Regional Organisers Letters

Berwick Advertiser
21st September
Government has made misleading statements over regional assembly
SIR,
— The Government has made misleading statements in its ‘Have Your Say’ leaflet, delivered to every household in the north east prior to the referendum on a regional assembly.

In particular, it says that there will be around 25 elected members — ‘they would be elected — as in Scotland, Wales and London — by a system of proportional representation to help prevent domination by a single party and to help ensure a balance of opinion’.

Sounds fine, but an examination of the actual Bill shows that the picture is very different. There will in fact be ‘constituency members’ and ‘regional members’ and all the constituency members will be elected on the ‘first past the post’ system, by simple majority. “The constituency members will make up the majority”.

In other words, the same old party domination will be very evident. If any independent does try to stand for election he or she is going to face an uphill struggle unless he or she is very wealthy. How, for example, could an individual canvas or leaflet 1.9 million voters and have any hope of being elected as a regional representative under PR?
So much for the Government’s ‘information’campaign.
JOHN PEARSON,
North East No Campaign,
Berwick Area Co-ordinator. via e-mail.