In 2016, the EU Commission offered aid from the EUSF totalling €60.3 million to deal with the consequences of regional floods occurring in the UK in December 2015
This aid was rejected by the Cameron Government on the grounds that it was better that the UK Government should provide such relief on its own terms, rather than with the "strings attached" by the EU as to how flood relief funds should be spent.
Perhaps the "strings" being that the EUSF money didn't find its way mysteriously into other folders, such as the "Nothing At All To Do With Flood Relief" folder. The EU know by now, that you have to be super-specific with the Tories! Some future Tory Prime Minister may need his or her Prime Ministerial abode redecorated with wallpaper that costs lots.
Needless to say, we know how David likes to put a bit of spin on all things EU. This rejection was spotted by at least one award-winning journalist of the time (Jon Danzig) as the "politics of pride" - which is certainly a matter of judgement, depending upon one's point of view.
I think I more than agree with Jon Danzig.
We were comprehensively lied to by the government about Brexit. Lower food prices, lower energy prices. Various Tory MPs had their trousers taken down by Jo Coburn, a BBC journalist on Politics Live. They claimed that the UK was growing faster, the economy was strong. In fact, the UK was "growing" by minus 0.4%. All the other EU countries had stronger economies and were growing faster than the UK. Still, easy mistake to make, if you have the graph displayed upside down.
I expect that these MPs considered this action to be reprehensible. "Dont the BBC know that they forbidden to criticise the government?"
I wrote to my MP about the scandalous conditions facing the immigrant workers in Qatar who, if lucky enough to have not died, haven't made a single rial from their labours. They were conned, perhaps even more surely than I would've been had I sent my my bank details to share in a huge fortune from a Nigerian bank executive, (using a Yahoo e-mail address).
The MP was obliged to send me the "we have confidence we can help reform Qatar, encouraging them to reform" letter. If I had taken the same stance when I was working in retail, I doubt whether I'd have had any stock left.
