Why odd? If you don't understand the system, there are plenty of resources online that help. My MEP is also very good at using social media to keep us up-to-date with what she is doing - much more than our MP.
I know exactly how it works but it's still a strange system because there are so many political parties that voting for a parties manifesto is pretty much meaningless and European voters are in the main very, very vague on what they are voting for.
Voting for a manifesto is meaningless when we all know it's thrown out of the window pretty much immediately and exchanged for horse trading and bartering for the least bad option they can get, which may not be anything like the manifesto. Which often means we end up with policy which no voters voted for or wanted simply because if was the only achievable deal. It's unrepresentative and unwieldy and not particularly powerful either, the unelected arms have much more power because they're smaller and able to act decisively to take control. In many ways it's an elective dictatorship.
But they choose not to address the concerns of the poorest people in Britain despite that.
Not true. One of the aims of the EU is to invest in poorer areas - such as parts of Wales and the North which have been ignored by successive British governments. These areas will undoubtedly be worse off
Firstly, I think it's been pretty clear that it's not really been the sort of investment people in those areas want. It's normally a big shiny building which costs a huge amount of money for a very low return in terms of jobs.
Secondly, the EUs definition of deprivation ignores an awful lot of people. Those areas in Wales for example may have low incomes and employment levels. But they have benefits like plentiful cheap housing.
However lots of people who live in the south east for example, will be seen as 'not deprived' by the EU because they have higher incomes and employment rates. In practice they may well be living far more deprived lives than those in Wales with much less available money because of high housing costs. And big shiny EU funded buildings don't help people on low wages in expensive housing improve their quality of life.
In short, they targeted the wrong sort of help in very limited areas. And the areas they 'helped' were also much less likely to be affected negatively impacted by the EU because of low migration to their areas and less impact on housing and wages.
Basically they were extremely limited in who they tried to help and they did it in a way that the poorest people didn't find helpful or appreciate. So it was all a bit pointless really.