Jim's Quality of Life OnLine

Are the Greens the only ones who can afford to be honest? Is Bob Brown the only political leader able to frankly promote the interests of the general public - rather than being in thrall to the interests of the big lobbies who provide the funds for saturation television advertising which can change the result of an election.

I saw it in 1967 when I stood for Parliament against the Vietnam War, before the Labour party took up the cudgels. One business man gave me fifty pounds and I borrowed on my life insurance policies to fund one television advertisement!

Right now we want more trains and public transport but the financially powerful road transport lobby wants to promote its products. This is the same group who in the 1930's purchased the railway lines in 25 American cities, ripped up the tracks and forced people to use cars and trucks - which caused Los Angeles (which had one of the world's best train systems) to become one of the worst smog ridden cities in the world.

Then there are the mining and oil interests who see solar power and renewable energy as competitor rather than as a public benefit.

There are so many similar lobbies, and maybe the most frightening is the Armaments Industry. One newspaper report recently stated that the American President had been "bankrolled" in his election by the Armaments Industry. Whether this was true or not, the frightening fact is that the Armaments Industry gains when politicians who start or escalate wars get into power; if we can be conned into shooting their products at each other, that escalates their profits.

What can we do to help the major parties free themselves from these shackles which prevent them governing for our benefit?

The answer has been obvious for a long time: ban all television election advertising for three months before an election. That will cut out a major cause of the need for this vast amount of big lobby money. The television industry lobby will say "we must keep freedom of speech” but the truth is we want to free our politicians to allow them to speak honestly - like the Greens.

Jim Vickers- Willis

Even today I believe the real harm of smoking tobacco has not been revealed - including the harm to unborn children, and to the immune system - making people who smoke more likely to suffer illnesses such as asthma, heart attack, cancer, stroke, etc. I have have urged that all so-called "recreational" drugs should not be allowed to be advertised; they present enough problems without being promoted by advertising. Also they should not be promoted by being banned. Banning them creates a huge profit margin which attracts thousands of people to import and sell them.

Its my view that all drugs should be legal and controlled - sold through chemist shops on doctors' prescriptions at normal shop price. Immediately, all the drug rings, the pushers in our schools, etc. would vanish - because they would have no profits to keep them going. We are particularly highlighting the fact that the major form of advertising for cigarettes is by means of actors and actresses smoking on screen in films and on the television. Some of these actors and actresses have now admitted they were bribed with huge sums of money, luxury cars, holidays, jewelry, etc.. to do this. These films are still shown every day and night on our television screens-conning our young ones into following the example of their heroes.

And I have another question. Has industrial hemp (which is not the variety used for making marijuana) been banned from the world for 60 years merely to suit the financial interests of the cotton, plastics and chemical industries? I have promoted a feature film "The Hemp Revolution" which states that we need not cut down any more of our trees because hemp can much more effectively provide all the paper we need - plus so many other products all the way from clothing to building boards, rope and medicine - so that it seems incredible that this crop has been withheld from us for so long. I want to see a thorough inquiry regarding this crop which I suspect may be able to change our world from 'petrochemical unsustainable' to 'plant-based sustainable'. Amazingly, we can also get all the fuel we need for our cars from this hemp. So why is it banned?

What are your views on tobacco advertising and the ban on industrial hemp?