US election: Obama and Romney set for last campaign day

0 comments


5 November 2012 Last updated at 00:02 ET

US election: Obama and Romney set for last campaign day

U.S. Republican presidential nominee and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney attends a campaign rally in Morrisville, Pennsylvania Mr Romney is trailing narrowly in key states according to opinion polls

US presidential rivals Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are approaching the final day of their election battle in a frantic fight for swing state votes.

The pair spent Sunday addressing crowds across the country, with Mr Romney speaking in Pennsylvania, a state his aides insist he can now win on Tuesday.

Mr Obama held rallies in New Hampshire and Florida and carried on to Ohio and Colorado in the evening.

Analysts say the election will come down to a handful of swing states.

Mr Obama and Mr Romney are running almost neck-and-neck in national polls, but polls of many key battlegrounds show Mr Obama narrowly ahead.

However, neither camp is exuding absolute confidence, the BBC's North America editor Mark Mardell reports.

The campaign has been most intense in Ohio, which no Republican has ever lost and still made it to the White House.

Race 'tightening'

A final poll published on Sunday by Ohio's Columbus Dispatch gave Mr Obama a 2% lead - 50% to 48% - over his rival, within the margin of error.

Both candidates visited the Buckeye State on Sunday, with Mr Romney telling crowds in Cleveland that Mr Obama has failed in his pledge to be a "post-partisan" president and criticising his record.

"He's been divisive, blaming, attacking, dividing and - by the way - it's not only Republicans that he refused to listen to, he also refused to listen to independent voices."

Later on Sunday he spoke in Morrisville, Pennsylvania, his first visit there in the final stages of the campaign. Democrats say the Romney team's last-minute decision to campaign in the state is a sign of desperation, but polls do show a tightening race.

"The people of America understand we're taking back the White House because we're going to win Pennsylvania," Mr Romney told the crowd in Morrisville.

US President Barack Obama waves at supporters during a campaign rally in Cincinnati, Ohio, Mr Obama made another visit to Ohio on Saturday, a state where he holds a slim lead in opinion polls

Mr Obama made another appearance in Cincinnati, Ohio where Stevie Wonder opened a huge evening rally.

Earlier in the day at a rally in Concord, New Hampshire, Mr Obama said: "We have come too far to turn back now."

He said he would work across party lines to break the political gridlock in Washington, but would not compromise on priorities such as healthcare and college financial aid.

On Monday morning Mr Obama is scheduled to appear in Madison, Wisconsin, accompanied by Bruce Springsteen, before going on to Iowa and Ohio.

Mr Romney is due in Florida - where polls suggest he is ahead- in Virginia, New Hampshire and Ohio.

Activists have been stepping up efforts across the crucial swing states.

In Wisconsin, student volunteers have been putting in 14-hour days in an effort to deliver the state for Mr Obama, the BBC's Paul Adams reports from Madison.

An opinion poll on Sunday for ABC News and the Washington Post put the two candidates at 48%, with even voters who term themselves independents split evenly on 46%.

Mr Romney remains favoured among whites, seniors and evangelical Christians; Mr Obama among women, non-whites and young adults.

The president also remains slightly ahead in most of the nine-or-so swing states that will determine the election.

Opinion polls published on Saturday showed him well-placed in Iowa, Nevada and Ohio, but most remain within the polls' own margins of error.

The election is run using an electoral college. Each state is given a number of votes based on its population. The candidate who wins 270 electoral college votes becomes president.

The BBC will be providing full online live results of the US presidential election on 6 November. More details here

Are you a voter in one of the swing states? Send us your comments on the election campaign using the form below.

If you are happy to be contacted by a BBC journalist please leave a telephone number that we can contact you on. In some cases a selection of your comments will be published, displaying your name as you provide it and location, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. When sending us pictures, video or eyewitness accounts at no time should you endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe any laws. Please ensure you have read the terms and conditions.

Terms and conditions


Source : bbc[dot]co[dot]uk
Read More

Ed Miliband to unveil 'living wage' proposals

0 comments


4 November 2012 Last updated at 23:23 ET

Ed Miliband to unveil 'living wage' proposals

Ed Miliband Ed Miliband sees the "living wage" campaign as part of his One Nation ideal

Ed Miliband will unveil plans to deliver a "living wage" of at least £7.20 per hour for millions of people, if Labour wins the next election.

The Labour leader will announce the living wage as a key plank of his "One Nation" vision for Britain.

It comes at the start of Living Wage Week, with events around the country.

On Sunday, work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith said planned benefit changes would make it easier to ensure firms pay staff a "living wage".

The "living wage" would be considerably higher than the existing minimum wage - £6.19 per hour for those over 21, £4.98 for those over 18, and £3.68 for 16- and 17-year-olds.

As part of its policy review Labour is looking at ways of making the living wage the new norm, including naming and shaming companies who do not pay the wage.

It also wants to introduce rules forcing government contracts to be given to only those firms who pay workers the living wage as a minimum.

Mr Miliband told the Independent on Sunday: "You go out, slog your guts out... you deserve a decent wage if the company can afford it.

"We've got a growth crisis in Britain, but we've also got a living standards crisis because the proceeds of economic growth are not being fairly distributed any more."

The "living wage" would be £8.30 an hour in London, where the cost of living is higher than the rest of the UK.

