Parties make final plea to voters

4 May 2011 Last updated at 05:47 GMT The parties will make a last appeal to the voters Party leaders in Wales are making their final appeals to voters on the eve of the Welsh assembly election.

Deputy Liberal Democrat leader Simon Hughes will join campaigners in mid Wales, whilst Plaid Cymru launch a last-push advertising campaign.

Labour's Carwyn Jones will make his last speech of the campaign at the marginal seat of Aberconwy.

Welsh Conservative leader Nick Bourne is to be joined by Welsh Secretary Cheryl Gillan.

Welsh Lib Dem leader Kirsty Williams is to resume her attack on Labour and Plaid, accusing them of avoiding responsibility for "the failures" of the last assembly government.

"Labour's Mr Jones blames Westminster," she said. "Plaid Cymru's Mr Jones blames Labour's Mr Jones."

"Labour and Plaid, together in government, have left us with a weak economy, under-funded schools and an NHS that costs more but delivers less."

Ms Williams said Wales needed a government that would "get on with the job" of improving things not just blaming everyone else.

Meanwhile, Carwyn Jones has chosen Aberconwy, a three-way marginal, to make his last speech of the campaign.

The Welsh Labour leader will say that his party can provide an alternative to Westminster government cuts which are "too far and too fast".

Health and employment

Claiming that the Con-Lib coalition plans were "hurting but not working", Mr Jones will say that with a Labour government "Wales can show the way" in keeping fairness at the heart of government.

Plaid Cymru will be launching their final advertising push with leader Ieuan Wyn Jones stating Wales needed "innovative ways to defy the [public spending] crisis".

Criticising other parties as "uninspiring and devoid of real ideas", he will warn that "Labour cannot be allowed to take the support of the people of Wales for granted".

Emphasising his party's plans to improve employment, education and skills, Mr Jones asked people to vote for Plaid's "fresh ideas and new ways of working" that "offer a beacon of hope that Wales can rise to the challenges we face".

The Conservatives will focus on health, and Mr Bourne said: "In the final hours of the campaign we will be promoting our commitment to reverse Labour's £1bn cuts to the Welsh NHS.

"Welsh Conservatives are the only party committed to protecting the NHS budget and increasing it in line with inflation.

"Protecting the NHS budget will allow us to invest in a £10million cancer drugs fund, to improve ambulance response times and address the under funding of Welsh hospices."

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Scots leaders in final hustings

3 May 2011 Last updated at 22:02 GMT The four main party leaders taking part in the final televised debate before the election The leaders of Scotland's main political parties have taken part in a final TV hustings before polling day.

The live STV debate featured the SNP's Alex Salmond, the Lib Dems' Tavish Scott, the Tories' Annabel Goldie and Labour's Iain Gray.

Ahead of the programme, the broadcaster published its poll suggesting the SNP would win 61 seats with nearest rivals, Labour, on 33.

There is one day of campaigning left before the Scottish electorate vote.

During the 90-minute debate, the four leaders answered questions on a range of subjects including pensions, jobs, knife crime, pay, public sector cuts and independence.

To begin, the three men and one woman were asked to react to the STV poll which was conducted by TNS-BRMB.

Labour's Mr Gray said that the only poll that mattered was the "one taking place on Thursday". He added that the one interesting conclusion of the survey, and others like it, was that a "very significant number" of voters had not yet made up their minds.

Scottish Lib Dem leader Mr Scott said the election still had a long way to go and he agreed with Mr Gray that many people had not made a final decision. He added that there was still "quite a lot to do" and it was possible that all the polls so far could be wrong.

The Conservative's Miss Goldie said she was "encouraged" by the poll's findings which put her party on 18 seats. She conceded she would not become first minister after Thursday's election but it was key that she was in Holyrood to "put the clamps" on whoever would become first minister.

The SNP's Mr Salmond emphasised that the "real poll was on Thursday", but he added that the STV's findings proved that people had had enough of the "negativity and scaremongering" of the other parties.

The survey was conducted between 26 April and 2 May and involved 1,063 adults aged 18 and over who were interviewed in 55 constituencies across Scotland.

The panel was asked about an independence referendum to which Mr Scott admitted that recent poll findings showed that "we were closer to independence". But he added that creating jobs and protecting services was more important than the independence question.

Miss Goldie also dismissed the importance of a referendum on the matter, adding that she was not in politics to "promote independence".

