Day 172 - 12 Oct 95 - Page 05

     
     1        policy but we will never negotiate wages and conditions
     2        with a union and we discourage our staff from joining."
     3        Were they the exact words or were they paraphrased, or
     4        what?
     5        A.  Because they are in quotation marks, they would have
     6        been the words he used.
     7
     8   Q.   Was it a long conversation?
     9        A.  No, it was quite short, quite friendly; cannot have
    10        been more than about two or three minutes.  I recall
    11        ringing him up and telling him of the story I was doing,
    12        the Transport and General Workers Union were having
    13        difficulty getting representation at the Company, and that
    14        is what he said and replied.
    15
    16   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Did you make a note at the time,
    17        Mr. Pattinson?  What was your practice?
    18        A.  The normal journalist practice is to make an instant
    19        note, in the same way as you are doing now, because, being
    20        a daily paper, you have to publish straightaway or very
         soon afterwards.  So that that story will have either gone
    22        in the paper the very next morning or 24 hours later.
    23
    24   Q.   Can remember what you did on that occasion?
    25        A.  What I did?
    26
    27   Q.   In so far as making any note was concerned of what
    28        Mr. Nicholson said?
    29        A.  Yes.  I would have kept the notes in my notebook and
    30        taken it to work the next morning, and the story would have
    31        been typed up the next day.  It is just possible that
    32        I actually did the story that night on the telephone and
    33        phoned it straight to the office, but I doubt it.  It would
    34        probably more likely be done the next morning.  If you are
    35        against the clock and the editor wants the story there and
    36        then, you have to do it straightaway on the telephone from
    37        your own home and ring a copy taker.
    38
    39   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.  Being around the courts, I am familiar
    40        with what happens.
    41
    42   MR. MORRIS:  Did you ever get any response by McDonald's as a
    43        result of this article?
    44        A.  No, no response at all.  There were no complaints.
    45
    46   Q.   No complaints?
    47        A.  No praise, no complaints, no feedback, no letter,
    48        nothing.
    49
    50   Q.   If we can go to the documents underneath that, there should 
    51        be a couple of letters on the next page? 
    52        A.  Yes, page 3. 
    53
    54   Q.   Is there a couple of letters with the Daily Mirror headed
    55        notepaper?
    56        A.  Yes.
    57
    58   Q.   Were these letters written by yourself?
    59        A.  Yes, they were.
    60