It's the West Cumbrian way

I went to Cockermouth on Thursday, just to take stock of the situation and speak to some local people.

Clive Jefferson, who lives in the town, and Eddy Butler, who was there on a fact finding visit for Nick Griffin MEP, were with me as we walked down the main street talking to residents and members of the emergency services.

We did a bit of filming for BNPtv away from where people were trying to salvage what was left of their belongings and down by the river. The strength and height of the Derwent was still very worrying, although the weather had improved and level of the river is said to have dropped.

We visited the home of a BNP voter and he told us the harrowing story of the night and how events unfolded. It all happened so quickly. One minute he was watching television and the next his car had been washed away and his lounge was knee deep in water.

He was busy cleaning up and getting on with life. And that seems to be the way of things. It's the West Cumbrian way.

Football at Borough Park this afternoon where there will be a minute's silence for the brave Bill Barker who lost his life saving the lives of others just a few yards from the ground. Borough Park itself was just six inches from being swamped but the double bank that protects the ground from the Derwent held firm and withstood the raging torrent.

Not the time for showboating or scoring political points

MORE rain, gale force winds and power cuts last night . . . and that's here in Wigton which is around 15 miles from Cockermouth and Workington.

Nick Griffin MEP yesterday submitted a written question to the European Commission seeking the position on possible financial help for West Cumbria from the European Disaster Fund.

Gordon Brown was right to come to West Cumbria and right to immediately offer aid, even if it was only a fraction of what is paid out by the Government in Foreign Aid.

The Health and Transport Ministers were right to come to West Cumbria to assess what needs to be done to help alleviate the problems arising from the current situation.

David Cameron shouldn't have come. All he could offer was empty soundbites and he was only here to 'showboat' and score political points. It is not the time for this.

Nick Griffin will be coming up to West Cumbria when the media circus has gone and it has become much clearer where help is most needed. There is a fund that has been launched by the Cumbria Community Foundation called the Cumbria Flood Recovery Fund, and unless there are more specific projects in need of funding, I shall be suggesting to our MEP that this is the fund which he supports.

Those readers of this blog who want to donate to this fund can find it here.