Day 200 - 12 Dec 95 - Page 17
1 is your Lordship's view, we must necessarily accept it and
2 we will recall him. It does not mean, however, that
3 I accept at this stage, or will accept at the end of the
4 case, that evidence as to frequency or quantity has in
5 fact ----
6
7 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I understand that. In recalling him -- I say
8 "recalling" him -- in bringing him back into the witness
9 box so that cross-examination can continue, you are not
10 showing any sign of relenting from the argument which you
11 have just put, but there we are. What I am not going to do
12 is give anything which is an inferential ruling, let alone
13 an express one, on whether I think you are right in your
14 argument. That being the case, it seems to me, if the
15 Defendants want to carry on cross-examining Mr. Fairgrieve,
16 they ought to be allowed to do so.
17
18 MR. RAMPTON: If your Lordship says so, that must happen
19 necessarily. My Lord, I state the argument now, although
20 I anticipate or, at least, I know, I think, what your
21 Lordship's response would be, but it is best to state it
22 now; the same goes for Professor Crawford for the same
23 reason. If the Defendants cannot get over the first hurdle
24 of showing that food is intrinsically unhealthy because it
25 simply does not have the properties alleged in this
26 meaning, then of course it must follow that the supposed
27 consequential risk of cancer is out of reach as well.
28
29 MS. STEEL: I did not understand that -- "intrinsically
30 unhealthy because it does not have the properties alleged
31 in this meaning"?
32
33 MR. RAMPTON: Yes, if it is not intrinsically unhealthy, and the
34 reason why it is not intrinsically unhealthy is that it
35 does not have the properties described in this
36 meaning -----
37
38 MS. STEEL: Which properties are you talking about?
39
40 MR. RAMPTON: The properties of -----
41
42 MR. MORRIS: Being high in ----
43
44 MR. RAMPTON: No, no, the properties of making your diet high in
45 fat if you eat it. If it is incapable of having that
46 quality as food, then, of course, it is incapable of
47 incurring the risk of cancer or heart disease as food.
48 Since both those conditions, if they are incurred as a
49 result of eating food, are incurred only as a result of
50 eating too much of it as a diet and failing to eat
51 sufficient quantities of other things to balance.
52
53 MR. JUSTICE BELL: But do they not balance against each other?
54 I mean, I looked at various tables of meals which, I think
55 it was suggested, someone might eat throughout the week
56 with, I think, in some of them a McDonald's meal arriving
57 once a week -- did it also arrive once a day in some of the
58 tables?
59
60 MR. RAMPTON: Yes, of course we did all that, but we did it all
