The campaign for a referendum on the idea of a regional assembly has been cynical and one-sided. As a policy which does not have the full backing of the whole Government it has clearly been driven through by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, whose baby it has been from the very start.

Mr Prescott came to Yorkshire last year to launch the initiative with the promise of a fair and free vote and assurances that the Government was open-minded on the issue. Yet it was Mr Prescott who returned to Yorkshire just a few months later to officially launch the Labour Party's "Vote Yes" campaign.

The advertising campaign has been subtly one-sided, with the small print phrased in such a way as to suggest an assembly would make the region a better place to live and work and suggesting it could hold far more powers than was ever likely.

The cynicism continued yesterday with Lord Rooker's announcement that two of the ballots, in Yorkshire and the North West, would be postponed.

Either this is a ploy to spare the Government's blushes given the clear public opposition or Mr Prescott is hoping that it can win a "Yes" vote in the North East and spark a jealous reaction from Yorkshire after the next general election.

Either way the postponement is a welcome decision for those in Yorkshire who believe that a regional assembly would merely add an even greater burden of bureaucracy to the taxpayers' bill.

It is to be hoped that John Watson, of the Yorkshire Says No campaign, is correct in his belief that the anti-assembly camp can hang up its placards for good.