Day 032 - 06 Oct 94 - Page 63
1
2 Q. --- "It is our good influence". McDonald's would like to
3 say, "No, it is our ----"
4 A. Spontaneously, yes. I understand the problem in
5 attributing cause and effect, but I would argue that, in
6 my experience, the exposure to public and media attention
7 on these issues does prompt a company to act perhaps more
8 expediently than it otherwise would.
9
10 MR. RAMPTON: A fair way of putting it, would be more like the
11 way which his Lordship put it, it may be, though you
12 cannot prove it, that what the pressure groups do and say
13 is a factor?
14 A. Of course.
15
16 Q. That would be the fair way to put it, would it not?
17 A. I would say there is a role for pressure groups to
18 maintain this sort of activity.
19
20 Q. That I understand.
21
22 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I do not think anyone would argue with you
23 about that.
24
25 MR. RAMPTON: There is no argument about that.
26 A. There is an argument to my mind because the question
27 is why, if there is no need for them? The answer is that
28 I believe there is a need for them.
29
30 Q. Perhaps we need not spend too much time on it.
31 I guaranteed you would get away by twenty past four, and
32 I mean to carry out that undertaking, Dr. Lobstein, but
33 perhaps one can dispose of it in this way. Perhaps we can
34 agree that the role of pressure groups is to keep issues
35 at the forefront of the government, the public and
36 industry's minds?
37 A. And to raise further issues, not necessarily to
38 maintain those issues.
39
40 Q. Issues which perhaps people have not thought about enough?
41 A. Or interpreted in particular ways.
42
43 Q. I would like to go, if I may, to something rather
44 different which is what you wrote as your second or
45 supplementary statement in this case, because I am
46 anxious, if I may, to get some illumination which
47 presently escapes me. I am bothered, Dr. Lobstein, by a
48 passage which his Lordship asked you about earlier in the
49 fourth paragraph. I am not numbering them. I am counting
50 them down from the top of the page. The first page, "The
51 frequency of eating such meals varies". You have that?
52 A. The first page in the response?
53
54 Q. In the response to Verner Wheelock's -- I have called it
55 the supplementary statement.
56 A. Yes, the frequency of the eating.
57
58 Q. You write: "Frequency of eating such meals varies of
59 course with some groups of the population eating far more
60 fast food meals than other groups do". I am not going to