Protest held

Mr Salmond, whose party wants independence, said it was right to give the people of Scotland the right to decide whether their country should be independent.

Before the audience gathered at the National Piping Centre in Glasgow, Mr Gray said a referendum on independence would be a distraction and would create uncertainty at a time when efforts should be made to rebuild the economy.

Before host Bernard Ponsonby wound up the debate, the four leaders were asked about pay and public sector cuts.

Miss Goldie said it was important to "tell it as it is" when it comes to cutting the country's debt.

Mr Gray and Mr Salmond both said protecting the NHS was vital, but they argued about who was best placed to do the job.

And Mr Scott said he would cut the pay of top earning public sector workers because it was important to sort out the country's debt and not leave it to the next generation.

Before the debate a group of 24 protesters gathered outside the National Piping Centre.

Holding banners and placards they chanted "No to cuts" and "When they say cut back, we say fight back" as they waited for the leaders to arrive.

Sean Clerkin, Citizens United Against Public Service Cuts, who organised the demonstration, said: "We are here today to say to the politicians of all the major parties they should be using the Scottish Parliament as a vehicle to fight the Westminster coalition cuts, not to implement them."

Voters go to the polls to elect their MSPs on 5 May.

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Final day of election campaigning

3 May 2011 Last updated at 23:38 GMT The polls are the biggest test of electoral opinion in England since last year's general elections The UK's political parties are gearing up for a final campaign push ahead of Thursday's elections.

More than 9,500 seats in 279 councils across England are being contested, along with a by-election in Leicester South and several mayoral elections.

There are national elections to the Scottish Parliament, and Wales and Northern Ireland Assemblies.

There will also be a UK-wide referendum on whether to adopt the alternative vote (AV) for Westminster elections.

The battle between Yes and No to AV supporters has become increasingly bitter in recent days, with reports of a confrontation between Lib Dem Energy Secretary Chris Huhne and the prime minister at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

The Conservatives want to retain the existing first-past-the-post voting system, while their coalition colleagues, the Lib Dems, want AV. Labour are split on the issue, but leader Ed Miliband is in the Yes camp.

Spending cuts

In the English local elections, the Conservatives are defending about 5,000 seats, which were last contested in 2007. Labour and the Lib Dems are fighting to hold onto about 1,600 and 1,800 seats respectively.

Among the 36 metropolitan councils electing a third of their seats are Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Sheffield. In addition, elections will be held in 49 unitary authorities and 194 district councils.

Continue reading the main story

At the moment MPs are elected by the first-past-the-post system, where the candidate getting the most votes in a constituency is elected.

On 5 May all registered UK voters will be able to vote Yes or No on whether to change the way MPs are elected to the alternative vote system.

Under the alternative vote system, voters rank candidates in their constituency in order of preference.

Anyone getting more than 50% of first-preference votes is elected.

If no-one gets 50% of votes, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and their backers' second choices allocated to those remaining.

This process continues until one candidate has at least 50% of all votes in that round.

Much of the election campaign has focused on the issue of government spending cuts, with claims and counter-claims being made about their impact on council services.

Labour leader Ed Miliband, who will visit Gravesend, in Kent, on Wednesday, has urged voters to "send a message" to the government that they feel "utterly betrayed" by their policies.

The Conservatives have said that while local authorities are facing difficult decisions, many have demonstrated that they can do "more for less" by cutting waste and sharing services.

The Lib Dems, meanwhile, say councils they control have not cut vital services like libraries and children's centres - unlike Labour and Conservative authorities.

Their leader Nick Clegg will visit Leicester South on Wednesday where a by-election is being held after the Labour MP, Peter Soulsby, stood down to take part in the first mayoral contest in the city.

Other parties, including the UK Independence Party, the Green Party and the British National Party, are also hoping to make electoral gains.

The Greens currently have 60 councillors, UKIP has 19 councillors and the BNP has 21 - but is defending only 12.

TV debates

In Scotland, 129 MSPs will be elected to the Holyrood parliament - 73 through the constituency-based first-past-the-post system and 56 through a separate party list system in eight electoral regions.

At the last vote in 2007, the SNP emerged as the largest party and formed a minority government, but constituency boundaries have been significantly redrawn since then and one in six voters are now in a different seat.

The four main party leaders, Iain Gray, Alex Salmond, Annabel Goldie and Tavish Scott, went head-to-head on Tuesday in a televised debate.

