North East No Campaign agrees..."Yes Campaign are the losers"

Comment from The Northern Echo:
Are we too bored to vote?
28th October
CHILDREN, children. Purlease... The debate about whether or not the North-East decides that it wants a directly-elected regional assembly is hugely important. Whichever way you look at it, the result of November 4's referendum will be historic.

If the North-East votes No, it will lay the regional question to rest for a generation. If it says Yes, it tears up the accepted map of how we are governed and tries something new - something no one can with any certainty say will or will not work because it is untried.

The North-East is indeed a guinea pig: some find that frightening; others find that exciting.
How it will or will not work is what the debate should be about. Yet, for the last couple of days, all it has been about is whether or not someone hails from the south.

It is an utterly puerile squabble. It means nothing to the voters. It is just one bunch of politicos shouting abuse at another.

This discredits both parties. It destroys both parties' arguments as no one is listening to them. The effect will be that no one will vote - which is possibly why the turnout after eight days is only 25 per cent (historically in postal votes, most people who are going to vote do so within three days of receiving their papers).

It is ironic that both parties profess to love the North-East yet their sterile debate is harming the region's image. Such was the pathetic parochialism of the recent Hartlepool by-election campaign that people outside were mocking the region. The same will happen with this referendum unless both parties grow up.

The biggest losers in all this are the Yes campaign. They may have painted the No lobby as unreformed Tories - which most people who looked at the cast list knew anyway - but they must do more than that.

To win a Yes vote, they must inspire. They must show this is change for the better, that this is a new style of government. They must give real examples of how daily lives might be improved. They must excite people with the potential of what is on offer.

Give us hopes, give us dreams. Don't give us boredom with silly irrelevant squabbles.