DEPUTY Prime Minister John Prescott was in fighting mood last week as he came to the end of his tour drumming up support for a mini-parliament for the North-East.

Having left the hotbed of regionalism in Newcastle, he arrived on Teesside, where support for the elected assembly is lukewarm.

"It is an important point," he said, "and on it hangs the referendum which will see whether people in all parts of the region can come together to make an effective voice for the North-East.

"There are friendly rivalries between Tyneside and Teesside and there are recognisable cultural differences, which people are proud of. In the electoral process, the Additional Member System (AMS) of voting will allow more popular representation, so people will feel there is a fairness."

All forms of proportional representation are complicated, none more so than AMS.

In a nutshell, there will be, say, 30 assembly members. Twenty will be elected by constituencies on a first-past-the-post basis. This would, on current voting patterns, give Labour an overwhelming majority.

The other ten seats would be distributed to reflect the parties' share of the overall vote. This, it is hoped, would ensure a wide political mix and a wide geographical mix.

But there would also be voices beyond the 30 or so elected members.

There would be a civic forum of appointed people who would still be able to play a part without going through the election process. They would sit on the assembly and take part in debates, but would not be allowed to vote.

The White Paper, published last Thursday, demands a reshuffle of the council set-up in County Durham. The rest of the region is run by unitary authorities, and before a referendum Durham must be redesigned.

This, though, leaves the thousands of council employees anxiously looking at the future.

"These uncertainties have been with local government for years," said Mr Prescott.

"Bear in mind that we are removing one structure of administration and replacing it with another, so maybe people will end up working for a different body."

Critics of the proposed assembly argue that it will be expensive.

"It will cost about £20m and the Government will pay some of that, and it is right that the people of the region should also pay. It will be 5p a week on their council tax," said Mr Prescott.

"Democracy has a price - people must have said 'but it'll cost' when they set up the Westminster parliament."

The assembly would have the power to borrow to finance large projects and to raise the level of council tax further in circumstances that the national government agreed were reasonable.

The biggest problem for those pushing for a "yes" vote in a referendum is explaining to ordinary people exactly what an assembly would do.

"If we want people to understand, we have to sharpen up the arguments," said Mr Prescott. "We have now got the framework, we will have to articulate it into language people understand."

He ended pugnaciously: "It is offensive to me that Scotland, Wales and London should have these powers, but they are not considered good enough for the people of North-East England.