Day 172 - 12 Oct 95 - Page 04
1 MR. MORRIS: Can you see your statement?
2 A. Yes.
3
4 Q. Shall I read it out? Would that be appropriate? I will
5 read it out. It is November 29th, 1993.
6
7 "Dear Mr. Morris, I write to confirm the veracity of the
8 article published by the Daily Mirror on December 17th,
9 1986. I was the Mirror's industrial editor at that time,
10 and I recall the interview with Mr. Nicholson who used the
11 words attributed to him in my story. Yours faithfully,
12 Terry Pattinson."
13
14 Is that truly the case?
15 A. Yes.
16
17 Q. If you look over the page, is that the article which was
18 published which you wrote?
19 A. Yes. I think it was a bigger showing in an earlier
20 edition; I think there is a truncated version.
21
22 Q. Can I just ask you one question before I go into the detail
23 of the article. You say that you were industrial editor of
24 the Daily Mirror from 1986 onwards. Before that time, were
25 you writing a lot of articles about industrial matters?
26 A. Yes. I was the Daily Mirror's industrial correspondent
27 from 1975. I was actually promoted to industrial editor in
28 1986. So I have actually been writing about industrial
29 affairs since 1972 altogether. Prior to the Mirror, I was
30 on the Daily Express.
31
32 Q. Had you interviewed people from companies before?
33 A. Oh, yes.
34
35 Q. Representatives of big companies?
36 A. Yes.
37
38 Q. It was routine?
39 A. My job was labour relations, full-time. So I was
40 interviewing, you know, bosses, captains of industry,
41 employees, union leaders, all the time.
42
43 Q. So you were very familiar with the subject?
44 A. Yes.
45
46 Q. If you read that article to yourself, that article as a
47 whole, is that all true, to your knowledge?
48 A. Yes.
49
50 Q. Coming to the specific section referring to Sid Nicholson,
51 McDonald's personnel chief, you have said he "said last
52 night". How did that conversation arise?
53 A. From memory, I obtained his home telephone number,
54 probably from the Company, and I rang him at home. I was
55 also at home.
56
57 Q. Right. So it was a phone call?
58 A. Yes.
59
60 Q. You quoted him as saying: "We do not have an anti-union