In Wales, 44 Assembly Members will be elected - again using a mixture of first-past-the-post voting linked to constituencies and AMs elected from a party list.

This is the first poll in Wales since 2007, after which Labour formed a coalition with Plaid Cymru.

In a televised debate in Cardiff on Monday, the leaders of Labour, Plaid Cymru, the Conservatives and the Lib Dems argued over public sector cuts and standards in schools.

In Northern Ireland, 108 seats at the Stormont Assembly are up for grabs.

Currently, the Democratic Unionists are the largest party in the power-sharing body with eight more seats than Sinn Fein.

Northern Ireland voters will also go the polls to elect 582 councillors in the first local elections for six years.

As well as Leicester, polls will also be held to elect mayors in Middlesbrough, Mansfield, Bedford and Torbay.

According to a ComRes poll of 1,033 people for the Independent, support for the No to AV campaign has grown in the past week.

The survey found that 66% of respondents were opposed to AV, while 34% supported it - compared with 60% and 40% respectively a week ago.

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Discovery poised for final flight

24 February 2011 Last updated at 10:48 GMT By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News Discovery on the pad and ready to go The US shuttle Discovery is all set to make history by launching from Cape Canaveral for the very last time.

The oldest of Nasa's three surviving orbiters has been given the "go" to take six astronauts and a big box of supplies to the space station.

It will also deliver a sophisticated humanoid robot to the outpost.

US politicians have called time on the shuttle fleet, with the expectation that just two further flights will be made before the ships head to museums.

"The last flight of all three vehicles is going to be emotional for all of us but we're going to complete these missions as we always do," said shuttle launch director, Mike Leinbach.

Lift-off from the Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39A complex is timed for 1650 local time (2150 GMT).

The US space agency (Nasa) has struggled to get Discovery away on her final voyage. Technical problems have resulted in months of delay.

She should have flown in September last year. That slipped to a target of November, which then drifted out to February when cracks needed fixing in the orbiter's giant external fuel tank.

Discovery is regarded as the "leader of the fleet". First launched in 1984, it has since completed 38 missions, travelling some 230 million km in the process.

Shuttle Endeavour is expected to fly to the station in April. Atlantis will go no earlier than June, if Nasa has sufficient money left in its shuttle programme budget.

Following the fleet's retirement, the plan is for US astronauts to fly to the space station on Russian Soyuz rockets until perhaps the middle of the decade.

A number of American companies then hope to be in a position to sell launch services to Nasa on a range of new vehicles.

The intention is that the agency should put its efforts into leading the development of a large rocket - known as the Space Launch System - that can send astronauts beyond the space station to destinations such as asteroids.

Congress has set out the broad capabilities it expects to see in this rocket and has given a deadline of 2016 for its introduction. However, Nasa has said it cannot deliver such a vehicle in the time and with the budget the politicians have specified.

"We're still working on what's next," said Mike Moses, who chairs the agency's mission management team.

"We have this path toward exploration with developing the SLS, putting the multipurpose crew vehicle on top of it, funding commercial entities to help us get into LEO, [in a] faster, better, cheaper way.

"All that's really good future for Nasa; it's just not the same as we're doing right now, which is launching shuttles every day."

Astronaut Steve Lindsey will command Discovery. Eric Boe will be the pilot. They will be joined by mission specialists Alvin Drew, Michael Barratt, Nicole Stott and Steve Bowen.

Bowen was called in late to replace crewman Tim Kopra who was injured in a bicycle accident last month.

A key task will be to deliver the Italian-built logistics module known as Leonardo. The module, which is used as a packing box for supplies in the orbiter's payload bay, would normally return to Earth with every shuttle mission, but for Discovery's flight it will be left on station to provide extra storage space.

There has been particular interest in a "passenger" being carried up in Leonardo. This is Robonaut 2, or R2, the first human-like robot in space.

R2 is the product of 15 years' research in Nasa and General Motors.

In its current guise, the robot is just a head, arms, and a torso mounted on a pedestal. But the plan eventually is to give R2 some legs to let it move around the station. And in a couple of years, it will also get a body upgrade that should significantly advance its capabilities.

The expectation is that before the decade is out, this robot will be clambering about on the outside of the space station, assisting astronauts on a spacewalk. Inside the station, R2 is likely to take on many mundane tasks such as cleaning.

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk

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