Local newspapers are fundamental to the health of any community and to the happiness of its individual members.

We are social beings. We want to know what's going on around us and why.

We want to know what out neighbours and friends have been up to - the good news, and, yes, the not-so-good news too.

We want to be able to voice complaints and for someone to hear us. Local papers do the lot.

Of course there's the internet, a fantastic, life-changing invention.

But for young as well as old, local papers are trusted, believed, noticed, in a way in which no internet site can be.

Papers can be read, felt, kept, re-read.

As for the Lancashire Telegraph - I'm biased I admit.

It's a great paper, with many well-researched campaigns to its credit.

And I still have as many people coming up to me and saying 'did you see THAT in the Lancashire Telegraph?' as I did 30 years ago, before the internet was even a dream.

* Jack Straw is MP for Blackburn. Local Newspaper Week run from May 9 to 15.