Attack on BP Liz Seddon 10 June 2010 The attacks on BP and their inability to stem the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has taken on a personal tone since president Barack Obama and other US politicians have consistenly critised its chairman,Tony Hayward, accusing him of being incompetent. The president went as far as to say that if he worked for him he would be sacked. It is not helpful for the president to refer to BP as British Petroleum as it has been BP, a multinational company for some years now with a large part of it owned by the US. In fact BP employs 23.000 people in the US, 15.000 in the UK. A fact Mr Obama would do well to remember. His comments have whipped up anger in the UK and politicians and businesses leaders are now voicing their disapproval of the anti-British Petroleum comments. It is understandable that Mr Obama is under tremendous pressure. The US economy is at an all time low. But here we need to remember that the US banks were instrumental in the global recession. The collapse of a global housing bubble, which peaked in the U.S. in 2006, caused the values of securities tied to real estate pricing to plummet thereafter, damaging financial institutions globally. Would attacking US banks solve the problem? I think not and would do nothing to foster good relations between the two countries. See also There has been protest
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