What is BP really responsible for ?
Yesterday was a theatre that has now become a regular feature of US political life. A self righteous and pompous Committee of the US House or Senate “summons” a CEO of some company and harangues him. Political windbags fall over themselves to misbehave with a foreign national. Yesterday was the turn of BP’s CEO Tony Hayward. It got so bad, that one of the Representatives in the Committee, Joe Barton, actually apologised to Hayward and then the howls from the lynch mob made him recant the apology. The White House and the US Senate and Congress has forced BP to fund a $20 bn escrow account for “damages” with regard to the oil spill and for it to be administered by an “independent” third party and pay out claims. What they have essentially done is to ask BP to write a blank cheque. BP has no choice really; and it duly has written a blank cheque. Make no mistake. BP is at fault. For taking safety too lightly. For not having a backup plan at all – in the companies I have worked in, you get ...