02/10/04

We have a strong regional culture, often reflected in sport and how we enjoy ourselves.

North-East residents will have the opportunity to vote for a directly elected regional assembly in the forthcoming election.

The No Campaign has nothing to offer but the status quo. Its supporters just talk the North-East down, saying that local people like us are not capable of making the decisions that affect our region.

How patronising. In fact, an elected regional assembly would open up the decision-making process and streamline the many bodies, quangos and agencies which make decisions about our future in private.

The North-East is full of talented and ambitious people who want to get ahead (and win the race!).

This is our opportunity to make a positive change for our region. Some come on North-East - we've had the Great North Run, now let's participate in the Great North Vote. - Sally Young, Gosforth.

LABOUR MP Frank Cook (Echo, Sept 27) says the North East Chamber of Commerce survey, rejecting an assembly, demonstrates the level of myopia in some of our small and medium businesses.

I wonder what businesses Mr Cook has ever run. I do not see his CV, although laudable, as the cutting edge of entrepreneurial wisdom, or an ideal position to be lecturing the region's employers and wealth creators.

Has he had to find wages for a workforce on a Friday night, spent long hours on NIC and PAYE?

Has he come up against the frustration of red-tape and bureaucracy and petty minded bureaucratic interference and the cost burden that goes with it?

Has he ever made a decision to invest money and resources in an idea to create jobs and investment?

Or is it sour grapes that his party's ill-conceived, ill-thought out political project has been sussed by the North-East business community as being nothing more than a toothless talking shop full of many more Frank Cooks.

Sorry, Mr. Cook. The North-East business community is not myopic. It has 20-20 vision and an ability to see through political lies, spin and deceit.

An assembly can do nothing to create more jobs and more investment in the region. If it could, then the job of selling it to the business community would have been an easy one.

Do not blame the business community for the failings of what is simply a political project by a political party for political gain.

The facts, such as no money, no power and misrepresentation of the voting system by your government, is something you were prepared to turn a blind eye to in the name of the furtherance of a political party manifesto pledge.

And the North-East public will deliver the same result because they are just as astute and are the customers of the businesses that have delivered a resounding 'No'. - Neil Herron, Campaign Director, NorthEast No Campaign.

IT is no surprise that 74 per cent of members surveyed by the North East Chamber of Commerce say 'No' to an elected regional assembly.

They have been misled by their organisation into thinking that regional government is all about powers and processes.

The fact is that no matter what we were offered by government as devolution it was never going to be enough for people who have no particular interest in the visibility of decision-making or in the accountability of those who make decisions. Many business people have nothing but contempt for politicians and political processes at whatever level of society and it is this cynicism that really shapes their opinions.

Stalin once said that the trouble with democracy was you could never predict the outcome. It would seem that many of our business leaders agree.

Chamber president Alan Ferguson summed it up perfectly by saying that a 'No' vote on November 4 is a vote for the status quo, which has served this region so poorly over the past 60 years.

Imperfect as it is or may be, an elected regional assembly gives the North-East a chance to create a distinctive, self-confident identity built on the foundation of its tremendous strengths in culture, heritage and character. A 'No' vote will gives us nothing but more of the same: neglected, ignored, and marginalised.

Anyone who thinks that voting 'No' is somehow going to send the Government back to the constitutional drawing board to come up with something better is deluded.

The devolution door may not be open as wide as we would like, but we will never know what is on the other side if we simply walk on by - afraid of failure, unsure of ourselves, convinced in our belief that nothing will ever change. Once the door closes, it will remain locked for decades.

A 'Yes' vote on November 4 is a leap of faith - faith in the region to demonstrate a confidence in its own ability to make a difference. - Richard Simpson, Buernopfield.

ASIDE from the legitimate questions about the independence of, and the response rate to, the survey conducted by the North East Chamber of Commerce in relation to a regional assembly, it is worth emphasising a few facts about business and devolution elsewhere in the UK.

First, the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), the largest business organisation in Scotland, has concluded that the governance of Scotland has improved greatly since devolution.

Second, a survey of CBI members in Wales has revealed that there is widespread support among the business community in Wales for the assembly, and the opportunity that devolution presents industry and other stakeholders to address economic and social problems.

Business organisations are working with the devolved administrations, trade unions, voluntary sector, communities and other stakeholders to deliver real improvements for the people who live and work in Scotland and Wales. If business can play a positive role in Scotland and Wales, then it can do the same in the North-East.

The status quo was not an option for Scotland and Wales, and the President of the North East Chamber of Commerce suggests that the status quo is not an option for the North-East. Yet this is what is on offer from the No Campaign - no options and no solutions. Hardly a recipe for success. - Ted Euers, Ryton.

DURHAM Tees Valley AIRPORT

I TOTALLY agree with WL Norman's views (HAS, Sept 30) on the newly named Durham Tees Valley Airport.

A lot of people in Great Britain do not know where little Durham is, never mind a foreign passenger.

I could just imagine a departing Spanish tourist asking how far is the airport whilst lost outside Durham Cathedral, only to be gobsmacked when told it is 24 miles south in Darlington in the Tees Valley.

What a joke, and what a stupid name. Give me Teesside Airport any day. - Christopher Wardell, Darlington.