# The BP Oil Spill Has Negatively Impacted My Attitude Towards Brits **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 8, 2010, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bp-oil-spill-has-negatively-impacted-my-attitude-towards-brits/553015 "2010-09-08T03:28:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![JoseArcadio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc348/32.png) [@JoseArcadio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoseArcadio)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2010, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bp-oil-spill-has-negatively-impacted-my-attitude-towards-brits/553015/61 "2010-09-10T08:58:25Z")
You’re spot on, mate. We are an island of bastards, wankers, twats, arseholes and bawbags. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2010, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bp-oil-spill-has-negatively-impacted-my-attitude-towards-brits/553015/62 "2010-09-10T11:16:57Z")
My problem with BP is the specific sorts of Brits who seem to be running the company. It seems as if a bunch of Andy Capps have taken over the company’s upper management, and have hired a bunch of venal bureaucrats of the sort who get parodied in Britcoms all the time to paper over the way they ran the company, ignoring all the safety rules insofar as humanly possible in order to extract oil as cheaply as was physically possible. Making the Gulf blowout just about inevitable. I just can’t feel a bit of respect for them and I wonder if the rest of Britain’s corporate culture works, or rather doesn’t work, like this. ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2010, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bp-oil-spill-has-negatively-impacted-my-attitude-towards-brits/553015/63 "2010-09-10T11:40:16Z")
[QUOTE=Evil Captor] My problem with BP is the specific sorts of Brits who seem to be running the company. [/quote] Why do you assume it’s mostly Brits running the company? It’s a multinational. It’s chairman is Swedish, it’s Director and appointed CEO is American and it’s CFO is Byron Grote, whose nationality I can’t locate, but he has a PhD and MS from Cornell and formerly headed Standard Oil, so probably not British. [QUOTE=Evil Captor] I just can’t feel a bit of respect for them and I wonder if the rest of Britain’s corporate culture works, or rather doesn’t work, like this. [/quote] Isn’t the corporate culture of every nationality like this? Why would you think Britain was any different? ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2010, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bp-oil-spill-has-negatively-impacted-my-attitude-towards-brits/553015/64 "2010-09-10T12:35:50Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > In fairness, Tony “I want my life back” Hayward’s public statements, in that supercilious Brit accent he has, contributed mightily to the PR issue we see in the OP. Tony Hayward is a grade A corporate fat cat dick, and acted as such - but his accent is just an English accent. Nothing more, nothing less. I don’t know why you find the accent supercilious. Any value you ascribe to it is surely within your own head. > [@Try2B Comprehensive](#): > > the BBC announcers crowing that they don’t care (the link to the broadcast I am referring to isn’t there anymore. 8/1, the guy who got transferred to Berlin…) Well I’m going to call bollocks on you in that case. I listen to the BBC an inordinate amount - the radio is on wherever I am, except in work - and I’ve heard documentaries about the spill and the news updates on Radio 4, the World Service, TV news, and the BBC site. And not once since the disaster happened has a single reporter I heard implied that it is anything other than a catastrophe. Perhaps people they interviewed have, but the BBC itself just wouldn’t have a stance on it - the charter requires its neutrality. You’re lying, misremembering, or you misinterpreted what you heard. ---
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2010, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bp-oil-spill-has-negatively-impacted-my-attitude-towards-brits/553015/65 "2010-09-10T14:33:46Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > I don’t have any _British_ friends This wins the prize for the least unexpected statement of the decade, you dumb nationalistic fuck. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2010, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bp-oil-spill-has-negatively-impacted-my-attitude-towards-brits/553015/66 "2010-09-11T03:41:36Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > Well I’m going to call bollocks on you in that case. > I listen to the BBC an inordinate amount - the radio is on wherever I am, except in work - and I’ve heard documentaries about the spill and the news updates on Radio 4, the World Service, TV news, and the BBC site. And not once since the disaster happened has a single reporter I heard implied that it is anything other than a catastrophe. Perhaps people they interviewed have, but the BBC itself just wouldn’t have a stance on it - the charter requires its neutrality. > > You’re lying, misremembering, or you misinterpreted what you heard. False. I’ll keep looking if that’s what you’re asking. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2010, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bp-oil-spill-has-negatively-impacted-my-attitude-towards-brits/553015/67 "2010-09-11T03:42:57Z")
