Events that are shaking the special relationship

Sally Chatterjee

It's a sign of Obama's weakness, he's having to play the "Chavez" card and rail against foreign oil companies with an ever inflating vocabulary.

A little bit of demagoguery can do wonders for the opinion polls in the short term but it's like to cost a lot in the long term.

THX1138

So this is basically the same post four times, but this time, with a bit of a Boris twist for the CH gallery - Give it a rest , can't you!

Edward

"It makes you wonder how highly he values UK-US relations..."

As they say over there: are you kidding? He despises this country, and all it stands for.

Come back Dubya, all is forgiven!

In2minds

"But to listen to Obama, it is as if a few blokes from Stoke-on-Trent sailed over........"

And that's the point, fewer people are listening to the Messiah, he's well on his way to being the US version of John Prescott, simply a joke.

Mark Pasola

It just goes to show how we deluded are to think that there is a "Special Relationship". We think it makes us something special amongst the myriad less powerful nations clamouring for America's favour, but it doesn't. Our powerful friend only ever acts out of self-interest.

Sure we have common interests, and the greater our economic or military power the more those interests will appear to coincide, but national self respect dictates that we should stop behaving like useful idiots. The first practical implication of such a policy shift should be to withdraw all of our troops from America's war in Afghanistan.

GDS

Bhopal.

Cameron should confront the intellectually challenged Chicago Spiv and shyster.

As Palin said so cleverly "how's that hopey, changey thing going?"

THX1138

BP is such a British company, that it reports it's accounts in $USD, it has a Swedish Chairman and it's shares are listed in Frankfurt, New York and London.. But don't worry it'ill soon be a Chinese company and the Spectator will have to find a new target for it's anti American rhetoric..

Ivy Eileen

"kick ass" - rhetoric from Barack H. Obama.

What is the diplomatic wording for "Grow Up" ?

Charlie T

Excellent post. The anti British rhetoric spewing from Obama and his cronies is xenophobic hate-mongering. BP have fouled up and should rightly pay to clean up the mess. But this over promoted community organiser and his toadies are smearing and sliming an entire nation.
Thank heavens some British politicians and writers are going out to bat for Britain instead of heading for their funk holes like others I could mention. Typically the usual effete self loathing ninnies are popping up here tut tutting in their usual smug supercilious way at anyone who defends Britain
On the subject of Afghanistan I've argued on here in the past that it isn't Britain's war and we should pull out.

Edward Sutherland

Fraser: go and stand in the corner for half an hour for using those naughty words "special relationship" Then go back to your desk and write out 100 lines :" There is no such thing as a special relationship; only American interests."

Boudicca

This is obviously the time to cancel the lop-sided US extradition treaty and to start distancing ourselves from America's overseas adventures.

AndyinBrum

Well we could always pull out of afghanistan, see how that plays

Long the UK

As a lover of America I have become sickened by Obama's attacks against Britain. He shows us little respect, rarely talking about our troops who are dying in Afghanistan. He grossly insulted PM Brown.

I hope Cameron shows some backbone and refuses to see BP be broken by a politician who is no friend of ours.

paulg

In Court American B.P, will be the name insisted upon.

The president is falsly misnaming the company and that is slander, slander here and slander in the U.S.

If the President of the USA want nothing more than break historic ties with the U.K and fifty four members of the Commonwealth, thats entirely up to him. However, one needs to ask how this serves Americas interests as only the support of all these countries around the globe gives a continental power like America a global reach.

If his rhetoric causes the share price of Britians biggest company to fall further and, where so many of our pensions are invested; and where British and American interests are found. The question needs to be asked: what are Obamas motives?

Your right about the sub prime bundles in any court the selling on of these toxic debts would be seen as fraud.

terence patrick hewett

Obama as President is a horses arse. He allows his own personal prejudice to influence US policy, to the detriment of his country's interest and to Britain's'.

AndyLeeds

I agree with Boudicca: lets cancel the extradition treaty for a start. And I also agree with AndyinBrum: lets leave Afghanistan and let the American's get on with it. It is high time our political class started to put UK interests first and last. That applies to UK-US and UK-EU relations.

Martyn Rowe

We should refuse to extradite Gary McKinnon for starters.

Michael Booth

Boudicca - I totally agree. The extradition treaty arrangements, being totally one-sided, are not in our best interests and should be stopped. Cameron would do well to signal we are going to pull out of Afghanistan asap and an invitation to the US to find air bases elsewhere might not go amiss (though there's not a hope in hell of that).

Woody

I never understood the media fascination with Obama, it was all too reminiscent of Tony Blair 1997. He's beginning to look and sound just like any other 'hack' politician.
They called David Cameron a lightweight and a PR man but I think he's been hugely impressive so far. He will handle this in his own way and not dance to the media's tune.

Ke H

There was an article in the DT early this morning this morning quoting reports of numbers of birds 'oiled up'and those perceived to have died because of oil.Both of these figures from official USA sources were miniscule-bearing in mind the flocts of pelicans for example that one encounters on the Florida beach.
The search for dead birds-I think-produced 380;hardly a devastating number and was qualified by saying many of those 380 only a proportion were killed by oiling and it was admitted that a significant mumber died from natural causes,as will always be the
case.So Obama is making the worse case he can out of this.The article went on to price the dead birds in terms of what B.P has lost;that came to muliple £millions per bird.Well,I like birds but.......?
The disturbing point is that when I searched for that article again before writing this it has gone.Spiked!
I wonder who arranged that? Has anyone else read it or kept it as I wanted to e-mail it to a friend in America.
Someone ought to be able to uncover these figures and show the degree of hyperbole in regard to Obama's statements.

