Day 243 - 02 May 96 - Page 04

     
     1        My Lord, on the second page, paragraph 7.
     2
     3   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What about 6(b)?  If you are not concerned
     4        about 6(b) I am not.
     5
     6   MR. RAMPTON:  I was going to let that pass.  Dioxins is not in
     7        the case.  There is a tendentious comment at the beginning.
     8
     9   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I am not concerned if you are not concerned.
    10
    11   MR. RAMPTON:  No, I am not.  I was going to leave that.
    12
    13        Paragraph 7, my Lord, I do not know what the first sentence
    14        is based on, I do not have a problem with that, I am sure
    15        it is perfectly right, but I am concerned with what follows
    16        since it is quite plainly hearsay.  It starts off, "I am
    17        informed that".
    18
    19   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.
    20
    MR. RAMPTON:  Paragraph 8 I do not have a problem with because
    22        it does appear that Miss Link has direct evidence of this.
    23
    24        Paragraph 9 I am uncertain about.  If Miss Link has got
    25        direct evidence to give about what happened in Kassel, so
    26        be it, but if not, it is objectionable.
    27
    28   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  There is an issue to its relevance in any
    29        event.
    30
    31   MR. RAMPTON:  I agree.
    32
    33   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  But it seems to me, from my point of view,
    34        I have no objection to Miss Link giving evidence of that.
    35        Where it might take me, I have to make my own conclusions
    36        on the evidence; I cannot be guided by what a local
    37        authority has done.
    38
    39   MR. RAMPTON:  I agree with your Lordship that there is a real
    40        question whether it is of any help to your Lordship.  I was
         not making any objection on that ground.  My suspicion is
    42        that is hearsay, but we will wait and see.  Paragraph 10
    43        though, like paragraph 7, is plainly hearsay about what
    44        happened in Frankfurt, or at least the attitude of
    45        McDonald's is plainly hearsay.
    46
    47   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  The second sentence I pencilled in
    48        provisionally as hearsay, but the first sentence I could
    49        not see any objection to.
    50 
    51   MR. RAMPTON:  Then, my Lord, perhaps more important, though I am 
    52        not, on the whole, happy about large chunks of hearsay 
    53        being read out.  Quite honestly, what happens in Germany,
    54        where there is plainly something of a debate going on, may
    55        not take your Lordship very far anyway.  I do take
    56        objection to the last paragraph, or the last sentence it is
    57        of paragraph 11, after the indented quotations where it
    58        starts, "It is clear".
    59
    60        My Lord, my basis for that objection is quite different.