Day 178 - 27 Oct 95 - Page 02

     
       1                                    Friday, 27th October, 1995
       2
       3 MR. JUSTICE BELL:  There is just one thing I wanted to ask
       4      Mr. Rampton before you start your submissions.
       5
       6      Mr. Rampton, I remember when you opened the case you made
       7      something of what you said was a schoolboy howler,
       8      confusing diet with food.  Is that a point you still
       9      make?
      10
      11 MR. RAMPTON:  Sorry, I did not, I do not think, make that
      12      point.
      13
      14 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am not saying you made a schoolboy howler.
      15      You described it as a "schoolboy howler" in your opening.
      16
      17 MR. RAMPTON:  Yes, it is a schoolboy howler, to anybody who
      18      actually knows what the facts about diet and food are;
      19      yes, of course it is.
      20
      21 MR. JUSTICE BELL:  So you say the text makes a schoolboy
      22      howler?
      23
      24 MR. RAMPTON:  Yes.  I say the text makes what may or may not be
      25      a deliberate conflation of the two; it blows the two
      26      together in such a way as to make it seem a single
      27      concept, which, as I said in opening (and would say again
      28      in closing, perhaps) to anybody who knows anything about
      29      it, it is a schoolboy howler.
      30
      31 MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.  Thank you.
      32
      33 MS. STEEL:   We are applying this morning for the Plaintiffs'
      34      case on this area to be struck out the pleadings in the
      35      Statement of Claim on the grounds that the matters are not
      36      defamatory that are set out in the Statement of Claim.
      37
      38 MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I have to decide what the meaning is first.
      39      You must address me on that; and part of that will be
      40      deciding whether the meaning, such as I decide it to be,
         is defamatory.  I am looking to see what the defamatory
      42      meaning, if any, is.  I am not going to consider a strike
      43      out application under any guise at this stage.  I am
      44      dealing with this issue at the moment.
      45
      46 MS. STEEL:   Certainly -- I mean, we had not realised until
      47      yesterday that it was also referring to parts G and H.
      48      But I would say certainly, in terms of those, they are
      49      clearly, as they stand now, not defamatory, not even by
      50      any stretch of argument.
      51
      52 MR. JUSTICE BELL:  By all means address me on that, but do not 
      53      use the words "strike out".  When you have my judgment on
      54      what defamatory meaning, if any, this leaflet bears in
      55      respect of what we have just tersely called nutrition, you
      56      can consider it and, then, if you wish -- well, you can
      57      consider whether you think a strike out application is
      58      appropriate.  But it is not appropriate in any guise at
      59      this moment.
      60