M

Pull out of afghanistan!!!....Defiance is better than sucummbing to American double standards!!

stereodog

Not that I approve of Obama's anti-british language but it's a bit much to say that no-one in Britain speaks suggestively about American companies. We might not do so in the context of environmental disasters but there was a good deal of unpleasant anti-americanism at the time of Kraft's take over of Cadbury. People always use companies as aunty sally's for national interest, for example the numerous anarchist attacks of McDonalds. the only difference here is that America's whining actually counts for something.

Rob

Have some sympathy for the US. The last British PM kept blaming American bankers for every financial problem to afflict the UK just to exculpate his own disastrous reign as chancellor.

brittney

This post made me sad. I am a american conservative and wish that both of our countries had the same current relationship that we did under W and Blair and sad that our special relationship is weakening. I am still into your country!

porkbelly

After eight years of heaping scorn on Bush and America, after eight years of decrying the "special relationship" as one of master and poodle now you wonder why the word "British" doesn't carry the same magic in Washington as it once did? The joke's on you Fraser - you (and so many others on this site) lavished love on Obama for his anti-American qualities little realizing that what he dislikes about his own country is also what he dislikes about Britain. He has no more use for Britain than Keira Knightley has for her stalkers: the special relationship in all in their poor deluded minds. Wake up.

GDT

All this talk about Obama and his rhetoric. At the end of the day the company with responsibility is BP. They dropped the ball in a pretty spectacular way. The ultimately have duty of care to the employees who died on that rig and for the ensuing environmental disaster. 2010 is a long way from 1986 - public perception of such incidents has moved on. A pinch of saly should be taken with Obama comments. They are purely for home consumption.

Verity

Maybe Obama could send some of his Chicago friends scouting round the cemetaries for those deceased within in the last 18 months, looking for new voters. He's going to need them.

Barry Bilge

Given Brown's mantra of "It started in America" which he gleefully spewed from his mouth whenever he could except when he was *in* America and around Americans, it is cheap political capital and payback. That is all.

Osred

Cheer Up! BHO is the high-water mark of positive discrimination or affirmative action.

Perhaps Abbott will be the same in the UK.

TomTom

Britain is being treated as a doormat. Obama should be brought to heel. It is simply not American to vilify through personal attacks like this against Hayward and to treat British as if it was Anglo-Iranian Oil deliberately attacking the USA instead of BP_Amoco employees in the USA.

If BP is guilty of anything let a US Court decide. If Obama had a Harvard Law degree he would know about due-process but he was none too hot on that for Cambridge Police.

It is time for Cameron to stop falling into bear traps. If he does not tell Obama to back off he will have middle class pensioners and trades unions on the streets of London protesting.

Cameron can forget his Steve Hilton "Obama Campaign" and Green obessions. If he wants to keep his job he had better defend the largest UK quoted company from Chinese takeover. I really think Obama is going to plunge the world into chaos. He NEVER spoke this way about Goldman Sachs

David Preiser

Sally Chatterjee has it right. The Obamessiah the world wanted us to elect simply doesn't care about international stuff. His sole interest is domestic politics. The rest of it is a nuisance He must deal with from time to time and, unfortunately, has a host of amateurs and fools surrounding Him.

In2minds

Boudicca @ June 10th, 2010 6:29pm - "time to cancel the lop-sided US extradition treaty", yes indeed. Gary McKinnon can stay in the UK!

Mycroft

Obama'a comments may be 'only for home consumption', but they are not consumed only at home, they have led to an unjustified fall in the BP share price with no corresponding benefit with regard to the oil spill. And although BP is now as much American as British, this affects us disproportionately.

And please. please, can we stop using this ridiculous and demeaning phrase 'special relationship', which merelr merely suggests the demeaning relationship that exists between a suppliant and a patron. Blair is gone now after all (mainly to America it seems, to cash in for past services).

Old Slaughter

Excellent piece

American who loves GB

Friends, do not be angry with the vast majority of Americans. We are not pleased with what Obama is doing in our country, your country or the world. It is a dark day for all of us. God Bless.

martin alexander

167 perished on Piper Alpha...not 162. Regards

Martyn Rowe

Brittney and American who loves GB.

Thank God you still love us. I'd hate to think I'll ever be banned from ever visiting Vegas.

Now that would be serious.

Streeter

Check this out: www.seizebp.org. Worrying, or hilarious, depending on your point of view.

Neil Turner

"But to listen to Obama, it is as if a few blokes from Stoke-on-Trent sailed over, and drilled a wildcat well – then buggered off and left Uncle Sam to suffer all the damage"

Well said Fraser.

I think the wheels are coming off Obama's wagon, and everyone knows it

Removing Churchill's bust from the oval office was a statement of intent. Obama hates the Brits

THX1138

Well in America, you know the place where they are actually having to deal with the huge environmental disaster caused by BP, rather scribble anti American bile on blogs..

CNN did some polling and guess what?

Q- Do you agree with Rand Paul that President Obama is being too tough on BP?

No-87%

Yes-13%

Not much sympathy for BP in that poll, is there!

PS you should have seen how quickly the GOP ran in the opposite direction to Tea Party loons Rand Paul 's remarks on Good Morning America..

Beer Moth

The bond between America and Britain will be here when Obama isn't.

The coming activities of Obama's companions will make it stronger.

Ian Walker

It's Obama personally that has a problem with Britain. Most Americans I know, including a few of the Washington set, are absolutely appalled by his weasel words.

Maybe Cameron should send a copy of Love Actually to Obama? Region 1 of course...

Steven

Not only should the government not extradite Gary McKinnon but they should employ him to hack into foreign computers and disclose the double dealing, incompetent administration for what they are. Dump a few more files on remote Russian computers for the blogosphere to go through.

wound-up

Don't make it so bleeding complicated....

Haywood does not actually come over well in this situation .... and that's now consensual. (but in other respects of course he's extremely accomplished).

