Sold down the river

= Betrayed or cheated.

The phrase originated in the Mississippi region of the USA during slave trading days. Slaves who caused trouble were sold from the northern slave states into the much harsher conditions on plantations in the lower Mississippi river.

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is net contributor to the European Union budget (i.e. we pay in more than we get back).

So, when the dead tree press report the UK government is to seek assistance from the European Union to help cover the multi-billion pound cost of the country's destructive flooding in June and July, what they really mean is................. Britain would like a little bit more of our money back.

It is not European Union money, it is the money that we, as UK tax payers, have handed over to the European Union in the first place.

So if you were one of the victims that was flooded out and now find yourself bunked up with friends, in a B&B or a caravan. Just think, if the UK government hadn't given all that money to the European Union in the first place, it would have been spent on better flood defences to protect your home.

Sold down the river, you have been
.