Tom Parlon Voting rigging

On Budget the budget dominate the news. So other news items sometimes can get left behind and on noticed one that grabbed me was. Tom Parlon on Midlands Radio.

. The debate was about Decentralisation and the programme was running a txt poll. 94% of people in the poll said they were satisfied with the governments policy. However on checking the txt numbers that were received the station found out that many of the votes could be traced back to his office. He denied it but on Today Fm news they said they had an internal email saying that in fact that his staff were asked to participate. This is a serious story while a local radio txt poll may not be of any importance. The fact that he tried to usurp a democratic process is serious and hopefully will not be buried by other news stories.

Decentralisation had been his idea. It has backfire. He seemed to forget that not every person in the civil service has wives and husbands kids and houses. While one person can move their other half might have a job they can’t decentralise that. Kids are in schools with friends can you decentralise that?. No of course not decentralisation is a ridicules idea.

Tom Parlon seems to have shown utter contempt for the concept for honest debate. This to me is in fact a disgrace that a politician in a democratic country would deliberately try to alter the perceived public opinion on a radio debate. He seems to be blatantly putting his own career in front of the interests of the people. This guy must care little for normal peoples opinions. Where must politicians to their credit join a party based on the parties political stance. He shopped around to get the best deal for himself. In 2001 he told RTE news "If I run it will be with one of the two big parties, but I am also looking at other options in the corporate sector,". Last time I checked the PD s were not one of the big parties. This txt poll is another example of his self serving attitude.