INDUSTRIES, be they sunrise or sunset, are finding life hard. We report today on the difficulties facing Filtronic in Newton Aycliffe, which operates in the "sunrise" microchip market.

We reported last week on the narrow squeak at Nissan, the first of the "sunrise" industries to dawn on the North-East. Nissan was good news, very good news - and we fervently hope that one day Filtronic will bring good news - but there is still anxiety about the number of jobs that will be maintained supplying it as, in the future, the company deals in euros.

And we expect to report in weeks to come of the fate of the "sunset" industry of steel-making on Teesside - quite possibly the last of the North-East's traditional industrial base, as coal, railways, iron and ship-building have all but gone. As Corus, formerly British Steel, prepares to make swingeing cuts, anything up to 3,500 jobs on Teesside are at risk.

Of course, should the worst happen - and again we fervently hope that it doesn't - the Government will do its bit in setting up taskforces to assist the unemployed. The taskforces that dealt with the people who suffered when the microchip industry first went belly up, causing Filtronic's predecessor Fujitsu and Siemens to close, were successful in finding new jobs.

But these are sticking plasters over the wound. They do little to prevent the wound being inflicted in the first place.

Yesterday, Chancellor Gordon Brown returned to the theme of elected English regional assemblies where they are wanted. It is generally considered that the North-East, with its acute sense of identity, will be the first to ask for one.

Mr Brown suggested that the assemblies will be far more limited than previously planned, holding just annual meetings to scrutinise the work of the regional development agency.

But before we go to the expense of setting up assemblies and more employment taskforces, the Government has the chance to give the North-East a fair and uncontroversial boost, as Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy reminded it at the weekend.

The Barnett formula, which decides the amount of central government money sent to the region, is now 30 years out of date. Scotland and Wales receive far greater assistance even though the North-East has an arguably greater need.

This week the Cabinet will have a brainstorming meeting to discover ways of reinvigorating Labour's traditional support. Probably, the best way would be to reform the Barnett formula so that the region is able to assist its industries, be they sunrise or sunset, before they fail.