Day 065 - 09 Dec 94 - Page 09
1 MR. RAMPTON: Some role, perhaps, Ms. Dibb, but you will have
2 picked my thread already, I dare say. Quite apart from
3 concrete distortions which I may be able to show you, which
4 we will not find in this report, my suggestion to you is
5 (and will continue to be) that, if I may use an unfortunate
6 joke, you have consistently, in the course of this
7 discussion paper, over egged the pudding in order to make
8 the point?
9 A. I would not agree with that. I have quoted, as it says
10 in the Taylor Nelson report, "Children do have a major
11 influence on the food items bought and, if anything, this
12 influence appears to be increasing". Taylor Nelson
13 felt----
14
15 Q. With respect, that is the Leatherhead, not Taylor Nelson.
16 A. Sorry, Leatherhead Food Research Authority, which is a
17 well-respected research body, felt confident to say that.
18 Therefore, I felt confident to quote it. The section you
19 have just referred me to specifically looks at one aspect
20 of that which is the shopping trip. The shopping trip
21 itself is only one scenario in the circumstances in which
22 influence may be expressed.
23
24 Q. I understand that but, surely, take a child who is not
25 given money to do the household shopping, but relies on the
26 parent to do the shopping for it, what happened surely is
27 this, is it not, that the parent will buy according to the
28 parent's discretion, assuming the parent is an ordinary,
29 averagely intelligent person with a responsibility to bring
30 up his or her own children, the parent will decide what, to
31 any extent, he or she is going to, as it were, comply with
32 the child's wishes expressed at home or, indeed, on the
33 shopping trip? That is how it works in reality, is it not?
34 A. I have quoted research already in giving evidence here
35 that shows that parents admit to and buying foods they
36 would not otherwise buy because of the influence of their
37 children.
38
39 Q. Do not worry. I am coming back to your MORI poll later on,
40 Ms. Dibb. I want to read on with this because, you see, it
41 does not do to stop at a particular point in the document
42 if further reading will give us further enlightenment. It
43 reads on: "The results from the quantative research
44 indicate that children do have an influence on their
45 mothers' shopping. However, in the main the influence
46 appears to be a moderate one". Then we get a pie chart:
47 Six per cent no influence at all; a great degree of
48 influence -- I have taken these in the wrong but never mind
49 -- a great degree of influence 15 per cent; a fair degree
50 of influence 33 per cent; a small degree of influence 46
51 per cent. If one puts the small degree together with the
52 no influence at all, one gets a figure of 52 per cent, does
53 one not?
54 A. Well, I think only six per cent said there was no
55 influence at all. I come back to the point that we are
56 talking specifically here about a shopping trip. I have
57 already quoted research which showed many mothers actually
58 felt they did not want to take their children shopping and
59 consciously made other arrangements for them, rather than
60 taking them shopping, because of their influence of pester
