Electoral Commission about to be discredited?

The cue is in the question
Sept 15 2004 By Evening Gazette
I am writing to complain about the wording of the preamble to the referendum question. In particular the statement that the "elected regional assembly would be responsible for a range of activities carried out mainly by central government bodies".

In psychological terms such a use of wording is deemed a "demand characteristic"; subtle cues in the wording of a question or statement toinfluence the subject to behave in a certain way.

Prescott's PR machine has tried to reinforce the impression that regionalisation and devolution are synonyms; they are not.

The wording of the ballot paper implies that what is on offer is devolution when in fact the elected regional assembly will be responsible for a range of activities mainly carried out by local, not central, government bodies.

This is anti-devolution; withdrawing decision-making from grass-rootscommunities, taking power further away from the people.What is on offer here is regionalisation.

If the Electoral Commission allows the electorate to be so cynically manipulatedthen both the result of the referendum, and the Electoral Commission itself,will be discredited.
GARETH YOUNG Campaign for an English Parliament