> [@villa](#): > > > [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > > > I don’t have any _British_ friends > > This wins the prize for the least unexpected statement of the decade, you dumb nationalistic fuck. Let’s really take a look at the pit title, ok? Is it “:mad: Brits!”, or is it something else? ---
**Author:** ![BayouHazard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@BayouHazard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BayouHazard)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2010, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bp-oil-spill-has-negatively-impacted-my-attitude-towards-brits/553015/68 "2010-09-11T03:56:53Z")
I don’t blame BP’s nationality(not that an international megacorp like BP has one), I blame BP’s corporate culture of doing things in a slipshod, unsafe manner, because they don’t care to do them safely. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas\_City\_Refinery\_explosion](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_Refinery_explosion) Apparently, BP knew full well they had critical safety problems, and just didn’t care: [http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/26/60minutes/main2126509.shtml](http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/26/60minutes/main2126509.shtml) So I don’t think we should blame the limeys, I think it’s the company. I would be happy if it were officially disincorporated and its’ assets dispersed and reorganized. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2010, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bp-oil-spill-has-negatively-impacted-my-attitude-towards-brits/553015/69 "2010-09-11T04:00:29Z")
Is the debate coming down to whether BP is British? -Stock Exchange listing: London. I’m calling that ‘British’. -Headquarters Location: England. Going out on a limb, I’m ‘labeling’ that ‘British’. -Stockholders: Mostly Brits. Draw your own conclusions. -History: A North Sea operator that metastasized recklessly, partly through the economic ‘miracle’ of ‘cutting corners’. If you think BP is not British, maybe you’d like to debate whether the Pope is really Catholic? ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2010, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bp-oil-spill-has-negatively-impacted-my-attitude-towards-brits/553015/70 "2010-09-11T04:17:12Z")
Edit too late to add: What does ‘B’ stand for? ---
**Author:** ![BayouHazard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@BayouHazard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BayouHazard)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2010, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bp-oil-spill-has-negatively-impacted-my-attitude-towards-brits/553015/71 "2010-09-11T06:36:59Z")
I just think once a corporation is as large as BP, calling it purely British isn’t entirely accurate. I’ll give you majority British, though. Want America to sue Britain’s government in international court for the Gulf spill? I’d go for it. ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2010, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bp-oil-spill-has-negatively-impacted-my-attitude-towards-brits/553015/72 "2010-09-11T12:44:10Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > Edit too late to add: What does ‘B’ stand for? As has been repeatedly pointed out to you, it doesn’t stand for anything, you ignorant twat. Stick to becoming morbidly obese and supporting the invasion of countries you couldn’t find on a map, because the natives are brown and worship the same god as you by a slightly different name. People like you are making me hate Yanks. Enjoy having the stereotyping directed at you? ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2010, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bp-oil-spill-has-negatively-impacted-my-attitude-towards-brits/553015/73 "2010-09-11T12:46:18Z")
Oh, no offence meant to any non-twattish Americans. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2010, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bp-oil-spill-has-negatively-impacted-my-attitude-towards-brits/553015/74 "2010-09-11T16:37:28Z")
They are international corporations who will move headquarters in seconds to avoid taxes and regulation. They have adopted the American model of do anything you can get away with for money. Regulations ,ecology, safety and anything else that costs time and money are to be circumvented. It is a dangerous model with obvious safety drawbacks. No country can regulate them because they are all over the world and can claim they are based in the Caimans or Dubai forcing you to fight them in jurisdictions they can buy. It is time to establish an international court to deal with businesses that are across the globe. The financial fiasco should have forced our hands. They sunk economies across the world. That should have been the impetus to develop international economic courts. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2010, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bp-oil-spill-has-negatively-impacted-my-attitude-towards-brits/553015/75 "2010-09-11T17:21:16Z")
> [@Steophan](#): > > > [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > > > Edit too late to add: What does ‘B’ stand for? > > As has been repeatedly pointed out to you, it doesn’t stand for anything, you ignorant twat. Stick to becoming morbidly obese and supporting the invasion of countries you couldn’t find on a map, because the natives are brown and worship the same god as you by a slightly different name. People like you are making me hate Yanks. > Enjoy having the stereotyping directed at you? I don’t know. Which part is a stereotype? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2010, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bp-oil-spill-has-negatively-impacted-my-attitude-towards-brits/553015/76 "2010-09-11T17:29:35Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > BP in the USA is substantially Amoco, whom they bought out. So Yanks too. I don’t recall Amoco causing any blowouts. It happened after they got hired by BP (the most reckless operator of all) and introduced to DUIB (drilling under the influence of Brits). ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2010, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bp-oil-spill-has-negatively-impacted-my-attitude-towards-brits/553015/77 "2010-09-11T17:44:14Z")
