Day 296 - 07 Nov 96 - Page 31
1 The other point, when weighing up his evidence,
2 particularly on this area, is that under cross-examination
3 he refused to disclose his income from the amount of his
4 income from McDonald's. That was on day 15.
5
6 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, I seem to remember at the time
7 I thought if your point was a good one you would have
8 established enough of it by showing 'a percentage of',
9 regardless of what the actual amount was.
10
11 MS. STEEL: He was obviously reliant on McDonald's in a
12 substantial way, which could well affect the amount he was
13 willing to criticise them. You might remember that it took
14 quite a long time; when he was confronted with things that
15 he had previously written he started admitting large parts
16 of our case.
17
18 The second point to bear in mind about whether or not
19 McDonald's meals -----
20
21 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Just pause for a moment. (Pause) The second
22 point?
23
24 MS. STEEL: The second point to bear in mind when looking at
25 whether or not Professor Wheelock is right to say that the
26 recommendations do not apply to individual foods, we would
27 say, other than in a strictly scientific sense, is that, as
28 I said this morning, to the average person on the street
29 McDonald's meals is about phrases about hamburgers, fries
30 and milkshakes rather than about the products which
31 McDonald's has brought in more recently, such as salads and
32 so on.
33
34 In fact, we would say that the introduction by McDonald's
35 of matters such as salads and low fat milk and things like
36 that, are a red herring. They are not relevant to the time
37 of the alleged libel and they are not really relevant to
38 this case, except they do show a recognition that, as
39 Mr. Morris said, clearly previously their products, the
40 range of products they had available, could not be termed
41 healthy products; they would be termed unhealthy. That was
42 how they would be viewed by the vast majority of the
43 public, as is shown by the surveys that were referred to by
44 Mr. Fairgrieve.
45
46 So, in particular the question is not what individual foods
47 are available now, but what was available in and before
48 1990.
49
50 Professor Wheelock defined diet as 'the totality of what
51 the person eats and drinks'. That was day 15, page 13. It
52 was accepted by him that lard in buns used by McDonald's
53 persisted until 1990 or 1991, which is obviously after the
54 date of the alleged libel. That was on day 15, page 14.
55
56 That the reformulation of processed cheese to reduce the
57 fat content was only made in the year or so before he gave
58 evidence, i.e., 1994, 1993, obviously after the date of the
59 alleged libel. The reference for that is day 15, page 14.
60
