PM Cameron asks us to "remember the economic value BP brings to people in Britain and America."

[jefferson_dem]

U.K. Speaks Out in Defense of BP
British officials offer first public signs of support for company in face of heightened criticism from U.S.

By ALISTAIR MACDONALD And GUY CHAZAN


BP CEO Tony Hayward stood in the BP command center updating reporters on efforts to clean up oil spill off the Louisiana coast on June 3 in Houston.

The British government took a first and tentative step Thursday to intervene in the row between oil giant BP PLC and President Barack Obama, asking the U.S. to "remember the economic value BP brings to people in Britain and America."

U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron also said he expected to discuss BP and the fallout from the spreading Gulf of Mexico oil spill, among other issues, in a previously scheduled weekend call with U.S. President Barack Obama.

As many as 50,000 barrels of oil per day may have flowed into the Gulf before it was partly contained on June 3, the U.S. Geological Survey says. Purdue University's Steven Wereley, a key member of the group making the assessment, talks with WSJ's Robert Lee Hotz about the new flow estimates.

MoreBP Stock Plunges as U.S. Ramps Up Tab Berms Getting Built, but Doubts Persist In Louisiana, Scrambling for Work Deal Journal: Will PetroChina Acquire BP? OpinionDrilling Bits of Fiction .

"The Prime Minister is…clear that we need constructive solutions and that we remember the economic value BP brings to people in Britain and America," Treasury chief George Osborne said Thursday in an e-mailed statement to the Wall Street Journal. Mr. Cameron, currently in Afghanistan, had asked Mr. Osborne to call embattled BP CEO Tony Hayward.

In Washington, President Obama Thursday appeared to edge back from his position that BP should subsidize the wages of U.S. workers idled because of the administration's moratorium on deepwater oil drilling in the Gulf, suggesting that the law doesn't give him the authority to make that demand.

Congress must "update the laws to make sure that the people in the Gulf, the fishermen, the hotel owners, families who are dependent for their livelihoods in the Gulf, that they are all made whole," he said at the end of a meeting with the leadership of Congress.

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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704312104575297841925243062.html

[bluestateguy]

1. Oh brother

Then they can put down their cup of tea, take off their skirts, brush their bad teeth, and grab and damn mop and help out with the cleanup.

[izquierdista]

2. When you do things RIGHT

When you fuck things up, you DESTROY economic value, capisce?

[The Magistrate]

3. Indeed, Sir: The Old Question 'But What have You Done For Me Lately?' Comes To Mind

Actually paying off all the damage here, and proper criminal fines, would certainly amount to a decade or two of the 'economic value', ie. 'profit' B.P. has provided....

[TCJ70]

4. Investments come with risks...

...thanks for taking part in capitalism.

[Arkana]

5. Blow it out your arse, you grotty little wanker.

[Cass]

6. Cameron can go screw off. Let's talk about the monumental economic devastation BP has brought to the

US. I am in no mood for this kind of bullshit talk.

:grr:

[muntrv]

7. Hey Cameron! To quote Monty Python: I FAHT IN YOUR GENERAL DIRECTION!!!!

[Rosa Luxemburg]

8. The British Tories and their oil

Britain will have to invade Iran after all if its got no BP. Isn't Shell registed in London too.

[Lil Missy]

9. remember, you can always kiss my ass.

[gateley]

10. I think BP has the funds for this - they're still selling oil and pumping other wells, right?

As a matter of fact, they told us they had the $$$ to cover the dividend payments as well as pay for the Gulf. I'm hoping they pay far more than they ever thought they would, but even then, I think they can handle it.

I DO feel sorry for those whose pensions are invested in BP - like those who lost so much with Enron. :(

[ladjf]

11. Hey PM. We don't need any advice about who or what to remember.

Keep your fascist swill to yourself. Go home immediately.

[NavyMom]

12. Fuck 'em, nt

[Vicar In A Tutu]

13. BP is 39% American owned, 40% British.

That has to be kept in mind, for a couple of contrasting reasons - Firstly, the idea that this is solely a "British problem" and secondly that Obama speaking out against BP was not "anti-British" rhetoric. I find it, perhaps, a shade disappointing that it's been labelled "British Petroleum" seemingly deliberately when that name is no longer accurate. Perhaps it's a bad, 12 year out of date briefing, perhaps it's Bush style dog whistling.

I am British, as it happens. I also happen to love the United States having spent a considerable amount of time there in the past, and hopefully far more time at some point in the not too distant future. I find some of the comments made on this forum recently regrettable but understandable given the effects of the leak.

