[verbatim trial transcripts] London [...] The [Professor Kevin] Macdonalds have left by the time I am up, flying today to Tennessee. Today's newspapers make hay with the "Baby Aryan" ditty; The Times front-pages it, but is otherwise a very fair report. The Daily Telegraph, which was not represented in court yesterday, just repeated the Associated Press report which was less full (for instance not reporting my well-deserved riposte about Mr Rampton's own all-white staff). I began by handing to Judge Gray my own copy of
[Gerald] Fleming's book, which shows that I
read the first 22 pages, then stopped, and on a separate
date dipped into the middle to check facts on the Bruns
report. For a while Rampton continued to cross-examine
me on minor issues, and then on the Goebbels
diaries. On one occasion when Rampton said "I am going to be modest about this," I responded: "Mr Rampton, you have every justification to be modest." (Stolen from Churchill's comment on his successor Mr. Clement Attlee - "A humble man, and with everything to be humble about.") He asked about racism; I asked for the difference between that and patriotism - "Patriotism," I told him, "is the proper veneration and reverence for the country that was handed to you by your parents, and by their parents to them." I explained that I missed the old England that I was born into: "I wish I could climb into a 747 and fly for ten hours and arrive in the England that used to be - the England of The Blue Lamp and Jack Warner and no chewing gum on the pavements..." There was a hush as I said that, so I knew it struck home. Rampton casually revealed, in answer to a question from the judge or from myself, that he is not calling Professor Levin and Eatwell. We have expended considerable effort in building cross-examination material for these experts, and that is really vexing. The judge too seemed displeased at this cavalier attitude of the defence, given that time is for me a very scarce commodity. By mid-day Rampton was flagging, and at 12:30 he persuaded the Judge to adjourn until Monday, cutting the day short. I raised no objection! He told me as he walked past that he was "quite knackered", and I can believe it: cross examining acutely is certainly as exhausting as being examined. Back at Duke Street at 1:15 p.m.; lunch with [...]. Benté has arranged with the ballet school about
collecting Jessica in future. How unpleasant: Then these
people wonder where anti-Semitism comes from. Bente
[...]. I collect Jessica from the Connaught school
at 3:30 p.m., then hit the sofa for an hour's snooze. At
Selfridges I buy the Frankfurter
Allgemeine Zeitung; it prints a
truly foul article by the Menasse woman. No wonder she
averted her eyes from mine in the courtroom today. Somebody
is sitting on her, and it ain't Mr Menasse. Yesterday I
handed to her the actual transcript
of the passage about the death of Josephine and the
"hate-wreath", to show how totally distorted was her account
of that in the FAZ a few days
ago; she seemed unrepentant. Nevertheless, I post
today's FAZ story on my website; but now I add a link, so
that my German-speaking readers can check what the
transcript actually says, and send her, or even better her
editor, an e-mail...[...]. |