Day 246 - 09 May 96 - Page 17
1 admission?
2 A. I do not know when the last ones were distributed, but
3 it is quite possible that they have been, yes.
4
5 Q. Does that not concern you, that you have not immediately
6 recalled all those leaflets and told the communications
7 department that they must not send out that press release
8 that is incorrect?
9 A. The press release is incorrect in one element, it is
10 not entirely incorrect. There is a record in terms of the
11 court in Dublin that I... Yes, I am concerned by it.
12
13 Q. But you are not concerned enough to actually do something
14 to stop the dissemination of false information by
15 McDonald's?
16 A. Not at present, no, not given the circumstances covered
17 by the other far stronger matters contained within that
18 leaflet and the fact that in your own documents talking
19 about "us", the word I think in my appendix 8 of my
20 supplemental statements, the term "lies" has been used by
21 yourself in reference to McDonald's on numerous occasions,
22 I think it is... It may not be totally right but it is
23 certainly not totally wrong.
24
25 Q. We will come on to whether or not we are responsible for
26 whatever documents that you are referring to and I do not
27 know which off-hand -- and if so, if we are responsible
28 whether or not they are true and correct.
29
30 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What is the word in brackets under
31 "correct/untruths" on page 7?
32
33 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, I cannot read it, something "wild".
34 It might be "worldwide"
35
36 MS. STEEL: I think it is probably slash "wide".
37
38 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
39
40 MS. STEEL: When you talk about positioning yourselves as "a
41 truthful and ethical company whose policies and actions are
42 in the best interests of the public, and the environment",
43 it is beyond my comprehension how the creation of mass
44 amounts of waste packaging, not to mention transportation
45 of food all over the country using lorries which cause
46 pollution, cattle ranching, the effects on the environment
47 of the slurry from all the animals that are farmed to
48 produce your burgers and other products, how can you think
49 that it is OK to try and put yourself over as being in the
50 best interests of the public and the environment?
51 A. I believe we are. I believe we use the same food
52 ingredients in our homes that we use in McDonald's. I
53 believe packaging of food in grocery stores versus
54 packaging of food in McDonald's taken on a comparative
55 basis is roughly the same. If what McDonald's is doing is
56 wrong, then the entire rest of the food distribution system
57 in the world must be wrong. That just cannot be.
58
59 Q. But the rest of the world, or the rest of the industry, are
60 not all trying to say that the creation of matters of
