Day 172 - 12 Oct 95 - Page 20

     
     1        to do -- and both parties will have to forgive me -- is
     2        reach a fairly summary conclusion on the matter, and then
     3        we will go ahead and read.
     4
     5   MR. RAMPTON:  It is not very difficult, really.
     6
     7   MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am against you on that, Mr. Rampton.
     8
     9   MR. RAMPTON: The next one is page 3, my Lord.  Again, it is the
    10        end of the first paragraph on page 3, she says:  "It" --
    11        whatever that is -- "was an unnerving experience to be a
    12        witness to this event and I was glad that I" -- and
    13        then she writes -- "unlike so many other employees, had an
    14        alternative career ahead of me."  That can only be what she
    15        was told by the other employees.  She cannot know that they
    16        do not have alternative careers ahead of them unless they
    17        have told her.  If it did not matter, I would not object to
    18        it, but in fact it creates a picture which she is not
    19        entitled to create, because she does not know.
    20
    MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What do you say about that, Mr. Morris?
    22        Quite frankly, I do not think it makes any difference if
    23        that comes out, because I will draw my own conclusion about
    24        it.
    25
    26   MR. MORRIS:  No.  But Mr. Rampton is trying to establish a
    27        principle, which may be important.  That may not be an
    28        important phrase in terms of the evidence as a whole, but
    29        the point is that it is not that -- if in her evidence
    30        someone said to her, "I have got no alternative career
    31        ahead of me", that is different from them saying, "Well
    32        I witnessed an incident", which she wants to rely on, that
    33        happened.
    34
    35   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You need not say any more.  I am against you
    36        on that.
    37
    38   MS. STEEL:   Can I just -----
    39
    40   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  When I did manual work, I think I knew those
         who had alternative careers ahead of them and those like
    42        myself, who were going back to school or university in a
    43        week or two's time.
    44
    45   MR. RAMPTON:  Your Lordship says you knew they did not.
    46        Strictly speaking, if I may say so, you could not have
    47        known.
    48
    49   MR. JUSTICE BELL: I could.  If they were 55 years old and
    50        smoking Wates cigarettes and had clearly been building 
    51        labourers for the last 25 years, I did not think they had 
    52        much of an alternative career ahead of them. 
    53
    54   MR. RAMPTON:  That I understand.  But this young lady feels able
    55        to say -----
    56
    57   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Leave it in, Mr. Rampton.
    58
    59   MR. RAMPTON:  Very well.  Then I sit down on that and I will not
    60        say no more about that.