UK - US could it be divorce ?

[Captain Oates 911]

I do hope that the government will put out some sort of statement that there will be no mental anguish lawsuits allowed. But then again, you're going to get people who live on the coast who will bring up a lawsuit for the declining value of their homes, or some idgit who will try to claim that the smell of crude oil has irreparably disturbed her psyche. Our civil legal system is really embarassing.

It'll probably take years to work through. I quite like suing companies actually. I did it twice and prosecuted and won both times.

They really deserved it. £750 the first time and £175 the second time. Judge Judy eat your heart out !

Yes seeing where the limit of liability is will be so interesting but BP will hold the line and all the American oil companies will help em politically too because it could be them next. This time next year it will be all forgotten except by the greens and the shrimp industry will be shrimping and the drillers will be drilling and the UK will be holding hands with the USA in a brand new war somewhere.

oh and my BP shares will be almost back to evens

[DukeOfYork 28]

You don't seem to get it. In the case of a natural disaster like Hurricane Katrina, that is the duty of the government to lead the cleanup after. In the case of a corporate blunder that results in a disaster, it is the duty of the corporation who caused it to clean up. There is no way that BP, transoceanic, or Halliburton will be able to prove force majeure on this one.

I do get it. First of all, the fault of the Hurricane Katrina response was at the state level. Federal law prohibited them from getting involved until the state of Louisiana requested their help. The Bush administration had to beg Gov. Blanco to let the government in .

I don't disagree that it's the duty of the corporation (BP) to pay for the clean up, but if we had the plan in place to react, we should have first and then presented BP with the bill later. Instead, Obama made it loud and clear that BP was at fault and had to pay for it, something they did not deny, and continued to harp on it while watching the situation get worse.

[Darnell 8,478]

Didn't BP buy out an American Petroleum Company, ages past ?

[TracyTN 237]

Good stuff Tracy and thanks for the support for the special relationship. any thinking Brit/American knows the two countries need each other and can't afford a serious scrap.

I am having a wobble this week as I am intending to apply for naturalization soon and I am getting cold feet - I will set up a thread later to test the water. Not just bp or winston churchill or Mr O

I'll look for that thread!

Some?

If America is filled with nothing but idiots as you claim, why the hell do you want to live here?

[TracyTN 237]

I have to revive this thread to say - I read an article on BBC's website today and was really shocked by the comments readers had left. While us Yanks are mad at BP, it seems a lot of Blighters don't find any fault in BP for this because we drive SUVs and the rig was American made (was it? I'm not even sure).

I don't really get the ire there, truly. I had hubby read some of them and he called them right tosspots, and also pointed out that he'd like to see how they reacted if similar happened off the UK shore with a rig under the guidance of a US petroleum company.

They don't feel that Obama has a 'right' to hold BP accountable financially. Honestly, it baffled me.

[Trompe le Monde 1,107]

I do agree that people (not just Americans) need to hold themselves accountable for the choices they make as consumers that make companies like BP profitable and ultimately susceptible to a huge environmental disaster. They have to realize that their choices come at a cost and this is one of them.

But the response in the British press has been - quite frankly - exaggerated, incoherent and a little bit stupid.

[TracyTN 237]

Well yes - I think the gas crises of last summer (among other things) should have shown some folks that Hummers and other SUVs that they clung to were probably not such a good idea. But even if every single American drove a Prius, we'd still need and have a right to consume oil just as the UK does. So in that sense, it's a nonsensical argument to me.

It just really threw me for a loop to read that. I still can't quite get my head around it!

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

Didn't BP buy out an American Petroleum Company, ages past ?

Standard Oil? Amoco? My stock shares are called BP Amoco.

Edited June 16, 2010 by Nich-Nick

[Captain Oates 911]

I have to revive this thread to say - I read an article on BBC's website today and was really shocked by the comments readers had left. While us Yanks are mad at BP, it seems a lot of Blighters don't find any fault in BP for this because we drive SUVs and the rig was American made (was it? I'm not even sure).

