Daily Agitator
There has been a lot of blame thrown around over the oil spill that BP made…..and across the pond we are being warned……
This from the Evening Standard in the UK……
Senior Tories today warned Barack Obama to back off as billions of pounds were wiped off BP shares in the row over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
Mayor Boris Johnson demanded an end to “anti-British rhetoric, buck-passing and name-calling” after days of scathing criticism directed at BP by the President and other US politicians.
Former Conservative Party chairman Lord Tebbit branded Mr Obama’s conduct “despicable”. And with the dispute threatening to escalate into a diplomatic row, Mr Johnson also appeared to suggest that David Cameron should step in to defend BP.
There seems to be a bit of a disconnect here…….politicians in the UK are up in arms about the US bashing the country……I hate to piss on their parade but NO one here is blaming the country of Great Britain for the oil spill….however we are pretty pissed at a company called British Petroleum (BP)…..but I do not believe that anyone here thinks that they are one in the same entities……as I have said in the past, Americans are not the brightest bulbs in the pack, but I do NOT believe that anyone is stupid enough to blame a country for what a corporation has done. Unless of course, the corporation is running the country……
I mean, on come, even the CEO of BP has stated for the record that it is the responsibility of the company to make good on the losses that they have created….
Apparently the news coverage across the pond is not being accurate and are trying to lather the people up for NO good reason……maybe it is just political spin for some reason…kinda the way some are blaming Obama for the spill….whatever the case it is f*cking wrong to do so.
This news does NOT pass the sniff test……Sorry my friends but NO one is blame the UK!
I think you’ll find that a lot of this (in the UK at least) stems from the fact that UK pension funds have heavily (and I mean SERIOUSLY heavily) invested in oil in general and BP in particular.
Pension funds are of course like other investment houses – they seem of late to get it wrong more often than they get it right and the value of people’s pensions in the UK have nose dived (some pretty much into oblivion) as a result of all sorts of poor investments over the last two or three years, many of which turned out to be amongst the least able to weather the storm of the economic crisis. For instance, pension funds, local councils and others had invested in Icelandic banks that went bust altogether because they were offering an exceptionally high rate of interest and they turned out to be vulnerable – now THAT’S surprising, isn’t it? And now BP. Oh, shit!
However, I do feel that there is a tendency in your Whitehouse, Senate and so on, to be fairly happy to shift the blame onto anyone they can, including the “British” connection of BP (which doesn’t as it happens actually call itself “British” anymore, though that WAS its name and ownership originally at least). I’m sure that Obama doesn’t deserve the flack he’s getting, but that doesn’t mean that others should shoulder it either. There is only one party responsible and, though probably not actually directly to blame, the buck stops with BP (which is at least 50% American owned) – and THEY apparently have accepted the responsibility.
The oil industry is big business and big risk too and, as a result, shit happens! What I DO blame BP for is NOT having emergency contingencies already worked out and organised ready for this wherever in the world it might have happened! That in my opinion was short sighted, probably greedy cost cutting and extremely foolish and has so far been at others’ expense since the enormous costs they are currently incurring are nothing (/i)compared with the devastation being caused to people’s lives as well as the ecology of the area – and all probably for many years to come.
Okay…I get that but it still sounds like whining because the US has NOT blamed UK…..maybe if the CEo had kept his mouth shut and not said what he did….and this is as lame as blaming Obama for the spill……and you are right they are shifting the blame but the CEO gave them the perfect opportunity to do so……
http://peterreynolds.wordpress.com/2010/06/12/the-oil-spill-the-bottom-line-what-obamas-forgetting/
America and Americans need to remember who their friends are. Obama and the whining American press are trying to pass the buck..
Hello Peter and thanx for the comment…..I do not see it as passing the buck….however the CEO has said that BP was on the hook for the total clean up……I will agree that the US press has a tendency to NOT look at the whole pic before they shoot off their mouths…..
I think Obama is grandstanding and playing to the crowd. I was his biggest fan in the whole length and breadth of the entire United Kingdom – believe me!
