Barmy Rahmy…

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/us_and_canada/10359120.stm

More Brit bashing by the worlds most "powerful man". Don't suppose he's really had to flex his muscles since he came to power as the war on terrorism etc was well underway. So save it for the Brits!

Well to be fair, he'd hardly want to go sailing in the gulf of Mexico, it's all full of oil. The Isle of Wight sounds like a much nicer place.

So save it for the Brits!

And you're only sticking up for BP because you think they're British…

And you're only sticking up for BP because you think they're British..

So does Obama.

However the head of BP is proving himself to ba a major cock in his overall handling of things.

Well of course when it's t'other way round the yank CEO would be out there scrubbing birds & compensating the locals out of his own pocket, Oh except of course all those (more than 1000 i believe) Indians in Bhopal I think 20 or so yrs ago,, they only paid out a couple of weeks ago and sod all money compared to the what 20 billion or so they want.. bunch of ****

Hang on where did those four little stars come from? they just censored an annagram

the swear filter is well-trained 😉

I think that every man is entitled to spend time with their family and thts all he is doing. Its not like he's gone in hiding like the Chairman of bp, Mr Svanberg!
Obama has a bee in his bonnet but he's chosen to pick on one man when its the entire organisation to blame. there were other companies involved in this disaster including USA plc.

What purpose does it serve to personally criticise Hayward at this point? Just political bullshit from O'Bammer.

I hate to say it but its this sort of pressure that makes sane men take their own life. With no way out and constant badger baiting from very powerful men. Its sad and I for one feel sorry for Mr hayward and hope he sees this through as people do forgive and forget

Just political bullshit from O'Bammer.

You didn't actually RTFA, did you?

You didn't actually RTFA, did you?

Yes I did. Your point being?

I'm sure last time I looked the geezer who was out on his boat was a Brit. So be quiet kona bunny!

Yeah, but your whinge is that "oooh, he's being so horrible to BP and whatshisface because they're British", which is utter balls. Where were you when he was giving Goldman Sachs etc a shoeing? The person that is motivated by the Britishness of the person being criticised is you, not him.

Yes I did. Your point being?

Err – Obama didn't say anything. Rahm Emanuel, a Greenpeace person, a LA tattooist and a FL artist did.

FFS. what is with you people's little wet dream that a bunch of American's are over there blaming brits for the the disaster? Obama couldn't have handled it better by holding BP accountable and yes, and if you have any knowledge on this oil spill you would know that he has blamed his administration for not regulating the oil companies.

Err – Obama didn't say anything. Rahm Emanuel, a Greenpeace person, a LA tattooist and a FL artist did.

No, but Rahmy is White House Chief of Staff, so to the extent that he is responsible for what comes out of his office, the buck stops with Bammy.

Spot on about the tattooist, though – nothing to do with Obama.

Rule brittania, Britannia rules the waves, tr la la lala lala etc!

so his administration are to blame for not regulating the companies, yet BP has to foot the bill.
Doesn't seem fair does it?

ach, the Little Englanders Britishers are out in force today. 🙄

so his administration are to blame for not regulating the companies, yet BP has to foot the bill.
Doesn't seem fair does it?

This suggests that there may havebeen a bi-partite agrrement between BP and Trans-Ocean to ignore the failure which lead to this problem, although it's easier to imagine that BP had more to gain from not fixing the problem, thus continuing production, than did Trans-Ocean.

so his administration are to blame for not regulating the companies, yet BP has to foot the bill.
Doesn't seem fair does it?

1) Yes, it does – if BP (and their contractors) were behaving negligently, it's not the administration's fault that they didn't stop them from behaving negligently.

2) Who said the administration is to blame?

