Day 002 - 29 Jun 94 - Page 12

     
     1        apology was printed in the paper and the paper paid
              McDonald's costs.  In fact, the paper was not helping
     2        McDonald's to put the record straight; they were
              unwittingly helping McDonald's to deceive the public.
     3
              In the libel action being heard in this court McDonald's
     4        are calling witnesses who will tell the court that the
              plaintiffs are in fact supplied with beef from cattle
     5        slaughtered using the captive bolt pistol as a
              pre-stunning method.  The letter written to the
     6        Bournemouth Advertiser told a direct lie and as a
              consequence the paper made an apology which was totally
     7        false.
 
     8        I am going to move on to food poisoning now.
 
     9        On this subject I would firstly like to say that the
              leaflet does not say, as Mr. Rampton claims, that if you
    10        eat at McDonald's you are likely to get food poisoning.
              What it says is that meat is responsible for 70 per cent
         of food poisoning incidents with chicken and minced meat,
              as used in burgers, being the worst offenders.
    12
              McDonald's have now formally admitted they were
    13        responsible for an outbreak of food poisoning in Preston
              in 1991 in which people suffered serious kidney failure.
    14        They have also admitted two further incidents in the USA,
              although not formal admissions.  That is contained in
    15        statements.  This section of the leaflet simply says that
              food such as chicken and minced beef carry the greatest
    16        risk.  This fact will be confirmed by expert evidence on
              our behalf.
    17
              Mr. Rampton argues that, on reading the passage in the
    18        leaflet, people are likely to think that if they eat at
              McDonald's they are very likely to get food poisoning.
    19        This is a ridiculous argument.  Traffic accidents are a
              major cause of injuries and deaths in our society; that if
    20        newspapers print that fact, people reading it are not
              automatically going to start thinking if they go out and
         cross a road they are very likely to get run over.
 
    22        I come to the end now of what I had time to do.  I did
              want to speak on employment as well, but I have not had
    23        the time to prepare a speech.  We know Mr. Rampton started
              his three weeks ago.  We have not had the time, so I will
    24        hand over to Mr. Morris now to finish off.
 
    25   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.
  
    26   MR. MORRIS:  The impression given yesterday by Mr. Rampton on 
              behalf of McDonald's Corporation is they are a cuddly 
    27        international organisation committed to helping the
              community, helping people have jobs, caring about the
    28        environment.  I do not believe he mentioned the word
              "profit" at all.  In fact, of course, that is their
    29        fundamental overriding concern since day 1 when they were
              formed.
    30
              We are hoping to burst this bubble of a carefully tailored