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Have you joined the great Rand Paul gamble?

February 24th, 2012

Is daddy sucking up to Mitt so his son can be V-P?

Over the past 24 hours there’s been a big gamble going on for Rand Paul, son of Presidential contender Ron, for the Republican Vice Presidential nomination.

Yesterday I got on with Ladbrokes at a tasty 50/1 – a price that was withdrawn almost immediatly.

This morning 33/1 was available but soon shifted to 10/1 then 8/1 and now, at 1530 as I write, to 7/1.

What’s driving this are rumours that Ron has agreed a deal with Mitt Romney that sees Rand being guaranteed the V-P slot on the GOP ticket assuming that Romney gets it.

In return Ron is “being helpful” in the campaign

The speculation started almost immediately after Wednesday night’s debate when Ron Paul seemed to be working in tandem with Mitt to undermine Rick. What’s also being questioned is Ron’s negative TV campaign against Santorum when it’s hard to see what political gain it gives him apart from helping Romney.

After staying up to watch the event I was also convinced that some sort of understanding seemed to exist between Rand’s dad and the favourite.

Ever since Ron Paul started accumulating delegates people have been wondering why he’s doing it. What’s the gain? He’s in his 70s and it’s hard to see him wanting to be on the ticket – hence the Rand Paul theory.

I’ve no idea whether this is right – but it’s worth a punt though whether at 7/1 it’s value I don’t know.

@MikeSmithsonOGH
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  • Anonymous

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-11296012

    ‘The Labour government had a policy of inclusion, under which the aim was
    to give any child with mild to moderate learning difficulties a place
    in a mainstream school.’
    ‘The Conservative-Liberal Democrat government says, in its coalition
    agreement, that it will “prevent the unnecessary closure of special
    schools, and remove the bias towards inclusion”.
    The number of state and private special schools in England has fallen from 1,197 in 2000 to 1,054 in 2010.’
    ‘Parents have long complained that they had to battle hard to get
    statements of SEN for the children facing the most severe difficulties.
    Special needs campaigners have said some local councils are
    unwilling to “statement” pupils because of the legal entitlement and
    possible extra costs that brings.
    A Commons education committee report in 2006 found the system “not fit for purpose”.
    And despite attempts to improve matters, Ofsted in 2010 still
    concluded that the system is complex and widely perceived as “unfair”,’

    ‘At the other end of the spectrum, Ofsted said as many as half of the
    pupils listed on “school action” would not actually have required that
    designation if teaching in schools was better.
    This was partly because schools were not picking up problems
    that could be solved through normal teaching methods early enough, and
    partly because they were inappropriately labelling pupils’ problems,’

    ‘By 2014, the government wants those identified with SEN to have an
    Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) which will support them children
    from birth to the age of 25.
    This will replace the current statutory SEN
    assessment and statement and allow professionals from different social
    services areas to work together more closely.
    The Green Paper proposes a personal budget, by 2014, for all
    families with children with a statement of SEN or Education, Health and
    Care Plan.

    It also sets out to “remove the bias towards inclusion” and
    “prevent the unnecessary closure of special schools”, giving parents the
    choice of a mainstream or special school for their child.’

    The BBC it too polite to say the Labour policy was shite.

  • MickP0rk

    He’ll probably try.

    His problem is that he’s also floated his secret mystery DevoTory option which he says will give more powers as well as the fact that civic scotland are going to be making their push for more powers. Be it DevoMax or Devo+ or Home Rule so unless it’s a yes to independence the WLQ certainly isn’t going away any time soon.

    The WLQ commission also looks at N.I. and Wales and they won’t be affected by independence or not.

    It’s vanishingly unlikely the commission says there is no problem and everythings fine so if Cameron and Clegg try to ignore it then that makes it their purely political choice which won’t go down well at all with Cameron’s backbenchers.

  • tim

    This is the same child that Spelman claimed nannying fees for on expenses?