He's not what BP needs now actually to survive. Pay him very very well to go, but just do it and then get in someone who will look right and act the part requred.

On Andrew Marr I couldn't help thinking Haywood's default expression was a smirk. That's about as unfortunate as it can get!

Hysteria

Some of you may be interetsed in this - an email passed to me from a friend here (Some of you may remember I am in the oil business in Houston)- this is from an eye-witness - interesting

"Hello All, I have received several emails from friends and family asking about the oil spill. I had managed to avoid getting involved until last hitch. i came home last night from a 10 day hitch flying for BP from their base at Houma, La. They have 56 aircraft working the oil spill. I worked the Venice, La and the Grand Isle area where the president likes to visit. The news people have blown everything out of proportion and lots of untruths. The report that no one was cleaning up Grand Isle beach for one, Yesterday there was 200-300 men on the beach cleaning up what little oil was there.

I have been flying the Coast Guard around checking the bird sanctuaries. They are protected by booms that prevent oil getting on the small islands in the area. The famous pelican that was on all they news cvhannells was on Queen Bess Island. it is the size of about two city blocks and had one spot of oil about 10 feet long. The stupid pelican decided to land in this spot. There are more there more than 10,000 birds nesting on this island and he is the only one with oil. Some area to the east are worse but not as bad as made out. The oil for the most part is still offshore. it will come onshore some time but BP is fighting with more than 300 boats cleaning and putting out booms. There are probably 50 million birds in southern Louisiana and 53 comfirmed dead, Not the thousands as reported.

I Know it will get worse but it irritates me at the news medias slanting of the news.

I noticed that when Obama came to town, he waved his arms but nothing improved. I guess he lost his majic touch.

I just wanted to pass along an eyewitness report., I dont know where I will be next hitch, but we are short senior Captains so probably back to the spill. If so I will update my report later"

"

Phil Hennessey

Obama is trying to save his own 'ass at the expense of BP. How irresponsible of him to say such things as "I believe BP has ignored safety procedures" - & "if so-and-so worked for me, I would fire him": this is prejudging the issue.

Verity

"The famous pelican that was on all they news cvhannells was on Queen Bess Island. it is the size of about two city blocks...". Wow! That is some pelican!

Just kidding, Hysteria. Thanks so much for the report from your friend. Obama is an ignorant asshat.

Steven

There can be no special relationship with this President. Cameron would improve his and the UK's standing in the world by calling out this emperors new clothes for what they are - nothing. Disengage from Afghanistan (it's not our war and we can't afford it) and let Obama deal with Iran by 'talking to them' (again, why is this the UK's issue). After 2012, maybe the US will elect someone with stature and an ability to get things done, not an empty piece of paper that people project their own hopes and dreams on to.

TGF UKIP

It's not just that it's BP and can be termed British Petroleum, the invective would be just as vicious and the smearing just as intense if it was an American company. Obama hates and wants to destroy capitalism and for him and his fellow marxists, oil companies in particular represent everything they wish to demonise.Indeed if it was AP and not BP the chances are that moves would be afoot to bring the company directly under government control.

It is not understood over here just who and what Obama is.

Derek

The BBC is calling BP "the British energy giant" this morning on the world service. Is it or isn't it? And if it isn't, why is the BBC saying that it is?

Andrew Cadman

Fraser, what makes me utterly despair is the way some people like yourself still cling to the demeaning fiction of a 'Special Relationship'.

Your like a woman suffering from s deep unrequited love: no matter how much humiliation you receive, you insist that the object of your affections loves you despite all evidence to the contrary. It has never existed.

Tell me Fraser….

Where was the ‘Special Relationship’ when America ripped us off for every penny they could under lend-lease?
Where was the ‘Special Relationship’ when America put us under great pressure to deconolise after the Second World War?
Where was the ‘Special Relationship’ in the Suez crisis?
Where was the ‘Special Relationship’ during The Troubles in Northern Ireland?
Where was the ‘Special Relationship’ when the Americans invaded Grenanda?

The best die-hard believers like yourselves can come up with is Casper Weinberger’s Anglophile policies in the Falklands War…and even that rings pretty hollow given the State department advocated neutrality at best at the time and recent American pronouncements on the subject.

Its time people like you woke up and smelt the coffee as Americans themselves say: if you did a poll you’d find out that a vanishing number of people believe this rubbish anymore. Just ask Tim Mongomerie of ConservativeHome if you don’t believe me, who was pretty shocked by the ereponse he got to this question a few months back when he put it to his readership.

I think its time you put the same question to your readership.

Rue de la Loi

Reports so far about Cameron's reaction are not exactly encouraging despite the fact that, as others have noted, damaging BP means damaging the pensions of many in the UK (and elsewhere). Worst of all, the DT reports that "Lord Freud, [whoever he is] the pensions minister, told peers that pension funds may be held responsible for failing to properly scrutinise BP"
The notion that a minister in even a diluted Conservative administration could suggest that operational responsibility for one of BP's thousands of installations somehow rests with pension funds invested in BP rather than BP management is prfoundly depressing. The minister for pensions seems to think his brief is to reduce the value of pensions. Is Brown's assault on British pensions to be continued by other means?

Edmund Jerk

Obama will keep on twisting the knife and passing the blame, he has to or else this becomes his Katrina.

Edward Sutherland

Just watched Hunt's abject performance on Question Time re the President's anti-British invective over BP. If that's the best statement our government can come up with on this issue, then BP might as well chuck in the towel and file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection right now.

David Lindsay

There has never been a Special Relationship. Get over this weird fantasy, and learn some self-respect.

As for BP, the problem is precisely that the B no longer stands for British. If BP were still British Petroleum, an arm of the British State, then it could not conceivably have put itself in a position where this might have happened.

