Kick Ass and Kill Bill...Haskins admits idea is finished

Hull Daily Mail
'YES' LEADER SAYS IDEA IS FINISHED
14:30 - 06 November 2004
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The man who led the campaign for a regional assembly in Yorkshire has admitted the idea is finished. Skidby-based farmer Lord Haskins, who was leader of the "Yes" campaign in the aborted referendum for Yorkshire, said the Government's defeat in a referendum in the North East had helped kill off the idea of assemblies.

On Thursday nearly 80 per cent of people in the North East voted against the idea of an assembly being set up in the region.Deputy Prime Minister and Hull East MP John Prescott said the result was an "emphatic defeat" for his regional government plans.Yesterday Lord Haskins, the Government's rural adviser, said electors had failed to identify with regions that were "artificial contrivances", felt the bodies had not been given enough powers and wanted to "give the Government a bloody nose".But he said the issue of improving the performance of the regions would not go away and suggested the accountability of existing quangos should be improved instead.

He told BBC Radio 4's The World at One: "The idea of a democratically-elected regional assembly has probably gone away."People have great difficulty in identifying with these regions because of the way they are defined - they are slightly artificial contrivances."

East Riding Council leader Councillor Stephen Parnaby said he hoped the idea of a Yorkshire assembly was now "dead and buried"."The Government could not have got it more wrong on this issue if it had tried," he said. "It just shows how out of touch it really is."I hope any notion of a directly-elected regional assembly is dead and buried and remains off the political agenda for a long, long time."

City council leader Councillor Colin Inglis claimed John Prescott had been undermined by a lack of support from cabinet colleagues over the issue."I admire John for sticking to his guns without ever having the full backing of other senior members of the Government," he said."Perhaps we should now start looking at devolving real powers to the regions instead of what had been put forward for the North-East."Projects such as Castle Street would be done by now if it was dealt with by the Yorkshire region instead of the Department of Transport."

The Mail opposed an assembly on the grounds it would be an extra level of bureaucracy that would result in decisions being taken elsewhere.