Undoubtedly, we have a long way to go and face an uphill struggle to put the kind of Regional Parliament that we envisage in place within this decade.
Nevertheless, we remain determined to achieve this objective, not only because we feel that is the best for our own generation, children and grandchildren but future generations of Yorkshire boys and girls into the long future.
HM Government has so far, rejected the proposals for a single deal for the whole of Yorkshire. Instead they continue to favour splitting the county into smaller City Regions, governed by an elected Mayor and the combined authority working side by side.
As a result, and understandably, the Combined Authorities desperate for the additional short-term investment promised for their area are striking separate deals with the government.
Encouragingly, the impression received from attending the One Yorkshire group on Tuesday 26 May 2020 was that neither the group nor our Council Leaders have given up hope of a One Yorkshire settlement. They are still continuing their own campaigning activities towards that end, including organising a Yorkshire wide seminar, planned for when the lockdown is over.
We are fully behind them; except we don’t believe that Mayoral model they are advocating anywhere meets our own proposals in genuinely empowering Yorkshire.
Our task is to convince HM Government of the power and wisdom of our cause as set out in the website, we will not flinch against at achieving that task, whatever the current odds stacked against us.