The people of the North East have voted no to a regional assembly in a referrendum. Thank god they saw sense and told the government where to stick their plans. The referrendum was all part of the devolution process for British regions. The regions of Great Britain basically consist of England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Channel Islands and the Isle of Mann. Scotland has it's own parliament, Wlaes and Northern Ireland have their own national assemblies, the Channel Islands have had their own parliaments for a couple of hundred years and the Isle of Mann has the worlds oldest parliament. The only part of Britain that doesn't have it's own parliament is England. The governmment's plans for England are different - instead of allowing the English to have a national parliament and sense of national pride, they want to split the country up into little regional assemblies.
The main reason why the current state of affairs is so undemocratic is this. When Scottish-only legislation is debated, only Scottish MP's are allowed to vote on it. When legislation affecting English-only legislation is debated, Scottish MP's are allowed to vote alongside their English counterparts. The government used this to their advantage recently during a vote on university fees for England and Wales. The English and Welsh MP's voted against the fees but the government enlisted the help of the Scottish MP's who voted in favour of the fees because they didn't apply to Scotland with the result that the bill was passed.
There is a campaign for an english parliament here - http://www.thecep.org.uk/index.shtml - along with a petition so you can add your weight to the argument.