    “Mrs Spelman and her husband Mark were ordered to pay the Daily Star Sunday’s costs after failing in an attempt to continue an injunction against the newspaper in relation to their 17-year-old son Jonathan, who has played for England under-16s and Harlequins.
    The court heard that they had already spent £60,994.50 on the case – a figure that does not take into account legal bills incurred by their opponents.”

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9104158/Caroline-Spelman-facing-six-figure-legal-bill-over-bid-to-stop-press-printing-story-about-son.html

    Poor boy.

    Imagine bedtime stories read by a car alarm.

  • Anonymous

    ‘ he met some of the most charming people in his life there, but also some of the nastiest.’

    I could say the same for my grammar school.

  • The Screaming Eagles

    New thread.

  • Anonymous

    Local gov’t is already being given some responsibility over the NHS in their area.

    http://www.communities.gov.uk/newsstories/localgovernment/1601266111

  • Anonymous

    Interesting new polls from the Purple Strategies.

    Obama 47
    Romney 43

    Obama 46
    Santorum 44

    By swing state region

    The Wild West (Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico)

    Obama 47
    Romney 44

    Obama 46
    Santorum 47

    The Heartland (Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin)

    Obama 48
    Romney 39

    Obama 47
    Santorum 42

    The Rust Belt (New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania)

    Obama 44
    Romney 46

    Obama 43
    Santorum 48

    The Southern Swing (Florida, North Carolina, Virginia)

    Obama 47
    Romney 45

    Obama 47
    Santorum 45

  • Anonymous

     ’best answered’ not ‘perfectly answered’ 

    Given devolution there is no perfect answer.

    Before devolution we have Scotland over represented. That situation had stood with no complaints since the WLQ never applied.
    Given the WLQ (and enhanced devolution) the ‘best’ solution is to accept the problem of WLQ but to dilute it, thus still giving some Scottish votes for UK wide affairs but much reduced interference in English only ones.
    The alternative is endless discussion of what is ‘English only’.

    We have no idea yet what enhanced devolution is likely.  The more ‘max’ it is then I suggest the fewer Westminster MPs.

  • Anonymous

    Sunil….

    St Andrews – you’ll be looking forward to wearing the famous red gowns?

    My daughter did her PhD there,(Chemistry). She is now a professional musician, violin, piano, organ in Austria. That’s what you do with a degree from St Andrews!

    Lovely old town, though. Very interesting Catholic Church.
    A very good Italian fish & chip shop, but they don’t deep fry Mars Bars.

    It used to be on the railway network, in fact the track bed is still visible.

  • Anonymous

    Yes, I think all schools have a true variety of characters!

  • Anonymous

    None of them are a patch on Ushaw.
    “In omnibus sumentes scutum fidei”

  • Anonymous

    It’s vanishingly unlikely the commission says there is no problem and
    everythings fine so if Cameron and Clegg try to ignore it then that
    makes it their purely political choice which won’t go down well at all
    with Cameron’s backbenchers.

    No I doubt it will but nothing will happen in this Parliament because once legislation had gone through it would likely mean that the Conservatives would have an effective overall majority on almost all the major areas of domestic policy (Health, Police, Education, Prisons etc etc). The Libdems aren’t going to give up almost all of the little bit of power they have finally grabbed just to see it legislated away.

    If Cameron tried to force something through I can see the Libdems joining up with Labour to vote it down and what would happen after such an event is anyone’s guess.

    Now I imagine the art to all this from a Conservative perspective is to make it very clear to the country that it is the Libdems who are blocking change (just as it has been made very clear in other areas)…….

  • Anonymous

    The registry office in Stanley, co Durham was a fairly grim end of terrace house. Across the road is a quite attractive stone-built 1860′s Catholic Church. Most wedding parties came out of the registry office, crossed the road, and had their photos taken with the church as a backdrop. I have witnessed it many times.

  • Mike Smithson

    MPs from parts of the UK where there are devolved administrations – Scotland/Wales/NI – have a much smaller work-load which should be reflected in different salary levels.  

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