The Somerset County Gazette took centre stage in the House of Commons during Prime Minister's Questions when Taunton's Tory MP Adrian Flook, posing his debut query at the traditional examination of the PM, quizzed Tony Blair about the future of Somerset County Council.

He informed Mr Blair of a recent County Gazette readers' phone poll showing that 88 per cent of people wanted to keep the county council rather than introduce a regional South-West assembly.

And he asked: "Will the PM confirm that, even if every voter in Somerset wanted to keep the county council, we could be outvoted in a referendum for a regional assembly by those in the urban and unitary authorities of Bristol and Swindon?"

Afterwards, Mr Flook said Mr Blair "predictably" refused to answer the question.

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