Day 305 - 25 Nov 96 - Page 34


     
     1   MS. STEEL:   Moving on to the second statement of Mr. Bishop, in
     2        paragraph 7 he says that the group agreed to various
     3        pickets on 16th October 1990.  Just to make the point that
     4        there is no evidence in his notes on page 187 -- that is
     5        the bundle page of the notes, and this is about the meeting
     6        of 13th September 1990, by the way -- there is no evidence
     7        in the notes of me making any comment in relation to the
     8        pickets; and that, also, even if there were, so what?
     9        Where is the evidence relating to the fact sheet?  There is
    10        no evidence that the fact sheet was going to be distributed
    11        on 16th October 1990; and that is particularly so, since it
    12        was generally accepted by everybody, as far as I can tell,
    13        that it was now out of print.
    14
    15        The next assertion made by Mr. Bishop was in paragraph 8 of
    16        the second statement, and this was relating to a meeting of
    17        20th September 1990, where he said that I was organising
    18        the printing of leaflets for the London Greenpeace fair.
    19        That -- I think Mr. Rampton will not disagree -- has been
    20        accepted is incorrect, and that it was in fact that I was
    21        organising printing of leaflets about the anti-IMF
    22        demonstrations and activities.  So, I think that is another
    23        demonstration of inaccuracies in the notes and the fact
    24        that they cannot be taken at face value.
    25
    26        Moving on to the third statement by Mr. Bishop, he refers
    27        in paragraph 9.1 to the anti-poll tax march which went to
    28        Finsbury Park on 16th June 1990 and the event at the
    29        George Roby.  If I just make the point that, as we have
    30        seen from the postcard which I sent, I was in the
    31        Outer Hebrides at the time and, therefore, I had absolutely
    32        no involvement in this.  Additionally, there is no
    33        reference in any of the spies' notes to any agreement on my
    34        part to do the stall, let alone distributing
    35        anti-McDonald's leaflets of whatever kind at the
    36        George Roby event and the anti-poll tax demonstration.
    37
    38        In his statement at paragraph 9.3 he refers to Mr. Gravett
    39        saying that he was -- sorry, it should be 9.2, not 9.3, and
    40        this was the meeting of 2nd August 1990 again --
    41        Mr. Gravett was to do a new up-to-date fact sheet, and he
    42        said that it was generally felt that this would counter
    43        McDonald's propaganda.  There is no record in his notes of
    44        any comment by me about this.  Anyway, even if people,
    45        including myself, had spoken in favour, it would not be
    46        evidence of a joint enterprise (or whatever the legal
    47        terminology is) in relation to the old fact sheet.  At
    48        most, it would be a feeling that McDonald's propaganda
    49        needed to be challenged and that an up-to-date fact sheet
    50        as suggested by Mr. Gravett might be an effective way of 
    51        doing that.  That is not the same publication as the one 
    52        that we are being sued over.  So, it is irrelevant.  I 
    53        mean, anyway, it is irrelevant because there is no evidence
    54        of me making any comment about it.
    55
    56        Paragraph 9.3, which relates to the meeting of
    57        9th August 1990, Mr. Bishop said that myself and Mr. Morris
    58        were not present; and he said that the meeting lacked
    59        direction, because myself, Mr. Morris and Mr. Gravett were
    60        not there.  That is pure speculation on his part, and it is

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