David Cameron had better put on his best ass kicking boots because in a delicious turn of events, American ExxonMobil has been polluting our pristine shores in Fareham with oil. Granted BP is dumping 40,000 barrels a day into the Gulf of Mexico and American ExxonMobil leaked 20 barrels from a ship into the sparkling Solent, but it's the principle and in echoes of Florida, we have had to drop containment booms and dispersant's into the sea to protect the South Coast.
Summon head of American ExxonMobil, Rex Tillerson, to the Commons and let's give him a grilling over how he will clean up the two miles of previously gleaming Hampshire coastline. If we can wheel in a few members of Parliament to douse themselves in oil and heckle him at the same time more the better.
American ExxonMobil has said it apologised for the "regrettable incident" and are "working with the local authorities concerned, to clear up the oil as quickly as possible".
Rex had better not be pictured swanning around on a yacht until every last stone and seagull is wiped clean and only then can he have his life back.
5 comments:
hanz,
poor taste. 11 people died here on the BP rig. many thousands are being forced into total economic loss. hundreds of miles of the coastline are a complete mess. coral reefs will be impacted for many years. many bird and fish species will be pushed to the edge of extinction...
q
I hold up my hands, i forgot about the 11 people who died.
And you also forgot about the 15,000 or so who died in Bhopal about 25 years ago... which is another instructive comparison in terms of corporate corner cutting costing lives.
Mind you, some would say that sick jokes about recent tragedies is one of our most cherished traditions, over this side of the pond... I don't think Princess Di was even out of the car by the time I heard the first joke about that.
Jokes in poor taste is a very British thing but it doesn't seem to travel very well outside of our borders. Can make blogging quite hairy if the post author strays into grey areas in jest.
In this case i really did forget about the 11 people who died.
I can understand some of the frustration. BP has been called "British Petroleum" (its old name) one to many times by American public officials lately for a reasonable person not to find some hints of scapegoating.
Congress' disposition to haul in folks to score points off of the latest public outrage is already low-enough. Anyone who understands the most basic rudiments of the law knows that being called before Congress in this way is a special catch in the law that allows citizens and organizations to be abused by the government without any opportunity to fairly defend themselves. Maybe the BP folks are really sorry and want to apologize, but if a BP executive apologized or admitted wrongdoing before Congress it would literally bankrupt BP (and put more than just a few oil execs out of jobs) because what you say in Congress can sure as hell be used against you in civil court. The whole thing is arranged so that your only options are to lie or look like an asshole.
I thought that it was highly inappropriate for them to pull that kind of crap with a foreign citizen, guilty or not.
--Nog
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