Tony P

Disappointed in Obama he has decended into childish and dangerous name calling to support his own domestic political position this is a very sad sight for the "leader of the free world" I expected better. As for our special relationship its a delusion, in many ways UK needs to get away from this stuff and concentarate on doing what is best for the people of the UK

ndm

Fraser Nelson writes:

-- Obama is talking about stopping BP dividends - £1 in every £6 paid in dividends in Britain comes from BP. To damage BP's dividend payment scheme is to damage British pensioners: you can't just hit a 'company' without hitting either its customers, or its investors (in this case, several million British pension savers).

Interestingly, (and predictably, The Spectator being a Conservative rag) Fraser Nelson is worried about the effect on BP shareholders but not on BP workers each of whom has a far greater committment to the company than the vast majority of individual (pensioner) shareholders. The cleanup may well cost BP billions of dollars and perhaps force the company into bankruptcy. Given that circumstance, it is reasonable to suppose that this is not the most propitious time for BP to issue a dividend - indeed it looks more like a (perhaps) final effort to distribute funds from the coroporate treasury while the current management still has control of the assets.

Fraser Nelson would do well to understand the opening paragraph of Justin Lahart's article in today's Wall Street Journal:

-- U.S. companies are holding more cash in the bank than at any point on record, underscoring persistent worries about financial markets and about the sustainability of the economic recovery.

A BP genuinely committed to cleaning up its mess would not and should not be distributing cash to shareholders,

Verity

The Daily Mail on Friday refers to BP as "the stricken British giant".

Derek, we are both far overseas and are not in touch on a daily basis with the ignorance and awesome stupidity of the British MSM and their indoctrinated readers. By which I mean, we read the daily papers on an occasional basis, but we are not bombarded with the state mouthpiece, the BBC. At least, to my credit, I'm/i> not... the thought of tuning into the sleazy World Service filling me with revulsion.

Verity

Could the ridiculous heir to Blair stop with the Italianate habit of talking with his hands? Please? It is not British. The sight of Obama and Camoron in front of a mike with their hands dramatically identically poised looked like the opening chords of an aging boy group on a comeback tour. "Don't walk away from me Renée!" (spin round).

THX1138

TGF I was in Beverly Hills for 10 days over Easter, (because, I love America and go when ever I can) and I have to say if Obama wants to destroy American capitalism he's made a very bad start.

The free market seems in very rude health to me, judging by the shops, the flash cars (not a Lada in sight) and I bought plenty of consumer goodies and without a queuing, apart from in the Apple store for my ipad. Barneys and Neimarn Marcus hadn't been nationalized and the L'Ermitage still carried 20 different types of bottled water, and amazingly it still accepted my Amex card when we checked out.

He'd better pull his finger if he want to turn the USA into a marxist state, after all he's only got six years left and after such a terrible start it's gonna be a very close call.

Hysteria

anyone on the Spectator web team care to comment on why the count for posted comments has gone down from 70'ish to to just over 50 in the space of the last few hours? What was removed? And Why?

Archie

It should be obvious to anyone with even a partially functioning brain that Obama has shown hostility to Britain from the first day of his presidency, and now that his approval ratings are plummeting spectacularly, what better way to try and recover some kudos than to bash a perceived foreign company, no matter that some 40% of it is owned by the Yanks. I think the money men will soon be having a word with him as it is obvious that Cameron isn't up to the job!

Commentator

Edward, I'm afraid that Hunt is yet another Oxford PPE graduate: a well-healed tyro long cocooned from the harsh reality of life and now cast adrift in a man's world. Correction: he is one of Dave's mates so by definition "incredibly bright".

If the US Government does to BP what it did to Arthur Andersen, then not only are a lot of British (and US) pension funds going to be a lot emptier and a lot more people unemployed but Boy George will have a much bigger hole to fill on June 22nd. I'm afraid that our Prime Minister seems to be asleep at the switch. Where's Cleggover by the way? He seems to have done a Gordon, leaving others to take the heat.

biggestaspidistra

"BP has not – for many years – stood for British Petroleum’ – you won’t find the two words anywhere in its annual report."

Are we allowed to know what HSBC stands for, or how Allianz, my new home insurance company, made its money? This is almost BBCspeak Fraser.

First with banking and now with oil, when things go wrong capitalists suddenly want the benefits of socialism. Man up coffeehousers, you risked your money, they were careless and now you lose.

Derek

Meanwhile, Debka reports that there is certainly a healthy relationship of some kind with its headline today:

"US, France, UK practice aerial strikes in time with feeble sanctions against Iran".

http://www.debka.com/article/8844/

Dual Citizen

I agree with @wound-up that Haywood doesn't look good in this.

I remember when Piper Alpha blew up the American CEO immediately flew to Britain and wrote a cheque for a million pounds of his own money. OK that was to help the families of the 167 victims (compared to 11 here). But it was an immediate response and demonstrated that he cared.

Not quite the same as going before Congress and trying to blame the other blokes.

THX1138

I agree with biggestaspidistra, if you want someone to blame when your investments go south, look in the mirror and then call your fund manager.

I see the CEO of RSA (no longer stands for Royal Sun Alliance, it would appear) was bleating on about BP in The Times this morning, If you've lost money it's your fault not Obama's, your company invested the money.

One of my Asian hedge funds lost 12% net in May, should I go whining to the Chinese government because they changed the law out of the blue, and that badly effected a major property holding? No.. I believe in markets and you take it on the chin and accept the losses and cheer the profits.

Cameron was right when he said, he.. “completely understands” America’s frustration with the company.

Where was The Spectator leader and the CH outrage when the Bush Government was throwing all sorts of populist BS at the French because they got it right about Iraq.. Freedom fry , anyone!

Fergus Pickering

He's no good for us. We must hope the US's good sense sees to i that they ditch the windbag next time round.

