that refers to:
46 "Everything must go". "All junk-food chains hide their
47 ruthless exploitation of resources, animals and people
48 behind a facade of colourful gimmicks and 'family fun'."
49 It goes on to say: "This materialist mentality is
50 affecting all areas of our lives, with giant conglomerates
51 dominating the marketplace, allowing little or no room for
52 people to create genuine choices."
53
54 I think, really, the case is that the cartoon is something,
55 basically, that is there to break up the text, to catch the
56 eye in the same way as the headlines, to encourage the
57 reader to read the text of the leaflet, and that it is
58 basically a joke more than anything. Really, I do not
59 actually think, to be honest, that people looking at the
60 cartoon are going to think very much about it. I think
