So who deserves to suffer for these lamentable lapses of best practice in public relations?

Top execs? I think we can safely assume that Mr Hayward will be pursuing career challenges in a new field before long.

The wicked shareholders?

Hang on…… aren’t BP’s shareholders all our pension funds?

Like other lefties here, you just can’t resist being gleeful about a company getting into trouble. Yet that’s probably your own money going down the toilet.

It does.

Though referring to it as “British Petroleum” when its name was changed to just BP after merging with Amoco – BP now employs 25,000 in the US versus 10,000 here and has same amount of shares held in US as here – was pathetic.

Obama has though apparently told Cammo he won’t do it again!

What about if an American oil rig blew up in the North Sea and killed 170, mostly British, workers? I’m sure lots of anti-Americanism would be stirred up… oh, wait, it wasn’t.

The oil spill does indeed offer an opportunity to kick BP up the ass and I hope raises awareness of what oil companies have been doing in in Nigeria for decades.

Flowerpower is partly correct, the reduced dividends will be used as another reason to cut our pensions. However, I am sure the City of London will still be raking in huge profits from the management of such funds.

Rather than defending huge multinationals such as BP and the City, we should examine how it is that workers’ have to pay more money into pensions, which have generally worsened over the decade, while the financial sector, where the money resides, goes from strength to strength.

It’s a bit like all that money we so generously gave the banks to bail them out and then they turn round and demand our services, pay and pensions are cut.

What are these “pension funds” of which you speak? And what would any self-respecting, environmentally-aware individual be doing investing in one of these “pension funds” if it relied on the profits of an oil company with a poor track record of safety?

Reminds me of my university investing in BAE Systems. The student outrage was palpable.

BP screwed up, they’re going to get it – hard – and more power to the givers. Fingers crossed, the regulatory environment will be tightened up some in the wake of all this.

“The student outrage was palpable.”

Ooo-err.

Workers – though not public sector ones (yet) – have to pay more to retire at a given age because longevity has increased.

“Like other lefties here, you just can’t resist being gleeful about a company getting into trouble. Yet that’s probably your own money going down the toilet.”

Are yes, the new defence of the rich corporations. “It is poor grannies pension at stake”

Have you noticed how the international right wing rich increasingly hide behind the little people? Poor old granny is going to lose her pension if you don’t allow BP to screw up the planet. Of course the big shareholders don’t give a shit about granny or anyone else. They are only interested in their own large holdings.

They also prefer the privatisation of profits and the socialisation of costs priciple. After all, that is how Iraq has been acquired. The tax payer will pick up the bill for the war, which for Americans will be Trillions of $ , and the oil companies will enjoy the profits. So they are non to keen on any idea that they should fit the bill for clearing up the mess. Just like taxes, and morality…..clean ups are for the little people in right wing land.

It bears re-posting:

Ben Goldacre tweets:

“Dear morons: Obama bashing BP is not hurting your pension. Your fund manager misjudged the risk of investing in oil.”

Shares go down, as well as up, capisce?

BP is notorious for this. Managed to get away with it with little ol’ Nigeria. Bit different with a big powerful nation like the US of A innnit?

Student outrage is a powerful force for… umm… well, at that university, not a great deal. They still have those investments, as far as I’m aware.

About the strongest collective statement ever was when we elected a pirate as president for the SU. Got a cannon installed at a central point of campus, pointing at the VC’s office. Lovely.

Whatever you think of Obama’s ‘BRITISH Petroleum!!’ comment he really needs his head testing over the 9/11 comparison.

If Obama’s ‘the oil spill will affect the American psyche like 9/11′ means an ‘Operation Shock and Awe’ on the UK I’m all for it, so longing as: a) no civilians are killed or injured and b) it is confined to regime change, with the leader of the present regime hanged.

(I’m against capital punishment, but willing to make an exception here)

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article7149851.ece

My job sometimes sees me address seminars designed to teach businessmen how to handle the media when things go tits up in a big way

Wow, check out your socialist credentials!

Dave Osler. So far there appear to be no description of went wrong. Producing a lot hot air neither defines the sequence of events which caused the disaster nor solves the problem.

captainswing: I think you meant ‘Shell’ re Nigeria. Facts are annoying little buggers, aren’t they?

captain swing @ 9 & Sally

Dear morons: Obama bashing BP is not hurting your pension. Your fund manager misjudged the risk of investing in oil.

I should be a bit wary of Ben Goldacre’s junk economics.

Some salient facts:

1. In 2009 just five companies accounted for almost half (47%) of ALL cash dividends: HSBC, Vodaphone, GlaxoSmithkline, Shell and BP.

2. BP alone accounted for 1 in every seven pounds paid out in dividends by FTSE 100 companies. Shell and BP together accounted for 25% of dividends.

3. Partly because of 1 & 2 above, there is hardly a major pension scheme that doesn’t hold BP shares and rely on them for a big chunk of their cash income.

4. As more people are taking voluntary redundancy and early retirement these schemes need cash. If BP isn’t going to produce it, existing employees will have to make larger contributions.

This isn’t ‘granny’s pension’ Sally, it affects teachers, local government workers…. all sorts of people you ought to be concerned about.

Correct me if I’m wrong but Obama himself hasn’t said “British Petroleum”. His spokesman has done, once, but the Prez himself has said “BP” everytime I’ve heard him mention it. This is a classic case of tabloid hysteria. BP are a multinational company with loads of US shareholders. It’s not “Brit-bashing” to get pissed off at a company recklessly killing its own workers and spilling hundreds of millions of barrels of oil into the sea and destroying livelihoods. Little Englanders should grow up. BP does not care about them. It cares about the $ (not even the £!).

Both Canada and Norway carry out offshore drilling and they require relief wells to be dug, the US does not. And BP have been lobbying hard to get Canada to stop that regulation.

You see the trouble with BP is that it plays the concerned company but, behind the scenes it spend lots of cash trying to get rid of regulations. They deserve everything that get for this screw up. Too many investors just think the dividend is a given and they forgot that investing in oil is a risky business.

5. Nick

‘ Reminds me of my university investing in BAE Systems. The student outrage was palpable. ‘

It always amuses me the way some funds make a big deal over their ethical investment policy by not investing in arms manufacturers. However, they do have gilts and US Treasuries in their portfolios and the government promptly spends the money on products from err arms manufacturers.

If we accept the principle that a Chief Executive is personally responsible for the organisation. Does no one else see the irony of the Chief Executive of the world’s biggest polluter i.e. the US President, castigating others for err pollution? Glass houses and all that.

“Does no one else see the irony of the Chief Executive of the world’s biggest polluter i.e. the US President, castigating others for err pollution?”

How in the world is it hypocritical for a President who ran on a platform to cut our dependence on fossil fuels to criticize a multinational oil conglomerate who has repeatedly skirted the law and caused a huge oil spill? Why are there so many British people taking it so personally that the US, for once, is punishing a corrupt company? What is wrong with you people?

In any case, I am glad to read blogs such as this on from across the pond who are seeing through the tabloid nonsense and calling it as it really is. And to all those concerned about BP here’s a question: Do you think BP really cares about you?

Here is a slightly different perspective…