2trueblue

Boudicca, the extradition treaty should never have been signed and should no longer be accepted by the UK government. Any such unilateral agreements are not acceptable. America presently are supporting the Agentinians.What is all that about? Forget the special relationship, it is skin deep, and only for show at cocktail party situations.

Obama should bone up on Alpha Piper and Bhopal. Mostly he should take lessons on diplomacy. The Americans are great people but are very parochial and easy to persuade with rhetoric. Grow up Obama, you are in grave danger of being racist.

Geoff Miller

Obama has a history of anti-British sentiment.

He claims that his sainted father (bigamist, alcoholic and wife beater)was tortured by the British.This is unproven . What is proven is that the British educated him to a standard that allowed him to go to an American University.

Obama's first act upon entering the White House was to have Winston Churchill's bust removed.

He ritually humiliated Gordon Brown and now he is trying to destroy our biggest company and ruin the pensions of millions of people.

Cameron had better come out fighting.

Withdraw our troops and sue the Fed and American financial regulators/Institutions for selling the world dud bonds, based upon crap lending, that were falsely rated in order to shift their bad debts onto the rest of the world whilst allowing poor Democrat voters to live the high life on "Pennies from Heaven".

We, and I include the rest of the world, need to gang up on America and show them they are not the super power they think they are.

Mike

I don't believe there's any anti British feeling towards us from the majority of Americans and being married to one and having many friends over there I'm sorry the ACCIDENT that occurred caused so much pollution.

Unfortunately, when you get a left wing socialist like Obama who like Brown enjoys spending others tax dollars, you know it doesn't bode well for the future or for those against him. His start in life is questionable to say the least as his birth place is unsubstantiated by any normal records. He is a career socialist with previous links to radical groups in America although attempts have been made to air brush that out and his actual achievements before becoming President are scant and unproven. The only reason he was elected was because of the black vote by using exactly the same stunts as African leaders like Mugabe by promising everything to his 'flock' even though he knew he wouldn't deliver. Now the real truth is out and his approval ratings are in the toilet, he behaves in the manner of all socialist leaders that are in denial over the facts. They haven't got anything constructive to give but IMMEDIATELY set the spin machine in motion to distance themselves for any possible blame even when none has been directed in their direction.

Obama knee jerked and brought racism to the fore when a white policeman justifiably arrested a drunk black professor and its no different here when he opened mouth but didn't engage brain before carrying out some vindictive Brit bashing. President Bush was perhaps a little late in responding to hurrican Katrina and took a lot of stick over it. Obama is lashing out before the facts are known even though his own administration demanded deep water off shore drilling instead of safer shallow water. Obama was more concerned with his liberal eco nutters and their crass programs than supplying Americas insatiable thirst for oil from safer sources. Any hi-tech operation be it the space shuttle or drilling one mile down carries with it a high risk as we've seen before but Obama is in denial here and wants it every which way the wind might blow.

The only consolation is that in another 2 years America may well be rid of its socialist President & government, and a lot quicker than it took Britain to remove our socialist scum at Westminster.

Ahmed Khan

The so called 'special relationship' has been on a slippery slope since the Americans sitched us up during the Suez crisis.

It is time to sever links with a country whose entire strategy is based on double-standards.

Instead of living in the shadows of the Americans, we need to re-connect with our culture and identity and in doing so put the 'Great' back into Britain.

TomTom

THX1138 is completely wrong. To attack BP and not Transocean, not Halliburton, not Cameron is to prejudice any trial. Obama is supposed to be a lawyer yet he is making Judicial decisions as Executive and that is a violation of the US Constitution.

He is trying to browbeat a corporation as he browbeat the bondholders of General Motors and tried to browbeat the City of Cambridge Police Department.

This is the way Vladmir Putin and Chavez operate and reflects very badly on US democracy. Maybe Britain should ask why Merrill Lynch parked all its tax losses in the UK and why Goldman Sachs is under investigation for criminal conspiracy.

It is time that Obama acted like a US President rather than an African dictator

oldtimer

The "special relationship" is little more than a comfort blanket for UK politicians trying to big themselves up on the world stage.

It is clear from his several actions and speeches that Obama dislikes the UK - so going on about the "special relationship" is, if anything, counterproductive. The only thing that counts is interests.

BP is responsible, via its contractors, for the accident and for clearing it up. It seems to me that that is what they are engaged in doing. It will cost a few £billion. BP can pay that kind of cash. I suspect there may also be an oil industry self insurance fund around somewhere on which they can call. There certainly used to be one as, some years ago, on a transatlantic flight, I happened to sit next to a senior executive of the company set up to manage the fund. He told me it was specifically set up by the oil industry majors to provide insurance against catastrophic oil spills.

But for the CGT uncertainties, I would seriously consider investing in BP about now. My guess is that the share price will recover over a two to three year time span. I bought Shell when they were in deep turd over their mis-declared reserves a few years back. It turned out to be a timely buy. Failing that there is always the takeover prospect.

As for Obama`s motives, they are obvious with the forthcoming congressional elections - kick a foreigner when he is down. Whether this is smart politics in the wider world is entirely another matter. I suspect it is not.

PayDirt

Fraser_ this is an unnecessary slur on the blokes of Stoke-on-Trent. Why not Stockton, Stoke Poges, Sunderland or even Sunbury (BP HQ)... I will cancel my Spectator subscription immediately!

Thucydides

There’s a lot of bollocks on this thread, with paulg’s of yesterday the most outstandingly stupid, particularly the stuff about the commonwealth.

I thought we might have seen the last of the “Obama is a closet Marxist” lines, but sadly it appears not. I expect we’ll soon have all the stuff that goes with it – he’s a foreigner, really and a muslim etc. I hold no particular candle for Obama, but one thing he ain’t is a Marxist.

Obama’s posturing is politics – you know, like what politicians do. It doesn’t seem to me to be particularly anti-British, just anti-non-American.

