'WE are the people of England and we have not spoken yet.'' GK Chesterton's judgement no doubt still holds true. But the people of North-East England certainly have spoken. And how. "You know what you can do with your Elected Regional Assembly.''

The sweeping dismissal of John Prescott's pet project, which he nursed on behalf of the Government, is all the more remarkable because top politicians, who normally spit at each other, stood shoulder to shoulder with the North-East's great and good to chorus to the rank and file the inestimable benefits that would flow from seizing the glorious opportunity to liberate themselves.

Well, the rank and file were having none of it. Wise or muddle-headed, their emphatic No to the elected assembly was a triumph for the people. Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah.

Their decision WAS wise, though perhaps for the wrong reason.

It is said that the assembly was rejected chiefly because its powers were too limited. Symbolised by that white elephant, the official No campaign was based on the view of the assembly as an expensive talking shop.

In my view, however, the greater power the assembly was able to wield, the greater would have been the reason to oppose it. Highlighted by the eagerness of Sir John Hall to stand for election, the assembly's over-riding brief was economic regeneration.

The Government saw regional assemblies as a means of speeding up big, often controversial developments, i.e. reducing the scope for public protest. Had the North-East assembly been approved, I suspect it would not have been long before some hapless citizens, including referendum Yes voters, awoke to find the assembly planning to dump something unwanted in their backyard, which might be a pleasant green field.

A hint of what could have been in store, and might still be, comes from the East of England, whose unelected regional assembly is backing Government plans to plaster much of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk with 478,000 new homes, swamping and merging entire villages.

Closer to home, the unelected Yorkshire & Humberside Regional Assembly has just published its own plan to establish a Greater Leeds, which would absorb towns as diverse as Wakefield and Harrogate.

The North-East's unelected assembly has produced nothing as potentially unpopular so far. But the mission-creep of the assembly, which recently gobbled up the generally-admired Northumbrian Tourist Board, for instance, needs to be watched.

Elected or unelected, the assemblies are all about packaging Britain into regions for the convenience of the EU. But what, or where, is the North-East anyway?

Darlington's mammoth (87 per cent) No vote partly mirrors the fact that it has always stood slightly aside from the heartland of the North-East. Huge No votes in Berwick, Redcar and Cleveland and Teesdale also point to an unwillingness to be shackled firmly in government to the "North-East", which to outsiders always means "Geordieland".

People feel attached to places and counties. And, yes, to England. We don't like regional assemblies. But can we have an English Parliament, please?