It’s very challenging trying to persuade local newspapers to print stories about the important work of their MEPs.

The best coverage in my patch, East Anglia, has come from the East Anglian Daily Times. Each week it has published a Letter from Brussels column written by each local MEP on a rotational basis.

Now, unfortunately, it is coming to an end. An email I was sent this week blamed "space constraints caused in part by the economic downturn". The report will now only be published online up until the Euro election in June. And even this will  be reconsidered after the election. I like to think the column was well read and reached out to interested audiences. I am very sorry to have lost this news platform.

I have also been told that as the paper is making 20 editorial redundancies, it will be hard to say what, if any, coverage will  be given to the Euro election campaign. I believe newspapers play a crucial role in democracy in informing local readers about  their political candidates and the choices they can make. I am very sorry if that is no longer the case.  It means that MEPs will have to be even more creative in communicating their messages.

Many thanks to the paper’s excellent political editor Graham Dines for his support. He is pictured standing on my left when we met during the last general election campaign in 2005, along with the very youthful looking Ipswich Conservative parliamentary candidate Paul West; local MP Sir Michael Lord, Deputy Speaker in the House of Commons, and regional campaign director Kate Fuller in the foreground.

Out of interest, how many of you know who your MEP is?