Alan Blair

Obama is playing a dangerous game which will come back to haunt him. All his comments are doing is increasing the costs of doing business in the US. This will have a serious impact on future investment, insurance rates and economic flexibility. My good friend, who was at High School with Obama, told me months ago that he was certainly not the brightest boy in the class. By his rhetoric this week Obama is making George W appear enlightened

Verity

"put the 'Great' back into Britain." says Ahmad Kahn, who doesn't seem to know that "Great" is a geographical term in this instance. Great means big and the term came about to distinguish big Britain from Brittany, or little Britain, in France.

YouCannotBeSerious!

Your postings are normally more measured than this Fraser. Obama is anti-BP, not anti-British. Does you really think that his behaviour would have been any different if this reckless incompetence had been caused by a company based in any other country? Of course it wouldn't. Calm down.

Sam Hussey

You people are fools. Blacks are half the population of Brazil. We are millions in Latin America and our culture has permeated every level there. You talk about Obama. But you need be very careful.
You have no power anymore. The same goes to Europe.

JONNY

Wot?
Obama fast becoming 'an American version of John Prescott'?
What total moron came up with that one?
Come on. Own up.

DJPNZ

We've been collating the evidence of Obama's use of BP as his patsy on www.bpbarackspatsy.wordpress.com for the last week now. What is interesting is the volume of Amercians who have been writing in to apologise for their president.

We also received one email from a lady who was the wife of a BP employee in America, they are both American, they are proud to work for BP and proud of their CEO and his valiant attempts to steer a path through the minefield that is US politics in the mid-term.

What is clear is that Obama is not a DIY kind of guy, he's a cerebral sort of person, one more disposed to hire someone to fix a problem. What's more, I doubt whether his mind fully understands what's happening out there on the same kind of level that Tony Hayward does, for example. It is, in my view, that inability to understand matters which defy logic, after so many attempts to close the leak have failed - to Obama, this is incompetence, to the industry, this is problem is at the limit of their capability. However. it was presidential intervention that stopped BP doing what it is doing now, six weeks ago. In effect, muddled thinking and lack of understanding by the President has exacerbated the problem.

Add to his lack of understanding Obama's inability to behave as leaders should in times of crisis - cool, calm, unflappable, determined and bold. In fact everything that Tony Haywood, BP's CEO - who is held in as much contempt these days by Americans as Osama Bin Laden - is.

Obama has an issue with Britain. This is in his blood, his race and his deep seated thinking about his roots. The incarnation of everything he despises in Britain and about Britishness is epitomised by Tony Hayward - a man with a clipped voice, a stiff upper lip and a lack of visible emotion, a man taught at Eton, for an Empire that no longer exists.

There is nothing Tony Hayward can do to change how Americans view him, but Obama will make as much capital out of him as he can, to cover up his own inadequacies that are all too obvious, even more so since this disaster has gripped the nation.

Next week, like Daniel into the Lion's Den, Hayward will appear before a Congressional committee. It won't be pleasant, but he'll no doubt play a straight bat and whatever he says will be attacked. The President has already set the scene.

With the announcement today that the US wants Britain to enter into negotiations with Argentina over the Falklands, one gets the feeling they're beginning to toy with us, like the poodle we have become. We need to show that we've got teeth and we can still be ferocious when we want to be, but sadly. it's becoming quite apparent and hard to see David Cameron barking and snarling for British interests.

JONNY

This is fast becoming a crude anti-Obama anti-US rant.
Bit like a mouse screaming blue murder at a leopard.

DJPNZ

And in the very analogy you use lies the contempt in which Obama's administration holds the UK.

Most people would claim to have been pro-American, am sure, but after the way Obama has been behaving towards the UK, the views expressed in this column come as no surprise.

Ahmed Khan

Verity – If you must ‘nitpick’ do make sure you spell my name correctly. I thought you were intelligent but am obviously wrong. For your information when I say ’Great’ what I mean is that the image aboard of ‘Great Britain’ is a GREAT country, and not an old hated colonial power playing a 'poddle' role to America.

Are you ‘Fabian Solutions’ in disguise?

Archie

A pedant writes: "Why does everyone have a problem spelling Tony HayWARD?"

Verity

Mike - I am sick to death of this lie: "President Bush was perhaps a little late in responding to hurrican Katrina and took a lot of stick over it."

You are ignorant.

THREE TIMES over the course of THREE DAYS, President Bush called corrupt Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco and asked for permission to send in troops. TWICE SHE REFUSED because she was too busy divvying up deals for reconstruction with her contractor friends (the ones who had built the inadequate levies in the first place). When they'd got a deal nailed down, the next time - THE THIRD TIME - Mr Bush called from the White House, she agreed that troops could be sent in.

Mr Bush had had them waiting on the border, and the minute she said yes, he called the wonderful black general, General Honoré, and he gave the order to roll. He was actually directing the troops from a freeway overpass on his mobile.

Do not talk absolute lefty garbage about President Bush not responding to Hurricane Katrina. He did as much as any president could do. What you may not know, is that no troops on duty may enter a state without the permission of that state's governor.

This lie absolutely infuriates me.

TGF UKIP

Verity's little Numberplate, TomTom sums up the matter pretty well.

Incidentally, noting your Beverley Hills adventures, have you spotted yet that the Eye, as well as Tarq and Jez, has based still another strip cartoon on THX 1138?

yank

You Brits really don't get what's going on over here. Really, you don't.

First off, again, stop whining about the "British" angle here. The empire's dead and gone. No need to defend a corpse, because it's dead. It won't notice if you remain silent concerning attacks on a multinational corporation that once had direct ties to that corpse. The multinational is owned by everybody. All suffer, not just you. Stop whining.

