IT'S very easy, especially during a general election run-up, to believe that what happens locally, regionally or even nationally is all-important.

And matters like the state of our health services, public transport and the economy are vital to all our lives.

But there are people for whom worrying about such issues would be a luxury.

Tibetan Buddhist monk Jampel is one.

He has just been released after 16 years in a notorious prison - for organising a peaceful protest against his country's occupation by China and translating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights into the Tibetan language.

Jampel's freedom, before his sentence has been fully served, is being welcomed by members of Rossendale and Hyndburn Branch of Amnesty International who have spent several years campaigning for him.

People across East Lancashire from mayors to schoolchildren have written to officials in China and Tibet pointing out that Jampel's 'crimes' would not be illegal in this country and asking for him to be set free.

Whether these eloquent pleas from an increasingly important marketplace for their goods have had a real effect in changing Chinese minds is difficult to judge.

But the knowledge that so many people had rallied to his support will have given Jampel some comfort. Long may such thoughtfulness continue.