But thanks for covering the meat of it; I'm kinda in a rush. Yeah, the US government has some culpability, though I think it probably had more to do with the oil baron running the place for eight years than with Obama; petroleum companies in particular had a business "environment" they couldn't have dreamed of under Clinton. It boils down to differences in regulation; as my mother keeps pointing out, they have lots of off shore drilling in a lot of places (e.g. the North Sea, where Britain owns ~40% of the drilling rights) but things like this haven't happened because the government oversight is too great, the standards for rigs are too high. But to say it's unfair for the government to blame it all on BP is like Charles Manson saying, "hey, I HAD a rap sheet; if the cops had done their job to begin those people would still be alive, so it's really THEIR fault!" Yeah, nice try.

You don't get to shift the blame onto the government because they didn't do a better job of stopping you from doing what you pleased. IMHO, they share some responsibility but zero LIABILITY, and that's what this is about. "Experts" may be estimating the eventual cost to BP, but since the thing is still gushing (and calling this a "leak" is misleading: A leak is when you come out in the morning and find your tire is flat; this is more like a blowout doing 140 kph through the middle of London) they have little more idea than anyone else.

Maybe a bailout should be in order for the pensioners from the UK government, but not a BP bailout that dumps billions of pounds in a negligent companys lap in the faint hope some of it will find its way to gramma. Given the incredibly volatile nature of the oil industry (and as a native of a city that became a metropolis during a 40 year post war oil boom and then went bust overnight, I can tell you it's VERY volatile) maybe someone needs to ask why 17% of pension funds were in ONE oil company. 'Cos I don't care HOW high the price of oil is, any Houstonian with a memory can tell you you BETTER diversify if you want to eat. That BP had been bringing in large steady returns for ages doesn't indicate anything so much as that they were due for a big reversal. I mean, how often does Texas City explode?