Oil Stand By You

A potentially divisive cloud on the horizon right now for Anglo-Yank relations, and an issue which, although not likely to tip it into an all-out, nuke-firing fracas, seems to be adding extra strain to the general bonhomie of our two nations, much like a bulging gut pressing against the elasticated waistband of a pair of Kappa tracksuit bottoms.

But enough about my own weight-gain problems, it seems that BP CEO Tony Hayward is in a spot of bother and will certainly have to come up with some slick manouvres if he doesn’t want to find himself tarred and feathered and run out of Dodge. Tarred and feathered, in fact, like much of the aquatic wildlife in Louisiana right now. I saw a photograph of a black slimy pelican the other day. Pelicans aren’t meant to be black and slimy. It made me sad.

President Obama has been lambasting British Petroleum left, right and centre in response. Tough on oil spills, tough on the causes of oil spills, although whether this is largely a knee-jerk reaction to the chorus of disapproving voices back at home, bemoaning his handling of the affair and his apparent inability to project anger, is unclear.

It seems that he is damned either way, a vast swathe of American’s, even the renowned political commentator and blacksploitation filmmaker Spike Lee, have been speaking out about the President’s lack of fighting talk, Lee wishing that Obama would ‘go off’ on BP about the spill. US comedian Bill Maher, on the other hand suggested that Obama should go into the meetings with BP executives and lift his shirt to reveal a gun in his waistband.

On the flipside, when Barack does get nasty, emphasizing the word ‘British’ of British Petroleum in his speeches and spitting it out as if it was a cardamom pod hidden in a mouthful of pilau rice, everyone on this side of the Atlantic sits up, takes notice and berates the poor man. Boris Johnson, for example (who happens to be on my list of 500, so maybe I can question him on the subject if/when I meet him) recently stated:

“The best thing now is not to get into too much name-calling and buck-passing, and attempt to damage the reputation of a great British company, but to work together to sort it out,”

So whether B.O. should get nasty with BP or should cut them some slack, is open to anyone’s interpretation. I suppose his primary duty is to the interests of his nation and countrymen, but whatever one’s views on the subject happen to be, it seems that this is one story that is going to run and run.

….Much like the oil, sadly.