POLITICIANS are constantly telling us how wonderful it is to be a member of the EU yet no one has suggested we apply to the EU Disaster Fund for help.

This is because they are selfishly focusing all their energies on trying to get themselves elected in this year`s MEP elections.

So may I suggest that we must now urgently apply to the European Union Solidarity Fund. This EUSF was set up to respond to major natural disasters within Europe. The Fund was created as a reaction to the severe floods in central Europe in the summer of 2002. Since then, it has been used for 56 disasters covering a range of different catastrophic events including floods, forest fires, earthquakes, storms and drought.

Please can any elected politician reading this now, act immediately. People need more sandbags and practical help.

We pay billions into the EU. Now is our turn to get something back.

And finally, the public should be allowed a debate on membership of Europe, as all these little-known perks would then come to light.

It was the height of arrogance for Labour peer, Lord Mandelson, to say that the electorate cannot be trusted with a referendum on EU status.

SUSAN THOMAS
Magdalen Road,
Oxford