As for the comments seeping out from the arse cracks of some of our right-wing politicians over the last couple of days, I offer this: I don't think any members of the British government should be putting forth anything but solidarity with the concept that BP should pay for what they are accountable for. This is fair. I heard evil old Dark Lord Norman Tebbit today mention a lack of culpability taken by American companies in the past, but I would suspect this is more down to gutlessness on the part of other governments in pressing for compensation where necessary.

Yes, it's a shame about pensions which could be hit, which is the line most commonly wheeled out by the right-wing British press - although 25% of the American stock in BP is also owned by pension funds - but ultimately the key is to clearing this mess up and helping those who've had their lives turned upside down and inside out.

I think Obama's only mistake is using the "British Petroleum" name because it's allowed him to fall victim to typical right-wing 'gotcha!' politics on this side of the pond. My opinion is that he has every right to criticise 'BP' and, frankly, has to. It's his job to solve the environmental and economic catastrophe afflicting so much of the USA as a result of this. As far as I'm aware, he wasn't also elected Prime Minister of Great Britain. His duty is to look out for the United States. I'm sorry but not surprised that large chunks of the right-wing press in the UK - aided sneakily by the Tories - are doing their best to criticise him for that.

Unlike said press entities, I don't see the "OMFG WAR ON BRITTAAAAIIIIN!" from Obama that they do. But if you've kept an eye on the r/w media here, you'll know that it's an agenda they've been peddling for years. Just because he is from the wrong party and doesn't felate at the alter of Churchill and perhaps, just perhaps, because he isn't the right colour.

[Jennicut]

14. I didn't know that the ownership was almost half and half.

Obama is also criticizing a corporation, not a country. I don't get why Cameron and Brits would be so sensitive.

[Vicar In A Tutu]

17. I think...

...Cameron is trying to be diplomatic. He has a lot of real right-wing shite hawks in his party. The relative lack of comment is about the best I could have expected from him (I have a natural, inbuilt loathing of Tories, so I expect very little).

Of course, I THINK he should be out expressing that BP must pay for whatever they're found culpable, but....

As I said in my post, it's really the right-wing who are being reactionary. I mean, you know what it's like. We all know that politicians and media from that part of the political spectrum are shady arseholes who'll stop at nothing to get their agenda to the fore.

[Jennicut]

18. Right wingers are everywhere, in every country.

[treestar]

20. Exactly! Why are they trying to make it into a US vs. Britain thing?

that's just wrong.

[TheKentuckian]

15. Fuck you Dave!!!

[neverforget]

16. Cameron to the US: It's just a flesh wound!

[Cha]

19. They need to make it All Right and then they

can talk about what BP has done for America.

[jillan]

21. Tell that to all the fisherman of the Gulf.

[depakid]

22. Arguably, they add more value than than the banksters

Though now that we've seen up close and personal some of the externalized costs involved, the comparison gets more "interesting."

[Mimosa]

23. British papers have not mentioned any particular concern about the poisoning of the environment

I've been shocked at the editorials I've read in British papers.

They have viciously and unfairly attacked President Obama, whom they once lauded, using terms like rabid, rabble-rousing and such. *ick*

[Vicar In A Tutu]

31. You have to remember that the British right-wing (responsible for the anti-Obama rhetoric)...

...have to spew their crap in print. They cannot do so on TV with abandon as they do in the US, so they have to let off steam in a less visceral setting.

[WeDidIt]

24. Play that "too big to fail" card, Cameron.

:eyes:

[BeyondGeography]

25. No surprise, their bought-and-paid-for politicians are as tone deaf as ours

[avaistheone1]

26. BP and their flunky politicians are still trying to dupe us

:grr:

[Alexander]

27. Is that Jean-Luc Picard in the background of that picture?

It sure looks a lot like him.

[Vinca]

28. Investments can be risky propositions. I don't want British pensioners

to suffer, but BP has made a blunder of epic proportions and they must be held financially responsible. That said, I'm beginning to doubt any amount of money will be make much difference in repairing our planet. The reports of cracks in the sea bed are terrifying.

[Mimosa]

32. 'The reports of cracks in the sea bed are terrifying' Amen to that. n/t

[City Lights]

29. What "economic value" does BP bring to the United States?

:shrug:

[Sebastian Doyle]

30. What Cameron would not admit on the record

is that he probably wishes right about now that he had LOST the election.


"Bloody Hell, I wish this had all happened while that wanker Brown was in office"

[Mimosa]

33. I bet that's true, Sebastian. n/t

[craigmatic]

34. Obama should squeeze BP anyways and help topple the conservatives in

the UK while helping people here at the sametime.