Published at 11:19, Thursday, 26 November 2009

Pathetic and insulting were the first words that I managed to spit out after a short, stunned silence.

Pledge: Gordon Brown speaks to the press in Cockermouth

That Gordon Brown could trudge round devastated Cockermouth’s sludge-strewn streets, smile in sympathy and offer as little as £1m to help Cumbria clean up after the appalling floods is unbelievable.

The Prime Minister should have been waving a blank cheque book, promising to do and spend “what it takes” to get Cumbria’s disaster areas of Workington, Cockermouth and Keswick back on their feet.

That includes funding local authorities and charity groups and putting pressure on insurance companies to get their loss assessors working round the clock to visit stricken householders and businesses to organise payments.

I appreciate the Government will be pouring cash into the county to help recovery, but these people need money straightaway to replace essentials like clothes, food, bedding and medication, let alone to organise where they will live next.

They need it now, not in a few weeks or months time.

It can’t be beyond the wit or finances of the Government to set up a fund to cover this – and then reclaim the money from insurance firms.

After all, this is the Government that bankrolled a multi-billion invasion of Iraq and the multi-billion hand-outs to our banking industry.

Pensioners and families have been left homeless, many with just the clothes they were wearing when their homes were swamped and now have to face Christmas in a strange, rented house, separated from friends and neighbours.

Some will have to endure living without their pets in this temporary accommodation.

While the Government could and should be doing more, the best help comes from those closer to home.

It will take many months to get homes, lives and businesses back to normal, years in some cases and for some, life will never be the same again.

Businesses, already struggling in an economic meltdown, will now miss their main earning period of the year.

The one time when they can count on getting money in.

Some may return to their devastated shops and wonder if they can pick up the pieces and carry on.

But it is vital to the people of Cockermouth, Keswick and Workington that they do.

A revitalised town means a great deal to the general well-being of locals.

Shops that are open and filled with stock make you feel better than a series of battered and boarded up facades.

We’ve battled through it before, in 2005 and we will do it again by helping each other.

We who have escaped the fury of the elements should thank our lucky stars and do whatever we can to help those poor souls affected.

It could be donating money or time to help a volunteer group or the offer of foodstuffs or household goods.

That’s what can be done immediately. But in the months to come, there is another way of showing support for these battered communities.

We can shop local.

Instead of a superstore, we can go into Workington or Cockermouth or Keswick and buy clothes from a clothes shop, footwear from a shoe shop, meat from a butcher, food from a greengrocer and stop off for a coffee in a proper cafe.

A little bit of money and a smiling face can go a long way in the return to normality.

Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk