ALTHOUGH we do not agree with the campaign that is calling for a No vote in the referendum on the regional assembly, we do rather admire the way it has been conducted.

It has been brutally successful. It hasn't bothered with the central argument of this campaign - how is the North-East going to have a better future? - but instead it has concentrated on gimmicks and stunts.

Yesterday's was a classic of its kind, turning up at Aykley Heads in Durham City with a JCB digger and purporting to turn over the first sod for the new assembly headquarters.

With Wales, London and - most notoriously and expensively of all - Scotland having new purpose-built buildings, there is a legitimate question to be asked about the base of a North-East assembly.

But, before careering about the countryside with diggers stoking up unnecessary fears, the No campaign should listen to the answer to its question.

And the answer is that absolutely no one is calling for a new building. No one is planning to build one. It would be political suicide for any assembly to even think about one - especially after the profligate Scottish experience.

So while this was a clever, eye-catching stunt, it was one based on fear and not on fact.

Some might even say it was Rather A Tawdry Stunt (RATS).

Which brings us to tortuous acronyms. On Monday, Yes unleashed a pack of mock rodents - RATS - onto Palace Green in Durham City. These RATS were supposed to represent the "Rather Arrogant Toff Southerners" that Yes believes are leading the No campaign.

This stunt was as misjudged as the acronym was excruciating.

The trouble with such stunts, both No and Yes, is that they suggest to the public that the participants have nothing of substance to say. The opposite, though, must surely be the case, for the last thing either campaign really wants is for the public to turn off in the belief that this referendum is trivial.

The vote is about the best way to improve on what we already have in the hope that we can create a better future for the North-East. In fact, it is about Reforming A Torpid System, although we've probably pushed that acronym as far as it will go.