Day 278 - 11 Jul 96 - Page 12
1 know not whose handwriting it is, but it has got the date
2 9th January 1991 at the top of it. Now please read to
3 yourself the first column and a half, starting "starving
4 the poor" and ending just above the heading "slaughtering
5 the innocent".
6 A. Yes.
7
8 Q. That is a huge retreat, would you agree, from what is in
9 the fact sheet and what is in the shorter A5 version that
10 we looked at just a moment ago?
11 A. It is worded differently, somebody else obviously wrote
12 it.
13
14 Q. And may I suggest to you the reason why it is different in
15 this way? It is depersonalised, it is not targeting
16 McDonald's with the "use of lethal poisons" et cetera, the
17 "800 square miles" are absent, they are not mentioned.
18 And the reason for that, Miss Steel, is that it was
19 realised that what was in the fact sheet could not be
20 supported?
21 A. That is not what -- I mean, to me somebody else has
22 done, has rewritten the leaflet. Mr. Gravett said himself
23 that he was planning to update the leaflet even before
24 anybody knew anything about the writs, to incorporate new
25 information such as the stuff that is here about HCFC's.
26 Somebody else has written it, they have obviously got a
27 different style of writing and, you know, that is about all
28 I can say about it, really.
29
30 Q. Well, look, please, at the second page under "Mclibel" and
31 see if you really mean what you just said?
32 A. Under "Mclibel"?
33
34 Q. Yes, on the bottom of the second page?
35 A. Yes.
36
37 Q. The fact is, as I put to you a moment ago, that this was
38 rewritten because you knew you could not defend the
39 rainforest allegations in the original fact sheet?
40 A. I did not rewrite it, so I can't say, but I would say
41 no.
42
43 Q. All right.
44 A. I would say it was updated to take account of new
45 developments, such as HCFC's and such as this case.
46
47 MR. RAMPTON: The truth, Miss Steel, is this, is it not, you are
48 in some sense, and have been ever since you have been quite
49 a young person, at war with the world in which you found
50 yourself and that you and your colleagues picked McDonald's
51 as something to kick; is that right?
52 A. No, that is not right.
53
54 Q. And that--
55 A. No, hang on, that is not right.
56
57 Q. You want to expand on it?
58 A. Since, as I have been growing up and I have seen damage
59 to the environment, heard about nuclear power, things like
60 that, things that I have not seen with my own eyes but
