Day 297 - 08 Nov 96 - Page 21


     
     1        evidence, if I feel able to accept it as expert evidence.
     2
     3   MR. MORRIS:   We would certainly say that as far as his
     4        understanding of the knowledge of current medical opinion
     5        on the subject he was a far greater expert than, say, Dr.
     6        Arnott, who had a very specific specialisation.
     7
     8   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You may want to say something about it or
     9        not.  The difficulty I have with Mr. Cannon is however well
    10        acquainted he may be with these topics, whether he is
    11        actually, at the end of the day, in any better position
    12        than I am myself to evaluate the primary evidence.
    13
    14   MR. MORRIS:   Yes, but his evidence is to...  If Mr. Rampton
    15        stops heckling me?
    16
    17   MR. RAMPTON:   Sorry.
    18
    19   MR. MORRIS:   His expertise is clearly with evaluating the state
    20        of medical opinion in the world.
    21
    22   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   You must, I am afraid, read again my finding
    23        as to what this means.
    24
    25   MR. MORRIS:   I understand that.  Part of the meaning of what
    26        you have said is that McDonald's should know the state of
    27        medical opinion linked between diet and cancer, but they do
    28        not, or they do not tell their customers that.  The point
    29        is that one of the reasons that McDonald's should know
    30        this, apart from the fact it is in their own pamphlet, is
    31        that the state of medical opinion is a consensus.
    32
    33   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   I can see that for myself.  As well as
    34        Mr. Cannon is.  I am not getting cross about it.  It is a
    35        serious question, because judges do not take account of
    36        what they are told...  Well, this is putting it too
    37        generally, but basically I tried to explain this, if the
    38        judge is in as good a position as the person in the witness
    39        box to evaluate the material he has to follow his own
    40        judgment rather than the person in the witness box.  There
    41        are some people who he cannot be in as good a position as
    42        because they have had the particular scientific training,
    43        or something of that kind.
    44
    45        What troubles me is if, basically, I could be in as good a
    46        position as Mr. Cannon if I read what was relevant to the
    47        issue, how can I just follow his view rather than my own?
    48        That is trying to put it in ordinary lay language.  None of
    49        this is a personal criticism of Mr. Cannon.  He may be a
    50        great powerful good in the land with the work he has done,
    51        but it is a difficulty with what the status of his evidence
    52        is.
    53
    54   MR. MORRIS:   I think that his job, his position, as scientific
    55        director of the World Cancer Research Fund is to evaluate
    56        the current state of medical opinion on the links between
    57        diet and cancer and presumably other influences on cancer,
    58        and I can't see there would be any person in this country
    59        more able to give evidence on that matter in the witness
    60        box in this case.

Prev Next Index