Why else would you suddenly start calling BP “British Petroleum” if it’s not to shift blame on a racist or national basis?
http://peterreynolds.wordpress.com/2010/06/10/obama-stoops-to-bully/
You are right…that is American politics in a nutshell…play to the crowd……I was informed by Quin of the length that BP is involved in the retirement thing in the UK and now I can understand why the major concern……there is always the rest of the story…
Personally, I do not see it as an attack against brits in particular. Most sane people know who fault it is. However, I can see it playing to the xenophobic segment of the American population.
I agree with you Terrant, but there has been an attempt by all sorts of people to shift the blame and clearly anyone will do as a target for some – Obama included at one point.
It’s understandable and I think it’s entirely unfair to blame Obama, but I do think he’s been reactive rather than proactive about a lot of things – this disater included – it’s just his style, I guess.
Lobotero is absolutely right about one thing though, the CEO of BP has totally failed to get a grip of the situation and has done a terrible PR job, upsetting an awful lot of Americans in the process. I wonder if anyone told HIM the truth about how serious this was going to be…
Nevertheless, this is undoubtedly largely an American problem, pricipally (directly) caused by Americans and American companies. That said I do feel sorry for the poor saps who are really going to suffer most – all those people who live or have financial or other interests along the Gulf coast!
So true….people seem to forget that 30% of the seafood is from the Gulf Coast area…they bitch about the price of shrimp now…they may have something else to bitch about….
My question now is….if an American comp-any was polluting the vacation seaside spots in the UK would it be the country’s fault or the company?
After some mature reflection and getting beaten (well morally anyway) at our own game by the USA, I have concluded that, actually, most of this was hyped up by the British press. For instance, this morning’s Sunday Times has a DPS of Obama in a sort of “Your Country Needs You” pose with the headline “You Brits are Gonna Pay”!
Unbelievable heh? Mind you, it gets increasingly difficult to distinguish between UK newspapers these days with the Daily Telegraph behaving like the News Of The World and the Sunday Times like the Sun.
There’s no doubt that it was a dumb blunder to rename BP as British Petroleum. That’s what started it all off. I also saw some outrageous, blatantly racist, anti-Brit nonsense on some of the US blogs – mind you wheneverI look there I quickly lose the will to live. There are far too many, totally mad, cospuiracy obsessed, deranged nutters there. It’s like an extremely bad taste comedy show.
…present company excepted of course.
FYI, most Americans are low information people…most still think that BP is British Petroleum….sorry about that……
Morning Peter! First, the UK was robbed…US played a damn sloppy game and if it continues they will go home soon….Slovenia will tell the tale…..
I apologize for the morons that write on blogs here in the US…that is the one draw back to this……we have whackeys…damn do we have whackeys…..of course, I was excluding these dipsticks when I said NO one was blaming the UK for the spill…I was mistaken….but please know that only a minority have those stupid feelings…I live on the Gulf Coast and no one with half a brain is blaming the UK…we are however really pissed at BP…..
If only we’d had a goalkeeper who had brought his brain along to the match instead of leaving it back in the UK…
Anyway, it’s not just the blogs though, is it? The US and the UK too, both have their nutcases. In the UK they mostly tend to be hard left whilst in the US they appear to be hard right, but they’re wingnuts just the same and they have scant grasp of reality. Sadly they have a disproportionate voice in both our countries.
If we could only mobilise the vast, hard working, unselfish middle classes and persuade them to start shouting about all the stupidity and injustice then all would be much better – but then they wouldn’t be who they are if they did that, would they?
Catch 22 I guess.
It is a catch-22……and unfortunately I do not see a way around it…..
Major, major correction needed there Lobotero!!! I’m surprsied at you. It wasn’t the UK playing, it was England! You’ll understand why, as a Welshman, I think that’s v.v.v important!
Holy Crap! I am soooooo sorry….I understand completely I am Native American not an Indian…..I do apologize….
You see? Welsh, English, Irish (well, Northern Irish), Scottish… no wonder we in the UK can’r even agree it’s Monday… er, it is Monday, isn’t it? 😆
No, that’s next week. Monday’s cancelled this week
Damn! I forgot that!