Day 308 - 28 Nov 96 - Page 40


     
     1        One of the particular areas in which I have faced the
     2        problem which I mentioned a moment ago is in relation to
     3        rainforests.  If the message of the leaflet is as direct
     4        and obvious as your Lordship will see in these submissions
     5        we believe it to be, then it must follow as night follows
     6        day that 100 per cent of the evidence given on that issue
     7        in this case on both sides was in fact totally irrelevant.
     8        Not that I have, I fear, actually dealt with the various
     9        questions of fact which were put into the case under the
    10        guise of an issue which does not really exist.
    11
    12        There are only two other things, my Lord, at this stage,
    13        that I believe that I need to say.  The first is, so far as
    14        it is necessary, to give a brief explanation of how these
    15        volumes work.  Volume 1, which is nutrition, is the longest
    16        section.  I should say, I put it first for two reasons;
    17        first, because it is, to my mind at least, the most
    18        important issue in the case, and, secondly, because it
    19        leads naturally on to food poisoning and then advertising.
    20
    21        Nutrition.  I ask your Lordship not to be alarmed at the
    22        sight that there are both text and tables in part 1, and
    23        tables in part 2; the tables in part 2 are merely the
    24        tables in part 1 reproduced for ease of reference.  They
    25        are not an additional set of tables, but there were so many
    26        of them we thought it appropriate to put them in a separate
    27        section so that one could have them by the side when one
    28        reads the text.
    29
    30        In relation to Colchester, Bath and Heathrow, it is only
    31        right I should say, as your Lordship I think may see in
    32        some parts, that to a large extent the summaries of the
    33        evidence and the calculations which have been done,
    34        sometimes in tabular form, are to a large extent the work
    35        of Mr. Atkinson and Mrs. Brinley-Codd.  I do not say that
    36        in case they may be wrong, but because I think credit ought
    37        to be given to them for the work that they have done.
    38
    39   MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
    40
    41   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, apart from that I do not believe there is
    42        anything else I need to say except that 3A in volume 2,
    43        animals, again is a summary done by Mr. Atkinson of really
    44        the whole of the evidence on the animals, answering the
    45        submissions made by Ms. Steel on behalf of both the
    46        Defendants.
    47
    48        My Lord, finally this:  as I probably foreshadowed a moment
    49        ago, the approach which I have adopted, and making
    50        reservation for the fact that I have, as I say, chickened 
    51        out to some extent, is to ask myself what is the natural 
    52        and ordinary meaning of the words?  To ask myself, in that 
    53        meaning are the words defamatory of one or both of the
    54        Plaintiffs?  Then to ask where it is appropriate -- because
    55        sometimes it is so obvious it does not need to be asked --
    56        is the allegation an allegation of fact or is it of
    57        comment?
    58
    59        If, as in all but, as I have concluded, one possible case
    60        they are allegations of fact, I then go on to consider the

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