Daily Mail Comment:
"It was nothing less than bear-baiting.For more than seven hours, the hapless BP chief executive Tony Hayward was humiliated, scorned and harangued by aggressively rude and, more often than not, posturing U.S. congressmen.In the gallery, members of the public behaved hysterically and histrionically and at times Mr Hayward was denied the chance to speak. It was an unedifying spectacle unworthy of the world's only superpower. Yes, BP has many disturbing questions to answer over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, and its public relations campaign has been nothing short of disastrous.
But President Obama's behaviour has been an affront to the dignity of his office.Cynically distracting attention from his own lame response to the disaster and plummeting opinion polls, he has for weeks resorted to every cheap trick in the huckster's book to demonise British (as he stresses) Petroleum.Last night, this scapegoating appeared to have worked, with Mr Hayward stripped of direct responsibility for tackling the spill.To say that David Cameron has been muted in response is an understatement. Doubtless he has been working assiduously behind the scenes, but it is in the all-too public arena that the damage is being done to our economic interests.The Prime Minister should tell Mr Obama that when the negligence of American banks over toxic mortgages caused financial devastation, UK politicians did not stoke anti-U.S. feeling.
Nor did this country seek to apportion blame for the many environmental and energy disasters involving U.S. firms.It is perhaps unfair to point out that hundreds of British soldiers have died supporting America in its misguided incursions into Afghanistan and Iraq.It is, however, entirely fair to say that if America's leaders devoted as much energy to solving the BP tragedy as they are now spending on demonising the company, it would be better for everyone.
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