Day 304 - 22 Nov 96 - Page 22
1 page 23, line 15.
2
3 Alan Clare. We should point out that, as far as we are
4 concerned, the evidence of Mr. Clare in general is
5 virtually totally unreliable because of its contradictory
6 nature and the fact that it is contradicted by what other
7 witnesses said, and so on, but I will go into that at a
8 later stage. But even he recognised the nature of the
9 group, and he stated that "not everybody that attended
10 meetings participated in the discussions or had an equal
11 interest in any particular subject". That was on day 265,
12 page 67, line 1. In his statement he said about people
13 taking control of meetings, and he said that "the notion of
14 someone taking control of a meeting was simply announcing
15 the next item to be discussed or saying, 'Let us move on'."
16 That was day 265, page 67, line 60.
17
18 Frances Tiller said that people have their own pet
19 interests and would get on with organising that particular
20 interest, and that anybody who wanted to do something just
21 got on and did it. That was day 270, page 13, line 60.
22 She said that people were not allocated tasks, that people
23 volunteered to do things. That was day 270, page 18, line
24 33. She said that there was no voting or show of hands, no
25 kind of formal democracy. That was day 270, page 24, line
26 56. In fact, she actually said that it was frequently
27 difficult to tell whether anything had been decided at
28 all. That was day 270, page 25, line 1.
29
30 Mr. Bishop said that nobody chaired the meetings. That was
31 day 259, page 81, line 13; that the group did not have a
32 formal agenda and that it was more like a newsletter, in
33 effect; that it was used as a sort of forum for people
34 passing on information about what was going on, and things
35 like that. That was day 259 -- actually, it may be day
36 260, I think.
37
38 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Do you have a page reference?
39
40 MS. STEEL: Yes, I am just trying to find the right one.
41 (Pause). Right. Yes. It was day 261, page 16, line 9.
42 He also said that people, not everybody, that people
43 involved with London Greenpeace were not interested in the
44 same things; they were not all -- you know, everybody is
45 involved in everything that was going on. That was on day
46 261, page 16, line 20. In fact, he said that Paul Gravett
47 purporting to speak on behalf of the group, or of other
48 people, that that had got people's backs up, and he agreed
49 that people expressed their own views and not necessarily
50 those of the group or -- sorry, no, that it was agreed
51 people expressed their own views and not necessarily those
52 of the group, and it was not the case that everybody would
53 be interested in those views. That was day 261, pages 16
54 and 17. He said that it was typical for individuals to
55 organise events on issues close to their heart. That was
56 day 261, page 32, line 1.
57
58 He said that the meetings were not a forum where agreement
59 and decision-making was usual, that there was no real
60 acknowledgment of any common goal, never mind the means by