I don't really get the ire there, truly. I had hubby read some of them and he called them right tosspots, and also pointed out that he'd like to see how they reacted if similar happened off the UK shore with a rig under the guidance of a US petroleum company.

They don't feel that Obama has a 'right' to hold BP accountable financially. Honestly, it baffled me.

an american rig - (occidental petroleum)blew up in british waters and killed 167 men...

you can't even remember the anti- american hoohar so praps there wasn't any ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piper_Alpha

[Captain Oates 911]

Standard Oil? Amoco? My stock shares are called BP Amoco.

The company is called BP - it took over Amoco many years ago

BP's Shareholders are 39% US AND 40% UK - ie equally split

Obama will hurt as many americans and their pensions as he does Brits

He is running it like he can say who pays dividends and which CEO can be fired and putting his heel on their necks etc

Russia runs their economy more independently than this

Where is the law ? Where are the courts ?

BP could walk away and let BP North America (owned 100% by BP) go into receivership. No future profits to pay claims, no escrow fund and plug the leak yourselves we are offski - they could.

Mr O should be careful about pushing too hard

Edited June 17, 2010 by saywhat

[Trompe le Monde 1,107]

an american rig - (occidental petroleum)blew up in british waters and killed 167 men...

you can't even remember the anti- american hoohar so praps there wasn't any ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piper_Alpha

She probably can't remember it since she would have been about 5 years old at the time. Also, Europeans were less prone to the kind of knee-jerk anti-Americanism that is so prevalent today.

If it happened now, you bet your bippy there would be an outcry.

Obama will hurt as many americans and their pensions as he does Brits

I wonder what the breakdown is between people whose livelihoods and way of life are already ruined, compared to people whose pensions might take a hit?

[Captain Oates 911]

I wonder what the breakdown is between people whose livelihoods and way of life are already ruined, compared to people whose pensions might take a hit?

This time next year it will be all cleaned up and they will have scooped the 20 billion plus plus plus as well.

Nobody cares about pensioners - the existing ones are going to die soon anyway and you will never get old - right ?

My objection is not to compo but the pres telling the company to fire the CEO and interfering with dividend policy and all this about boot on their necks. I thought that stuff just happened in china.

The shrimpers say their shrimps are fine and are selling em. The tourist areas say come on down its clean. Somebody isn't telling it straight.

Just because the American rig that killed 167 men was years ago doesn't mean it's not significant and a useful comparison as to how American companies were treated in similar circumstances

Accidents happen in all technical industries - challenger shuttle or the air france plane that broke apart out of brazil etc etc etc. If we start witch hunts every time then companies will prefer to operate elsewhere

BP are a fine company and I have invested in them for 30 years. It's ok for their competitors to sit in a row and slag them off but they are no better and it might be them next time.

I want to hear about CAMERON who made the failed valve , and TRANSOCEAN owners of the rig and HALLIBURTON the concrete sealers - all of whom are involved and who are taking a low profile and getting away with it. Contractors have liability too

[Trompe le Monde 1,107]

The shrimpers say their shrimps are fine and are selling em. The tourist areas say come on down its clean. Somebody isn't telling it straight.

You must be watching different news coverage than the rest of us then

I want to hear about CAMERON who made the failed valve , and TRANSOCEAN owners of the rig and HALLIBURTON the concrete sealers - all of whom are involved and who are taking a low profile and getting away with it. Contractors have liability too

I want to hear about these things too....and it has nothing to do with who's American and who's British....weren't you complaining about nationalism in the other thread? Ultimately they were under BP's oversight anyway.

[Captain Oates 911]

You must be watching different news coverage than the rest of us then

You must be watching FOX

There are lots of gulf holiday adverts on cnn msnbc etc showing clean beaches and the fishermen are pushing their shrimps in every interview with anderson cooper

If I was a journalist, I wouldn't want to go unaffected beaches - I would go to a boom where a pelican have dived into the collected oil.

In the Braer spill the only animal harmed was an otter run over by a journalist car !

[Trompe le Monde 1,107]

You must be watching FOX

I was actually watching Auntie Beeb America (who incidentally report no anti-British sentiment in spite of speaking in RP while visiting all 4 states affected by the spill )