Day 032 - 06 Oct 94 - Page 63


     
     1
     2   Q.   --- "It is our good influence".  McDonald's would like to
     3        say, "No, it is our ----"
     4        A.  Spontaneously, yes.  I understand the problem in
     5        attributing cause and effect, but I would argue that, in
     6        my experience, the exposure to public and media attention
     7        on these issues does prompt a company to act perhaps more
     8        expediently than it otherwise would.
     9
    10   MR. RAMPTON:  A fair way of putting it, would be more like the
    11        way which his Lordship put it, it may be, though you
    12        cannot prove it, that what the pressure groups do and say
    13        is a factor?
    14        A.  Of course.
    15
    16   Q.   That would be the fair way to put it, would it not?
    17        A.  I would say there is a role for pressure groups to
    18        maintain this sort of activity.
    19
    20   Q.   That I understand.
    21
    22   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I do not think anyone would argue with you
    23        about that.
    24
    25   MR. RAMPTON:  There is no argument about that.
    26        A.  There is an argument to my mind because the question
    27        is why, if there is no need for them?  The answer is that
    28        I believe there is a need for them.
    29
    30   Q.   Perhaps we need not spend too much time on it.
    31        I guaranteed you would get away by twenty past four, and
    32        I mean to carry out that undertaking, Dr. Lobstein, but
    33        perhaps one can dispose of it in this way.  Perhaps we can
    34        agree that the role of pressure groups is to keep issues
    35        at the forefront of the government, the public and
    36        industry's minds?
    37        A.  And to raise further issues, not necessarily to
    38        maintain those issues.
    39
    40   Q.   Issues which perhaps people have not thought about enough?
    41        A.  Or interpreted in particular ways.
    42
    43   Q.   I would like to go, if I may, to something rather
    44        different which is what you wrote as your second or
    45        supplementary statement in this case, because I am
    46        anxious, if I may, to get some illumination which
    47        presently escapes me.  I am bothered, Dr. Lobstein, by a
    48        passage which his Lordship asked you about earlier in the
    49        fourth paragraph.  I am not numbering them.  I am counting
    50        them down from the top of the page.  The first page, "The 
    51        frequency of eating such meals varies".  You have that? 
    52        A.  The first page in the response? 
    53
    54   Q.   In the response to Verner Wheelock's -- I have called it
    55        the supplementary statement.
    56        A.  Yes, the frequency of the eating.
    57
    58   Q.   You write:  "Frequency of eating such meals varies of
    59        course with some groups of the population eating far more
    60        fast food meals than other groups do".  I am not going to

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