Government plays a key role in the development if an economy; they dictate policy, identify areas for focus, help provide a stable economic framework, correct market inefficiencies and influence the social agenda. With such a vital role it is important that the public it serves believes that has its best interests at heart.

Recently public trust in national government has been rattled by a number of embarrassing incidents. In the UK, the war in Iraq and the flawed nature of the intelligence that led to the conflict, has led many to feel disillusioned with central government, feeling that the war itself is unjust and even illegal. This combined with a number of other perceived oversights, such as the Northern Rock affair and the loss of millions of people’s personal information by the Department of Work and Pensions have compounded public exacerbation with their elected representatives. A complete breakdown in trust between elected bodies and their public could have a negative impact upon the economy and the ability of government to influence agendas for the better.

Examples of diminishing trust in national governments have also been present on a national scale. The US voter backlash over the war in Iraq, the riots in the Parisian suburbs and the continued controversies surrounding the Italian government and judiciary systems have all caused significant embarrassment for their respective governments.

In the North East attempts have been made to devolve greater power down to a regional level, a referendum in 2004 rejected the proposed North East Assembly, with 74% voting ‘against’ and 16% voting ‘for’ the suggestion. Much of the press coverage leading up to the vote focused on the public’s fear that the scheme would turn into a ‘white elephant,’ draining public resources and contributing little to the region, this fear was disputed by the assembly’s supporters. Many speculated that this rejection was a severe blow to the regional devolution process, this may or may not be the case, but it does demonstrate the conditional nature of the region’s desire for independence.

More recently the government has proposed the idea of ‘double devolution,’ this involves many decisions being made at local authority or even parish level. The idea of this is to hand power back to local bodies for decisions which relate specifically to

Fact File

• 893,829 people voted in the North East Referendum, 696,519 voted ‘no,’ 197,310 voted ‘yes’ to the proposed regional parliament