Obama - Keep ya gob shut

[mattx]

I'm getting a bit fed up with Obama's rants at the moment - he is really screwing up my pension with his outbursts. Yes yes yes BP messed up, but just let them sort it out and keep your mouth shut you bleeding imbecile.

[JJonas]

James Whale said something similar during the Sky News paper review this morning.

[danrhodes]

He's just jumped on the band wagon thinking if he slates BP like the rest of the world is doing it will result in good publicity, my jaw dropped when I heard the president of one of the worlds super powers saying "I just want to know who ass to kick", I don't think thats the attitude a person in such a position should be flaunting publicly.

 

I'm sure BP are doing their upmost to avert an even bigger disaster.

Edited June 10, 2010 by danrhodes

[broc]

I am sure I read somewhere that the rig was owned and operated by an American company who are sub-contractors to BP... why is nobody going after them?

[pauljonze]

I had to laugh when I saw the news clip of him singing and dancing at the whitehouse with Paul Mcartney and co. whilst the poor folks in Louisiana trudged along beaches clogged with mud. Quite ironic when you think his image is one of cleancut campaigner for the people.

[beeswax]

I am sure I read somewhere that the rig was owned and operated by an American company who are sub-contractors to BP... why is nobody going after them?

 

Taken from the BBC website,

 

"Nor is the ownership of BP strictly British. The company is 44%-owned in the UK, split largely between 33 institutions and seven large individual investors.

But, since it is one of the UK's biggest companies and a major constituent of the FTSE 100 index, many thousands of UK private investors will have exposure to BP though tracker funds and pensions.

US investors own 39% of the company, including 25 institutional and 14 big individual investors."

[pauljonze]

I think the 'other' company in question is the insidious Halliburton co. who made so much money out of the Iraq war.

[cookie_monster]

I think the 'other' company in question is the insidious Halliburton co. who made so much money out of the Iraq war.

 

Yes stones in glass houses comes to mind.

 

 

 

He should take a look at the 'good' work that Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) did....then shut his ******* mouth.

 

Bhopal disaster - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[srochford]

Why shouldn't he speak out about companies that are destroying the planet? If presidents etc don't criticise the companies that are happy to make profits from oil extraction etc but aren't prepared to sort it out when things go wrong then we end up with situations like Bhopal.

 

Boris Johnson (aka the "Idiot Mayor") was being interviewed this morning and basically said "it was an accident; we should leave them alone" Well, this might be OK when you're talking about kids who "accidentally" kick a football through a window but it's not OK when you're spilling this quantity of oil into the sea and have been doing so for over a month!

 

BP (or whoever they want to sub-contract) should have had a proper disaster plan in place and that plan should have included all necessary equipment - we shouldn't have Tony Hayward wittering on about not having the right tools in the toolbox! It's not as if they're short of the money which would have bought those tools!!

[beeswax]

BP (or whoever they want to sub-contract) should have had a proper disaster plan in place and that plan should have included all necessary equipment - we shouldn't have Tony Hayward wittering on about not having the right tools in the toolbox! It's not as if they're short of the money which would have bought those tools!!

 

The problem is that the disaster recovery plan submitted by BP included such items as the protection of native species, such as the walrus. It is now obvious that huge chunks of a previous (Alaskan) disaster recovery plan were cut and pasted into the Gulf recovery plan. This points to the committee with responsibility for scrutinising the plan seemingly passing it on the nod, though it has been suggested that connections to "big business" could be invloved. It may also indicate that BP felt that such a poor presentation would pass through committee with their blessing.

[runcmd]

BP should compensate the millions of US citizens whose lives have been blighted by their 'cut costs to make bigger profits' business model. Yes the contractors were American but BP chose to use them because they were cheap.

[cookie_monster]

Obama should be working on changing the attitudes of his citizens towards oil first, this is an important wakeup call for Obama who until just before this had started to issue drilling rights off the USA cost, these disasters have happened all over the world be people care less when it's a third world backwater. Hopefully Americans will think that bit harder next time they're filling up the 8 litre SUV. I'm not laying the blame firmly at their feet most of the west is equally to blame but they top the excess leader board.

 

BP deserves criticism and has said that they will pay for the clean up operation, that won't be happening if Obama talks the company out of business.

[Martin]

BP deserves criticism and has said that they will pay for the clean up operation, that won't be happening if Obama talks the company out of business.

 

...and it seems that some of the Gulf Coast Americans are making a tidy profit out of the situation!

 

'I was lucky if I made $1,000 a month before the spill. Now BP pay me $1,200 a day': Fishermen make most of Gulf oil disaster.