Marlene Brownlee Marlene Brownlee, a cleaner with Newcastle City Council, thinks she will be £70 a week better off now they have introduced a living wage

Referring to the concept he coined - cribbed from Benjamin Disraeli's 1872 speech - at last month's Labour conference, he said: "This is the next step for One Nation, because One Nation is about everybody having a stake in society. It is about prosperity being fairly shared."

'Stake in the future'

He added: "It is about giving people a proper stake in the future of the country."

The Institute for Fiscal Studies estimates the treasury would save £1,000 a year for every person from less spending on tax credits and from increased tax revenue.

Barclays is one of a number of major companies already paying the "living wage" while 19 local authorities have been accredited as "living wage employers", including Newcastle City Council.

One of those benefiting is cleaner Marlene Brownlee, who has worked at Newcastle's civic centre for 15 years and estimates she will be about £70 a week better off.

She said: "It'll make a big difference... that little bit extra - well I'm saying little, it's a lot really - is excellent, for me and everybody else at the council."

Mr Miliband will be unveiling the new policy at Islington Council in London, which recently became another "living wage" employer.

He is expected to say: "There are almost five million people in Britain who aren't earning the living wage; people who got up early this morning, spent hours getting to work - who are putting in all the effort they can - but who often don't get paid enough to look after their families, to heat their homes, feed their kids, care for elderly relatives and plan for the future.

"Too many people in Britain are doing the right thing and doing their bit, helping to build the prosperity on which our country depends, but aren't sharing fairly in the rewards."

In a report last week by the Resolution Foundation think tank, chief executive Gavin Kelly said: "One in five British workers are low paid and it's a major reason why so many lower-income families feel as if they're running uphill - working hard but getting almost nowhere.

"The high price of low pay is also borne by the taxpayer through in-work subsidies - so we all have reason to do something about it.

"Requiring listed companies to report how many of their employees receive less than the living wage would introduce the power of transparency to this debate; it would be a vital step and help galvanise change," he added.

Mr Miliband's brother David, the former foreign secretary, has given his backing to the campaign.

He wrote in The Observer: "Progress depends on keeping up the pressure and keeping up the campaigning. And it means finding incentives to persuade reluctant employers that it's in their interests as well."


Source : bbc[dot]co[dot]uk
Read More

Obama to resume US election campaign after storm Sandy

0 comments


1 November 2012 Last updated at 00:25 ET

Obama to resume US election campaign after storm Sandy

Ruined homes in Seaside Heights, New Jersey, 31 October 2012 New Jersey bore the brunt of the storm, which hit the US coast on Monday night

President Barack Obama is to resume an election campaign suspended in the aftermath storm Sandy, which wreaked havoc in the north-eastern US.

Mr Obama visited areas of New Jersey struck by the storm on Wednesday.

His Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, has been holding rallies after halting his campaign earlier in the week.

Storm Sandy left at least 64 people dead, cut power from millions of homes and paralysed transport on much of the eastern US seaboard.

It made landfall on Monday night in New Jersey, where some 20,00 people remain trapped in their homes by sewage-contaminated floodwater.

In New York City, the storm brought a record tidal surge that swamped the subway and caused widespread blackouts.

Earlier, it killed nearly 70 people in the Caribbean and caused extensive crop destruction in impoverished Haiti.

'Long haul'

Mr Obama has planned campaign stops on Thursday in Nevada, Colorado and Wisconsin.

On Wednesday, he toured parts of New Jersey struck by the storm with Republican Governor Chris Christie.

"You guys are in my thoughts and prayers," the president said during a visit to an emergency shelter in Atlantic City. "We are going to be here for the long haul."

Of more than six million homes and businesses across the north-east that still have no electricity, a third of them are in New Jersey.

In the New Jersey city of Hoboken, across the Hudson river from New York City, the National Guard has arrived to evacuate about 20,000 people and distribute meals.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, usually one of Mr Obama's fiercest critics, spoke of his "great working relationship" with the Democratic president.

"I cannot thank the president enough for his personal concern and compassion for the people of our state," said Mr Christie.

President Obama pledged help for those affected by Sandy as he visited Brigantine, New Jersey

Mr Romney held two rallies in Florida on Wednesday, where his campaign said he tried to strike a "positive tone".

Election day is on 6 November, and polls suggest the candidates are running neck and neck.

Eight out of ten voters in a Washington Post/ABC poll gave Mr Obama an "excellent" or "good" rating for his handling of the emergency.

New York began a slow recovery from the storm on Wednesday.

The New York Stock Exchange reopened on generator power after two days of closure, along with the Nasdaq.

But New York City's Bellevue Hospital had to order the evacuation of some 500 patients after back-up electricity failed.

A partial subway service is due to begin on Thursday. Many bus services are already back on the roads, and most of the city's bridges have reopened.

The Holland Tunnel, connecting New Jersey and New York City, remains flooded.

Flights have now resumed at JFK and Newark Liberty airports, though the city's LaGuardia airport remains closed. Nearly 20,000 flights were grounded by Sandy.

Have you been affected by storm Sandy? What are your experiences of the clean-up operation? Send us your stories by getting in touch using the form below.

If you are happy to be contacted by a BBC journalist please leave a telephone number that we can contact you on. In some cases a selection of your comments will be published, displaying your name as you provide it and location, unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published. When sending us pictures, video or eyewitness accounts at no time should you endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe any laws. Please ensure you have read the terms and conditions.

Terms and conditions


Source : bbc[dot]co[dot]uk
Read More