Three Parties agree on something!

Newcastle Journal
Parties will accept vote
Nov 4 2004
By Zoe Hughes And Ross Smith, The Journal

The three main parties last night confirmed that tonight's referendum result will be the final word on whether a North-East assembly should be set up, after turnout exceeded 40pc.
The Government had admitted it would not feel bound by the result if turnout in the referendum was "derisory".
But with 41.5pc of voters having returned their ballot papers by yesterday, all three main parties said they would uphold the result.
Despite claims of a low level of interest before the referendum, turnout is likely to nudge above 50pc in some districts, with Alnwick, Northumberland, hitting 49.4pc yesterday.
Supporters of a `no' vote were last night confidently predicting they would win the election, but `yes' activists insisted it was still in the balance.
Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott said he would accept even a majority as slim as the Welsh Assembly referendum in 1999, when a `yes' vote prevailed by just 0.6pc.
He said: "We would certainly accept it as a mandate for change and the majority of voices who voted for that - we will bring about that change.
"Some votes for councils and European elections have been considerably less than that so we can accept that."
His comments came on a day of frantic last-minute activity by all sides, with even the Prime Minister joining the final leg of campaigning.
Challenged by Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy in the Commons yesterday, Tony Blair said: "I think devolution has been shown to work in Scotland and Wales, and I think London-wide government has been shown to work.
"The fact is the North-East assembly is going to be handling hundreds of millions of pounds, there will be an actual reduction in the number of councils in the North-East. It's right to have devolution and decentralisation of power and I support it."
Mr Kennedy had appealed for last-minute voters to hand in their ballot papers, calling on them not to make the same mistake as the Scots of saying no to devolution in 1979 and having to wait 20 years for change.
Liberal Democrat regions spokesman Ed Davey later said: "There's no way that anyone could say over 40pc is derisory. On the question put, there will be a clear answer.
"But whether there's a `yes' or `no' vote, it's going to be difficult to say this is a full-hearted `yes' or `no' to devolution, because of the limited devolution on offer."
Tory shadow regions minister Bernard Jenkin concurred: "We're way beyond derisory. If there's a turnout of over 40pc, we would certainly accept that either way."
Both campaigns yesterday made their final pleas to voters. Labour Party chairman Ian McCartney visited Newcastle to urge a `yes' vote, while Yes4theNortheast chairman John Tomaney said: "For too long now, decisions which affect the lives of over one million people have been made by faceless bureaucrats in London.
"This can all change with the creation of a regional assembly.
"This is an opportunity of a lifetime to create a better future for the North-East and we urge people to grasp it with both hands."
North-East Says No chairman John Elliott said: "We want as many people as possible to vote `no' by 10pm to send a message to politicians that we do not want a white elephant assembly which will raise council tax and create more politicians but which will not have the powers to do any good.
"While we are confident that we are going to win, we want to make this a clear `no' so that the politicians that have led the `yes' campaign are in no doubt that their plans have been rejected."
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