BP would be getting pilloried no matter who they were, it just happens to be BP's turn in the stock. They've drawn the short straw here, and were incompetent enough to bungle both the game and their exploration methods, so as to ensure they'd draw that short straw. They must pay for their incompetence.

Obama took at least $1M campaign cash from BP, and BP was helping to organize his global warming foolishness, and paying many millions of dollars in doing so. They rebranded themselves as "Beyond Petroleum" here, and put thousands of advertisements on television, like they were manufacturing honey and butterflies or something... not that dirty oil. What a bunch of fools. Like any of us didn't recognize what was taking place, and the shameless purchase of political influence, supporting a kooky agenda.

They would be Obama's corporate green warriors. BP... the saviors of the planet and stalwart protectors against that evil carbon dioxide. Sign right here.

Well guess what, BP is just a petrochem company, with their nose foolishly stuffed into politics, and they suddenly uncorked a gusher, 5,000 feet below sea level. How's that hopey changey greenie Obama-supporting nonsense working out for you now, Mr. Hayward, you ignorant buffoon?

Your benefactors standing shoulder to shoulder with you in your newly invented green personna, just like you told the BP Board of Directors they would?

You reap as you sow. Hayward and BP joined this Obama rabble, and now it's gone cockeyed, and the rabble have headed for the tall grass, and in fact are heaping scorn on the same people they once cashed checks from. How fitting.

Obama is a corporatist... he's looking to harness and control the power of big corporations to enable his socialist ends. It's horribly wrong, and those who participate in that horror deserve to get burned. Do you Brits still hang/draw/quarter people? Hayward merits all of that. You should toss that litter into the dumpster, in the meantime.

And don't worry about Obama, we'll deal with him soon enough.

Verity

Yank, what an excellent, informative and entertaining post! I hope we hear from you again soon!

arpanet

What a load of petulant nonsense. Maybe you should direct your manufactured outrage at British papers like The Telegraph, which in August of 2009 used the same name for the company in a story on how the oil industry was organizing protests against climate change legislation. "A leaked internal American Petroleum Institute document sent to British Petroleum, Exxon Mobil, Chevron and other institute members revealed that the rallies were designed to send "a loud message" to the Senate," intoned The Telegraph.

A story by a different writer in the financial section of the paper, meanwhile, rated the stock of "British Petroleum" a hold at 483p, noting that "earnings materialised ahead of expectations, with management's aggressive cost cutting measures really kicking in." Well done.

Or how about one of your own writers, who just a couple weeks ago attacked the U.S. government's response to the spill by saying "the United States government is hardly equipped to deal with this kind of rare event and, for that matter, has no greater incentive to deal with it than does British Petroleum."

Wait, aren't you supposedly the editor of this paper? Do you read it? I guess I have no choice but to jump to the natural conclusion that The Telegraph and The Spectator hate Britain as well. I'm be publishing my own column shortly where I complain about this and important it is.

Or...could it be that maybe, just maybe, not everyone was made aware of the earth-shattering news that BP's PR wing decided to drop the original meaning associated with their company's initials around the same time they rolled out the (in retrospect, perhaps poorly conceived) "Beyond Petroleum" campaign? I, for one, as a lowly non-journalist/ non-politician who nonetheless follows current events to a degree, was not aware of it. And it didn't take me much effort to find examples of British journalists who were similarly not aware - these three examples were both pulled from the first two pages of Google results, and took me about two minutes to gather. I'm sure there are many more on both sides of the pond.

At the end of the day, rational people would probably agree that what the company is named is, of course, completely irrelevant. What is relevant is something much messier and more troubling for both of our countries. BP (let's just call it the Acronym Formerly Known As British Petroleum so no one gets upset) has utterly devastated the wildlife, tourism and fishing industry off a large area of our coast, with a spill whose total scope already covers a geographic area larger than many small countries. Both they and the U.S. government have thus far been completely unable to do anything about it, and it's likely that if they can't, no one can. The net result could be a coast that is ruined for years if not decades, financial ruin for thousands of American businesses whose livelihood depended on it, and a once-revered company that, nameless or not, could sink beneath its own nasty tide of public anger, massive clean up costs, and endless litigation.

common sense

Are the british brain dead? BP is not British Petroleum? So what if some artificial corporate entity renamed itself on its paperwork to "BP"? BP is still = British Petroleum. You british are braindead and inbred.

Terry

So they don't call themselves Britsh Petroleum the annual report? That's probably becuase they're trannsitioning through that idiotic "Beyond Petroleum" phase and on to "Best for the Planet." Abraham Lincoln famously asked "If you call the tail a leg how many legs does a dog have?" His answer? "Four, becuase calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg." They're British and their petroleum, so Obama's right.

Steven Mullaney

Is a reference to "British Petroleum" a chauvinistic or anti-British barb? Interesting, since it crops up regularly in major newspapers in the UK, too. A simple and quick Google News search turned up many instances in UK papers over the past decade where BP and British Petroleum were used interchangeably. Since I didn't know when the corporate name change happened, I went for the first one I found in coverage of the first days of the spill in April. Here's the Guardian story: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/23/deepwater-horizon-oil-rig-gulf
Third sentence: "The British Petroleum-operated Deepwater Horizon burned ferociously for nearly two days before sinking yesterday." The US is not anti-British in this; I hope the press in the UK halts this kind of blatantly hypocritical self-righteousness, which many people in the UK are taking as fact and as a sign that the US harbors ill-will toward the British. Not at all--no more than the Times or the Guardian or the many other papers in the UK that also use the old and the new names interchangeably.