I blame the tories

This suggests that there may havebeen a bi-partite agrrement between BP and Trans-Ocean to ignore the failure which lead to this problem,

That I'm afraid is a gross oversimplification of what went wrong. The failure was not due soley to the failure of the BOP as there would have been a sequence of events that went wrong of which the last would have been failure of the BOP. Additionally who is to say that this BOP did not have redundant systems? That way in the event of one system failing another could be brought online thereby obviating the need for the system to be shut down and reparied until the well is complete. I am not saying that this is what happened just presenting a possible explanation of why this failure was not repaired.

Whilst focussing on a single event or failure might seem attractive to the media and those looking for easy answers but in the real world it is rarely that simple.

That I'm afraid is a gross oversimplification of what went wrong. The failure was not due soley to the failure of the BOP as there would have been a sequence of events that went wrong of which the last would have been failure of the BOP. Additionally who is to say that this BOP did not have redundant systems?

Seems that there were indeed multiple Bad Things that happened, including failure of THREE separate failsafe mechanisms on the BOP. Clearly there is plenty of sh1t to go round, but to start to apportion blame at this stage, as the US politicians are trying to do, is ridiculous.

Mr Benton said his supervisor e-mailed both BP and Transocean about the leaks when they were discovered.

do you reckon these emails have been viewed by anyone since? I hope all communications are released before we are brainwashed into thinking the head honchos at Trans ocean/BP ignored warnings.
Its very easy to claim someone told someone about something and in this day and age, its also very easy to prove who said what to whom via electronic comms

Environmental groups said the Isle of Wight outing was "insulting" to those affected by the environmental disaster

The White House said the move was one of a "long line of PR gaffes and mistakes" by Mr Hayward

Not sure what they want to him to do scuba dive down with a big plug…seems he has had a stressful period of late and is entitled to some down time of one day.

Looks like scapegoating to me …which is not to say BP dont deserve some pressure for this bu I am uncertain that he is anything other than the mesenger.
I thought the equipment used was USA as was the contracyor and I failed to see the outpourong of bile over Bopal etc.

Also note the actual faulty part /bit that broke the leaking pod / blowback preventer was made by a USA company and managed by one no mention of that eh

BP has responded to Mr Benton's account saying Transocean was responsible for both the maintenance and operation of the blowout preventer

IIRC there are mid term elections due in the US pretty soon so Obama has to appear to be acting decisively.

It does seem however, as though there is a witch hunt in place after all there always has to be a scapegoat and Mr BP is the obvious one.

Obama's insistence on calling BP "British Petroleum" hasn't helped at all and the Senators, having scented blood, want in on the act. I don't think this is so much an American as a human reaction. Someone is to blame, let's all give the most obvious one a good kicking.

IMO Bhopal was brushed under the carpet because money talks. USA is way more powerful than India so the failure to act was a foregone conclusion. The obvious conclusion therefore is that if you are going to have an environmental catastrophe, make sure you do it somewhere where they don't have the muscle to make you pay up. BP's mistake was having it off the shores of the USA.

Don't forget guys, BP is 40% US owned, they are a global company and the CEO just happens to be British. He could just as easily have been American, German, Albanian, Greek or whatever. It's just business, and is as far removed from the likes of you and I than Shrek and Co over in South Africa.

Sorry, I didn't see any drivel in this article..? Someone from the White House said that Hayward was a walking PR disaster. Is that not accurate?

Someone from the White House said that Hayward was a walking PR disaster. Is that not accurate?

it sure is but its the fact that O'barma is electioneering and needs to be seen to be acting like a president by finger pointing at BP's Front man who happens to be a Brit and who happens to have no PR skills to scratch his ass with.
I think USA plc needs to face up to the fact that they are all to blame!

Umm, it's democracy – you have to do what the people want.

And that is the tragedy of the modern world…

It does seem however, as though there is a witch hunt in place after all there always has to be a scapegoat and Mr BP is the obvious one.

???

Of course BP is the obvious target for blame – it's their bloody operation, they chose the contractors and they have liability for what happened!

