WASHINGTON — The British have had their fill of President Obama heaping ridicule and blame on BP.
UK newspapers were filled with reports yesterday of Obama “bullying” the London-based company and US officials “escalating the ugly rhetoric” over the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
They are so peeved with Obama that Daily Telegraph columnist Janet Daley declared “the romance is over” for a British press previously enamored with the US president who promised hope and change.
“The British media have decided that it was all a cruel deception: Obama is just one more ranting populist president who will do anything to divert attention from his own failure,” she wrote.
The Sun described BP as “humiliated” after the company bowed this week to White House demands to put aside $20 billion for compensation claims and forego dividend payments this year.
The yanked dividend payments hit particularly hard on the other side of the pond because British pension funds are heavily invested in BP and rely on its dividend income.
The Daily Mail warned that yesterday’s Capitol Hill grilling of BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward would be “a cross between the Battle of Bunker Hill and a Salem witch trial.”