Christian Bradaigh-Dallett

The outrage over Washington's use of British Petroleum is ridiculous.
What does 'BP' stand for? The company was incorporated in the U.K. It's directors are largely recruited from the U.K. It's CEO is Scottish. For generations it has been a symbol of Great Britain's post-empire strength and might. The fact that their corporate malfeasance has blemished the UK's reputation is not a concern for Americans. Kowtowing to British sentiment ended over two hundred years ago. Perhaps British sentiment should be directed in reigning in its rogue corporate entity, instead of making PR flap over its company name. Regardless of British sentiment, America has to deal with an ecological disaster, the scale of which is incomprehensible, due in total part to a reckless 'British' corporation and its mismanagement. It is my hope British Petroleum is put in receivership to insure the cleanup and compensation to businesses and individuals. As such time, it would cease to be in business. The name BP and/or British Petroleum will no longer be an issue.

Verity

What does BP stand for? The initials stand for Beyond Petroleum, in a little curtsy to the green lobby, which is dying on its feet. Really bad decision.

I thought its CEO was Swedish?

Anyway, I wish we could stop referring to this phantom "special relationship". Given the sleazebag they voted into office of their own free will, why would anyone want a special relationship with them?

Christian Bradaigh-Dallett

Carl-Henric Svanberg, the Chairman, is Swedish. Tony Hayward is the CEO. Barack Obama is the President, and not a sleazebag. Beyond Petroleum is an ad campaign, and is not the incorporated name for British Petroleum in the United States, or anywhere, for that matter. Now that terms have been established, why don't we hold to them.

A more typically minded Yank

Obviously BP is a multi-national corporation. One commentator over here put it well when he remarked that if it were a nation devastating our USA shores and waters in this way, we'd be at war. But when it's international capitalists, all will ultimately be forgiven.

The irony though is that all you Brits--by whining about "BP" being called "British Petroleum" (what else then does "BP" stand for, trying to hide behind initials?)--have merely drawn more attention to the Britishness of BP, thereby attracint more U. S. hostility to BP and to you Brits. While you whine about semantics and pension impacts, try to imagine if a U. S.-founded corportation were oiling your coastlines, moreso every day? Would you be sitting around nitpicking about semantics?

As an Irishman, it reminds me of the Great Hunger of 1845-51, when your leaders sat idly by, with the attitude that the subhuman Irish had brought it all on itself, rather than as set up by a British-enforced anti-Irish Penal Age that forced the Irish into the overpopulation and potato-dependency that killed over a million people and caused more than another million to emigrate, many of them dying in the process. The first British apology came in 1997, 150 years after the Hunger.

By the way, when we want your votes on our president, we'll ask for them. Better stick to you whines about effects on the British economy and your pension plans, while BP continues to destroy more and more of our eastern shores, with the PB CEO coming on our airwaves over here reassuring us that all will be jolly good. The huge fees for such ads should be much better spent on their ineffectual attemps to stop and clean up the disaster.

KD

The words "British Petroleum" may not be found in their 2009 annual report, but currently on their website is a 2007 company newsletter that gushes with British nationalism and imagery. "With its distinct British heritage, BP is as much a part of the UK landscape as football, tea drinking and the Royal Family." The contributing writer concludes with "Fast forward again to the year 2050. Employees may not remember where the "B" in BP came from, but Britain will still play it's part in this global corporation." BP can bask in their British heritage, but we're not allowed to say the "B" word?

Bill

Let me see if I understand you correctly. The arrogance and negligence of a major oil company has cost the lives of 11 Anerican citizens and has devastated a US regional economy still not recovered from a previous disaster to the tune of perhaps $16 billion and you are worried about what exactly? That the President and some of his representatives have at times chosen to use the full name of that company rather than its acronym? If your views in any way reflect the majority in Britain, then I daresay that there is no special relationship at all. If you don't have anything helpful to say, then don't say anything.

higheidyin

Newsflash - There isn’t, wasn’t or ever will be a special relationship. Britain is like some old batty dame forever asking her younger more virile lover, "do you love me?", "how much do you love me?” It’s so pathetic.

muldrake

I live in the US, and I would like to apologize for the man who is sitting in the office of the Presidency.

He is systematically destroying US relations with every ally we have, Great Britain being its strongest.

He is fundamentally transforming America, apologizing all over the globe for America, and alienating our allies.

I, and many US citizens, believe he should be impeached.

Again, I apologize for the grief the oil spill accident has caused everyone, and all Americans do not blame the UK.

Gregory Peterson

It is being noted on this side of the Atlantic (Florida) that BP has been utterly disingenuous about the extent of the disaster. Their motive is obvious. They have acted like arrogant scoundrels. I suggest that the Brits should cringe with a bit of self-revulsion.

I for one do not appreciate the imminent murder of thousands of dolphins.

Al Mat

David Cameron will not dare reciprocate Obama's perceived hostility as no one (for sure not Jolly Old UK) dares mess with the US. For all you brits, where have you been living? The British Empire is long gone...nobody cares about the BRITs anymore. People are more concerned about the rising power and influence of the BRIC nations. Look at the UK today. They are world beaters in nothing but empty rhetoric

ndm

Michael Tomasky who writes of America for the Guardian puts this entire brouhaha in its place:

-- I was astounded over the weekend as the piece I wrote Friday stayed on the most viewed and most commented lists with Gagaesque dominance. I swear to you, British friends, most Americans still haven't even heard of this alleged controversy. I guess it's pretty impressive the kind of frenzy the right-wing media (yours in this case) can whip up. And as I said on C-SPAN this morning, sure, if I were a British pensioner I'd be concerned about my portfolio but I think I'd also understand that the criticism of BP was kind of deserved. (my emphasis)

The only Americans who have heard of this controversy are the ones who read the British press. It is an entirely phoney controversy.

Macburger52

An American here . . . why are the Brits taking this so personally? Americans don't hate England; we hate British Petroleum because it is an unethical and irresponsbile, money-hungry monster that is destroying our Gulf Coast. This is not about England. I didn't think England's identity as a nation was so tied up with an oil company. England, oh England! Get a grip.