Bubble And Squeak

Seems our friends across the pond are a bit cross with us as all the BP bashing is starting to get on their nerves, and the Brits are starting to push back.

The chairman of RSA Insurance Group Plchas written an open letter to U.S. President Barack Obama describing his comments towards BP  and its chief executive as "prejudicial and personal.''


In the letter, published on the Sky News website, John Napier said some balance needed to be put back in to the situation and raised the question of double standards in the way it had been dealt with compared with the banking crisis.


"Your comments towards BP and its CEO as reported here are coming across as somewhat prejudicial and personal,'' Napier wrote. "There is a sense here that these attacks are being made because BP is British.''

My good man, we're not angry with BP because it's a British company.  We're mad at BP because it's destroying thousands of miles of coastline, ruining an entire ecosystem, wrecking the economy of multiple Gulf states, and Tony Hayward is a complete jagoff about it.

Granted, you may have a mild point about the whole BP stock being cut in half thing and its effects on British investors...

Investors in Britain were particularly furious about the suggestions that BP should not pay a dividend until it cleaned up the oil spill. BP’s dividend payment accounted for about £1 of every £8 handed out by British companies last year, according to FairPensions, a London-based charity.


Most shareholders rejected concerns that the costs of a cleanup and possible damages could force BP into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and said the drop in the share price is not justified by the value of BP’s assets.


“BP has many problems in the U.S.,” Justin Urquhart Stewart, co-founder of Seven Investment Management in London, said. “One of them is that it has the word British in its title.”

...but shouldn't you be talking to, you know, Tony Hayward and not Barack Obama?

Besides, if this was Iranian Petroleum or Venezualan Petroleum or Mexican Petroleum that caused this mess, you'd have the GOP and more than a few Democrats saying we should invade somebody's friggin country over this.

Really, the Brits are getting off lightly.  Imagine what we'd do to somebody we didn't like.