'THIS is good for democracy," said John 'Two Fingers' Prescott, hailing his plan for northern assemblies. No it isn't. It is good for politicians and bureaucrats. It is bad for voters and taxpayers.

I have always been suspicious of the idea of regionalism. Yes, devolution has worked for Scotland, but then the one thing that unites it is a deep-fried chip-on-the-shoulder resentment of all things English. As soon as the Scots broke free of our apron strings, they started building a massive palace of a parliament, which will stand as a monument to their insecurity.

However, Scotland is an identifiable entity. English regions don't really exist, except in political and media shorthand.

Look at the "North East". Ah, those loveable Geordies have a character all of their own, don't they? But that's just Newcastle. What about the Mackems of Sunderland and the Teessiders of Middlesbrough? Very different people with very different outlooks. Their first loyalty is to their city, one which they will fiercely defend. And suddenly they are supposed to come together and speak with one "regional" voice? Nay chance, pet.

It might be sacrilege to suggest this, but the same is true of Yorkshire. There is a shared sense of pride at being part of "God's own county", and the rest of Britain eagerly laps up the "plain-speaking Tyke" mythology.

But York has as much in common, economically and politically, with Dundee as it does with Doncaster, with Shepton Mallet as with Sheffield.

Making our "parliament" all the more fake is its combination of Yorkshire and the Humber. Precisely what unites us and Hull - aside from a medical school and embarrassment at John Prescott?

Should a Yorkshire Regional Assembly ever become reality, little York's voice could never compete for Euro funding over the noise from the Leeds-Bradford conurbation. And this brings us to another undemocratic aspect of the proposed English assemblies. They are designed to fit in with the regional model of the European Union. There are few political institutions less democratic than the EU.

For the love of Europe: that explains why the regional assembly idea is being pursued by Mr Prescott despite public apathy. As pointed out in Monday's Evening Press, just 0.01 per cent of the affected population have responded to the consultation scheme. We are simply not interested. So why go to all the expense of a referendum?

If Mr Prescott is truly interested in local democracy, he should work to improve the existing institutions. Most people identify most closely with their local councils, yet pitifully few turned out to vote in the May poll.

Why? Because city and county councils have been stripped of their powers. They get most of their funding from the Treasury, they cannot raise council taxes above a Whitehall-imposed limit, and they can only spend it in ways dictated by London-based ministers.

Look at the debacle of school funding, when the council was forced into making York teachers redundant because of Department of Education budgetary cock-ups.

Look at planning: despite loads of objection letters and the opposition of a parish council representing 10,000 Huntington residents, the council approved an utterly inappropriate block of flats in my backyard last week. Where's the democracy there?

The Yorkshire Regional Assembly will have a smaller budget than Leeds City Council and fewer powers than the Greater London authority. It is a waste of our time and money. And the only democratic thing about it will be the no vote, as delivered by the few people who believe the issue deserves the effort of a walk to the referendum polling station.

Updated: 10:47 Wednesday, June 18, 2003