> [@penultima\_thule](#): > > I’ll concede I haven’t conducted a comprehensive review of the process but my understanding is that the legislative authorities that have permitted drilling in Alaska were American; that any regulatory bodies overseeing any drilling in Alaska are American; the powers of those the regulatory authorities are decisions taken by Americans; that the sub-contracting companies are likely to be American (or domiciled in a tax haven) and the foremen, engineers and riggers they employ are also likely to be American. > > So on that basis it’s crystal clear why it is rational to blame the Brits for everything that might go wrong. First of all, AFAIK the arctic seas are not yet spoiled, so I would wait until then to decide who to blame. But I would probably blame the operator, I don’t care if they hire all Americans to drill an underwater well with cheap, broken equipment like BP did. I am sure that even the oil-company hijacked MMS’s regulations didn’t allow for the shoddy work BP oversaw, and they won’t allow it in the arctic either. The OP is part irrationality, and it isn’t clear that I understood all along that Shell is not British. > [@](#): > > > [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > > > I am still constantly reminded that a region of the world just went up in smoke, there is a new 10,000+ square mile dead zone, a thousand billion creatures flipped over and croaked… all for nothing. > > Interesting parallel with what the US has done in the (Arabian) Gulf, don’t you think? I don’t know, do you mean Saddam’s oil spill or the invasion of Iraq itself? Either way the invasion seems to me something to be ashamed of. At least I can cop to it. I’m not sure why the creatures of the Gulf have to pay for American’s misdeeds. That’s a screwy sense of justice you got there. > [@](#): > > > [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > > > Now what am I supposed to do with this anti-Brit antipathy? > > Bottle it. It’s of no monetary value but it does seem to shield you from all manner of dangerous realities. You are probably right, psychologically speaking. Specifically, the full scope of the horror of what the Brits have inflicted on the world with their greed machine. Frankly I am not getting over it. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2010, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bp-oil-spill-has-negatively-impacted-my-attitude-towards-brits/553015/78 "2010-09-11T18:18:55Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > If you think BP is not British, maybe you’d like to debate whether the Pope is really Catholic? BP is British in the same way the Pope is Italian. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2010, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bp-oil-spill-has-negatively-impacted-my-attitude-towards-brits/553015/79 "2010-09-11T18:37:40Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > Is the debate coming down to whether BP is British? > > -Stock Exchange listing: London. I’m calling that ‘British’. > -Headquarters Location: England. Going out on a limb, I’m ‘labeling’ that ‘British’. > -Stockholders: Mostly Brits. Draw your own conclusions. > -History: A North Sea operator that metastasized recklessly, partly through the economic ‘miracle’ of ‘cutting corners’. > > If you think BP is not British, maybe you’d like to debate whether the Pope is really Catholic? BP is also listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Are you sure that its shareholders ae mostly British? Its largest component is BP America, which is headquartered in Texas and is staffed mostly by Americans. History: BP America is essentially Amoco and Sohio, two of the original Rockefeller companies. ---
**Author:** ![santosvega](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@santosvega](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/santosvega)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2010, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bp-oil-spill-has-negatively-impacted-my-attitude-towards-brits/553015/80 "2010-09-11T20:12:12Z")
Does anyone else with a passing knowledge of 20th century history and current events find it ironic that an _American_ is complaining about atrocities committed by an (ostensibly, sort of, not really) British multinational corporation? Well, perhaps all we can do is hope that someday, sometime, some American corporation will slip up and do something horrible. That would surely put this all in perspective. Until that day we can do little but keep a stiff upper lip in the face of **Try2B Comprehensive’s** allegations. Damn those saintly American corporations for being so squeaky-clean and spreading joy and peace around the world! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bp-oil-spill-has-negatively-impacted-my-attitude-towards-brits/553015.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bp-oil-spill-has-negatively-impacted-my-attitude-towards-brits/553015.md?page=5)