Day 272 - 02 Jul 96 - Page 15

     
     1        A.   Yes.
     2
     3   Q.   I think it says you were.  Well, it must be.  Mr.
     4        Pocklington's notes say you were there.  Do you remember
     5        any conversation like this, and, if so, can you give any
     6        account of it?
     7        A.   Well, to the best of my recollection, all that
     8        happened was that we were invited by the World Service to
     9        debate with McDonald's.  I do not remember a lot about it
    10        and I think he has built it up into something that it
    11        really was not.  I mean, this thing about victory
    12        literature and that it is a bit over the top.  The thing
    13        about "a great moral victory, will not let it go/die down",
    14        well, we did let it go.  I mean, it was just something that
    15        came along and then went, you know.
    16
    17        And the other thing he said about we do not have sources to
    18        back up facts is not true either.  We had plenty of
    19        sources.  I mean, I had a file from McDonald's research
    20        that I had done from '87 onwards, including press cuttings,
         articles and books, and by this time we also had the
    22        Jungleburger video.
    23
    24   Q.   Were you happy to go and do this interview on the BBC World
    25        Service?
    26        A.   Well, it says here that I told them yes.  I can
    27        remember at the time thinking yes, this would be a good
    28        opportunity, yes.
    29
    30   Q.   Right.  And would you have been happy to go and do this
    31        interview if you had not had any facts to back up --
    32        A.   Of course not.
    33
    34   Q.   -- what you were saying?
    35        A.   No.  Obviously because then they would have made me
    36        look a fool, but I thought I had, you know, facts, sources
    37        to back up what we were saying.
    38
    39   Q.   Right.
    40
    MR. MORRIS:  Can I just ask one question about that research
    42        file.  Did you pass that on to the defendants or the
    43        solicitors?  Do you remember passing that file and when you
    44        passed on that file?
    45        A.   To best of my knowledge, I think I passed it on just
    46        after the writs were issued.  It may have been around the
    47        time that I apologised.  I mean, it was just soon
    48        afterwards, yes.
    49
    50   Q.   Actually all the relevant matters in that file are in the
    51        defendants' documents disclosed.
    52
    53   MS. STEEL:  Mr. Pocklington gives an account of this.  Well,
    54        maybe you have already dealt with it, but if you just want
    55        to quickly look at page 76, what Mr. Pocklington says.
    56        (Pause)
    57        A.   Yes.  I means, that is a far more accurate
    58        representation of what actually happened.  It is not over
    59        the top, is it?  I mean --
    60