 

mb

[Martin]

...and for all of those who are slagging off BP for "not doing enough", watch Kent Wells Technical Update - 31 May 2010 (albeit a week and a half old) to get an idea of the scale of things that they are working with and the effort that they are putting in to get a solution!

 

mb

[torledo]

oh, i get it....for the socialists it's alright for politicians to lambast large institutions like banks incessantly when they are perceived to be at fault despite the politicians doing the mudslinging and the people who support it not knowing the first thing about the industry, but poor harmless old BP when it has to shoulder responsibility should be left alone and politicians should stop whining about the environmental catastrophe... because your pensions are at stake ?

 

what kind of hypocrisy is this ?

 

obviously we identify BP as a british company so there is that defensive angle, but clearly it's ownership is quite diverse......like many multinationals. surprise suprise.

[mossj]

when I heard the president of one of the worlds super powers saying "I just want to know who ass to kick", I don't think thats the attitude a person in such a position should be flaunting publicly.

 

TBH thats exactly the sort of quote I want from a world super power leader... No nonsense and down to business.

[mattx]

Well I'm off to the bank next week to purchase some BP shares now - best time to get them. They may fall again and no dividend will be paid possibly but for a long term investment I think you will be mad not to snap them up at the current price.

[Andrew_C]

I wonder if BP will be in a position to sue Halliburton at the end of all this?

 

It is unreasonable to expect a quick fix for a very difficult technical problem. Provided BP are doing all they can to fix it, O should back off. Someone should be paying fair compensation to those blighted, and for dealing with the ecological impact.

[Jiser]

Obama should be working on changing the attitudes of his citizens towards oil first, this is an important wakeup call for Obama who until just before this had started to issue drilling rights off the USA cost, these disasters have happened all over the world be people care less when it's a third world backwater. Hopefully Americans will think that bit harder next time they're filling up the 8 litre SUV. I'm not laying the blame firmly at their feet most of the west is equally to blame but they top the excess leader board.

 

BP deserves criticism and has said that they will pay for the clean up operation, that won't be happening if Obama talks the company out of business.

 

I agree totally. They have total disregard for anything outside their own country or the environment. 20 litre SUVs more like. BP was using contractors as well. It wasn't strictly their fault as such.

[tech_guy]

Well I'm off to the bank next week to purchase some BP shares now - best time to get them. They may fall again and no dividend will be paid possibly but for a long term investment I think you will be mad not to snap them up at the current price.

 

I was just thinking the same - will probably let them spiral downwards for another week or so and then buy a couple of hundred for long term investment.

[mattx]

I was just thinking the same - will probably let them spiral downwards for another week or so and then buy a couple of hundred for long term investment.

 

The core business is still sound and the yanks will always want oil. Even if they get taken over you I can see it as a good investment - ISA's are a waste of time at the moment, the only semi good thing are inflation linked interest accounts but you have to keep an eye on those - it's BP shares for me !! I have not own any shares for a while so it will be fun to get back in it again.

[tech_guy]

We cashed in all our ISAs at the start of the year as the return was so rubbish.

[mattx]

Looks like I will be following suit - may as well stick em in with the prem bonds I have - at least £25 a few times year is a better than the crappy interest rates.

[srochford]

It is unreasonable to expect a quick fix for a very difficult technical problem. Provided BP are doing all they can to fix it, O should back off.

 

Of course it's a difficult problem but it shouldn't be a "wow, we never thought that could possibly happen" type problem - if you dig a big hole in the ground and extract high pressure oil then there has to be a risk that something will go wrong. As it is, it looks like BP were just taking the mickey when they submitted their DR plan. Now, of course, whichever bit of the US government approved it should have checked it more carefully but ultimately BP wanted to make the money so BP should have been prepared to sort things out.

 

BP might be doing all they can now but, as far as I can see, they weren't properly prepared and that's why it's taking so long.

 

The biggest problem seems to be our old friends the bankers and their ilk. There's no real reason why BP shares should be falling through the floor. The company has huge amounts of money - far, far more than it will cost them to clean this up so there's no reason to expect financial disaster.

 

I'm sure that in the long term it will become more expensive to drill for oil - the companies will have to put in place proper plans to deal with disasters and that will cost money but I don't see the whole oil industry collapsing.

[Martin]

Well I'm off to the bank next week to purchase some BP shares now - best time to get them. They may fall again and no dividend will be paid possibly but for a long term investment I think you will be mad not to snap them up at the current price.

 

Try to get them in an "ISA wrapper", just in case the ConDems implement silly capital gains taxes - sounds much better prospect than a basic (0.5%?) cash ISA. There is no way that BP will disappear, as quite a bit is owned by the Merkins anyway

 

mb