Obama’s antagonism to BP is rooted in desperation and prejudice

To all bar Tony Hayward, it is clear that BP is finished in America. A Macarthyite degree of opprobrium has been cast against the interloper. As Matthew Lynn notes, BP’s PR flunkies are grovelling across the networks, apologising in that singularly lachrymose British fashion. They should stop demeaning themselves and fight back. BP is to blame for the leak, but it is being demonised by an American President whose desperate populism and prejudice is masquerading as principled leadership; it is the latest British institution to be victimised by Barack Obama.

Owing largely to the demands of the insatiable US market – which Obama has done nothing to abate, despite his green credentials – oil exploration has never been so risky as companies drill in deeper and rougher seas. In these, the dying hours of black gold’s imperium, accidents are frequent.