Sir, - People are apparently twice as likely to say Yes than No in the referendum on a North East Assembly, according to the most recent poll published this week by The Journal. This is a powerful indication that the Yes campaign is gaining momentum.

An elected regional assembly will bring decision-making closer to home and so strengthen the voice of local people in the North-East. It offers opportunities to create jobs and raise levels of prosperity for families and communities in the region.

So far the No campaign have not been able to come up with an alternative way of achieving these changes. Perhaps they are content with the way things are. Or perhaps they are harking back to a past long gone.

But at the start of a new century when the wealth of communities are linked to global conditions and when Europe is far larger and more powerful than three weeks ago, our region needs to fight for the best possible opportunities for local communities.

An elected regional assembly will help us do that, particularly if its powers can be widened.

Denise Robson

Robinson Terrace,

Loftus.

Key moment

Sir, - Jeremy Middleton, Tory euro candidate for the North-East, cracks a merry prep school quip about the forthcoming referendum ("Eurocrats' threat", D&S letters May 14). Others may prefer to take more seriously the single most important political decision the British electorate has ever been asked to make.

Whether we share his views or not, Norman Wood ("Be informed", D&S letters, same issue) is surely the wiser in advising us to weigh up carefully the consequences of any decision and its shaping of our future before reaching it.

Not even Mr Middleton's eurosceptic friends may actually prefer a Britain that is just another cuckoo-clock republic in the Alps.

JAMES LEIGH

Ulwards Lodge,

Thornton Watlass.

True independent

Sir, - Thank heavens we have at last in Neil Herron a truly independent candidate standing in next month's European elections. Although this European parliament isn't a real parliament in the true sense of the word, as it really only rubber-stamps the legislation pouring from the Commission, the elections do give us the chance to say what we think of Brussels.

The list of the party politicians standing for election hardly fills me with enthusiasm. After all, since they were elected five years ago, we've hardly heard from our current MEPs.

The UK Independence Party, though relatively new to the scene, has selected as its lead candidate one of the old brigade, former Tory MP Piers Merchant.

Although his new party is anti-EU, I don't remember him opposing the treaties which gave more power to Brussels when he was in Parliament and actually in a position to try to retain our right to govern our own country - I think he simply toed the party line.

T WANLESS

Albion Gardens,

Burnopfield.

We sell local too

Sir, - We applaud the coverage your paper has given to farmers' markets with regard to the supply of local produce to schools and social service establishments. But we would like to point out that it is not just farmers who can supply locally-produced meat.

Retail butchers have been supplying quality local meat to these establishments and to the public for generations in hygienic, regularly inspected premises.

ANDREW TRUEMAN

Northallerton & District Butchers' Association.