IT is easy to understand why the people of the North-East appear so sceptical about the benefits of a directly-elected regional assembly.

For a start, everything about it is so vague. There's a lack of certainty about its powers and a lack of understanding about what it will do. It does not help when Government ministers, like Harriet Harman, appear on BBC Question Time days before polling, and can't answer questions about what the assembly would do.

And there's no guarantee of where it is going to be based despite The Northern Echo persistently stating the case for Durham.

There is also no new money. It will be operating within existing budgets, just rearranging deckchairs.

And, for the people of County Durham and Northumberland, there is the additional prospect of local government reorganisation. Certainly in Durham, neither of the options on offer looks especially exciting. If regional government is supposed to bring power closer to the people, it has a funny way of doing so when people's councils are to become more and more distant from their doorsteps.

On top of all this, there is the general malaise of modern political life. No one especially likes politicians. No one especially trusts politicians. No one especially thinks politicians have the answers to our day-to-day problems.

The No campaign has cleverly and shamelessly played upon this malaise, with most of their claims being rooted more in fear than in fact.

For example, "vote against more politicians", says the No campaign and people, fearful of any politicians, understandably agree. Yet the facts are different: the wipe-out of one tier of council in County Durham alone will guarantee a net loss of between 150 to 300 politicians. So if you truly want to vote against more politicians, you should vote Yes to an assembly.

However, the issue at stake in the referendum on November 4 is not about the relative merits of the campaigns. Nor is it a plebiscite on the popularity of the Government.

The referendum is about the region, and how its future will be shaped.

Consistently, for years growing into decades, this newspaper has highlighted the iniquities of the North-South Divide. How, as a region, we have suffered as a direct result of our remoteness from the political decision-makers in Westminster and Whitehall. How we have suffered because of the Barnett Formula which has skewed central government's financial support in favour of Scotland and Wales to the detriment of the North-East.

Consistently, this newspaper has been critical of the fact that too many decisions with a pivotal impact on our regional economy and our communities are taken by unelected and unaccountable quangos.

It would be incongruous, therefore, for this newspaper to be content with the status quo.

Regrettably, a No vote on November 4 will leave us with the status quo.

Labour will not resurrect the reform once the idea has been rejected by the very people it is supposed to benefit. And the Conservatives will never have sympathy with the cause.

We share reservations about the proposals on offer. But the proposals are far better than the status quo.

We want a Yes vote on November 4, not because we are enthusiastic about every aspect of the proposals, but because we think an elected regional assembly will be in the best interests of the North-East.

At its worst, a regional assembly will be better than what we have now.

We appreciate that this is hardly a ringing endorsement of what is on offer. But what is on offer provides us with the opportunity to develop and progress towards a system of regional government with which we can all be enthusiastic.

An elected assembly will give the North-East a strong political voice, the like of which it has never had in its history.

An assembly, which can legitimately claim to be accountable and representative, will carry more clout and influence with the decision-makers within central government than an anonymous civil servant or an unelected quango.

November 4's referendum is about our region's future.

If we have faith in the North-East, pride in the North-East and confidence in the North-East, then we have to support an assembly which, for all its faults, can mark the beginning of the road to greater self-determination for the North-East.