Obama's insistence on calling BP "British Petroleum"

This claim has been bandied about a lot but in my (brief) googling, I only came across reports (and blog links to) in the Daily Mail and Telegraph that Obama had called BP "British Petroleum", but no actual quotes of him doing it. Have I just missed them (quite possibly) or do they not exist?

And where's all the criticism of Boris Johnson sticking his oar in to defend BP as a "Great British company"?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1285467/BP-OIL-SPILL-Lord-Tebbit-Boris-Johnson-attack-Obamas-anti-British-rhetoric.html

I'm pretty sure he called it British Petroleum on the clip I saw on the news.

they chose the contractors and they have liability for what happened!

Really not sure about this. If I pay you to service my car, and you pour the used oil down the drain – how am I liable?

Would being good at PR somehow miraculously clean up all the oil? It's getting a bit piss poor now. Hayward not being a great PR man is the least of America's worries.

I don't think anyone is denying a degree of culpability for BP konabunny but the point is, the US Gov't seems to have fixated on attacking one man right now, immediately instead of waiting for the results of a proper investigation to see what actually went so catastrophically wrong. As for liability of the main contractor or the sub contractor, that all comes down to the contractual agreement which I can only assume you are privy to.

Would being good at PR somehow miraculously clean up all the oil?

No, but it might help reduce the fall in stock price and give those people directly affected by the spill a clue about what's going on.

If I pay you to service my car, and you pour the used oil down the drain – how am I liable?

Because offshore drilling within the US creates strict liability for pollution: http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/dpettit/what_bp_oil_catastrophe_legal.html

As for liability of the main contractor or the sub contractor, that all comes down to the contractual agreement which I can only assume you are privy to.

No, it doesn't. The contract between BP and the contractors might spell out whether BP can reclaim any loss from the contractors as a result of their negligence or contractual breach, but it can't operate to absolve BP of liability under tort or statute.

Would being good at PR somehow miraculously clean up all the oil?

Well quite. BP as a company are trying hard to clean up the spill. For some reason, many Americans seem to assume that just because Hayward doesn't look sufficiently contrite then that means the whole of BP is trying to avoid having to do anything.

People have a lot of trouble separating groups from individuals, with their BP this and America that.

Given this is a problem affecting the US, which it seems as the head of the US Obama should have at least as much to do as the head of BP, I'd just like to check that Obama hasn't had a single hour off to spend with his family.

Of course BP is the obvious target for blame – it's their bloody operation, they chose the contractors and they have liability for what happened

well llegally you are correct but if I drive down thew road in my car and the garage that fixed it did a poor job or the replacement part broke and I crash it would seem to mitigate my culpability in the actual accident /event – even though I would be claimed against and liable.
They should also look at the contractors here and the part that failed

BP have procedures in place that allow those with a valid claim to compensation to ring a hot line, a cheque is sent to them and they then cash that cheque. This can take a little as two days which is much quicker than the environmental groups on the gulf coast were allowed to even start to preventitive measures to stop the leak reaching the coast.

BP have done quite a lot since the start of this to prevent a lot of people from being left without the means to feed themselves. They have set up the ESCROW fund of 20Bn USD which is quite a lot of money (ok, its not bottomless but is bloody HUGE amount of money!).

They haven't shirked in the face of any of the accusations of negligence, they have taken it on the chin (and on the stockmarkets) though this does not mean they accept responsibility as that is up to the Courts to decide but had it been any other company they MIGHT have tried to wriggle out of any claims.

Reasons why Tony Haywood is being unjustly crucified:
a) the lack of BP's safety standards was a legacy left to him by Lord Browne; TH had started to reinvest in safety and it takes a long time to change a company culture
b) worried about the share price, BP will now get rid of him to try and shore things up
c) hysterical, PR-centred media culture more obsessed with how the response 'looks' rather than what is being done. It's a kick in the teeth for British values based on keeping calm and trying to think rationally, whilst being more focussed on the issue than its representation.