Have Britain and America fallen out ‘big time’?

The fact that one of our largest companies, BP, has covered America’s beaches and nature reserves in oil has apparently driven a rift between the two countries the size of the Atlantic Ocean.

The turmoil began on the 20^th April, when BP’s ‘Deepwater Horizon’ oil rig blew up, killing 11 crew member. The US Government are angry because the rig did not have proper measures installed, and had malfunctioning equipment that was not repaired, so  thousands of barrels per day have since leaked from the snapped pipe beneath the destroyed oil rig. What the USA are also annoyed about is the fact that the rig did not have a cut off valve on the pipe, so that when the pipe to the rig snapped, oil was free to pump out into the Gulf of Mexico, even though US law does not say that such equipment is necessary, which is the case in all European oil drilling nations. The two nations, which for the past century have been about as separable, in the immortal words of Edward Blackadder, as “a Frenchman living next to a brothel”, have fallen out hugely over the disaster. It seems that somehow, us giving America a ‘thousand barrels per day’ of black gold, is wrong! I suppose it is quite like a homeless man throwing an oil drum full of pound coins at Bill Gates!

Barack Obama, saviour of the world, has even likened the spill to 9/11. Okay America, so why don’t you invade France over their “weapons of mass destruction” , steal their oil, and then come after us when Tony Hayward, the ‘most hated man in America’ has already gone to hide in some cave in Scotland.

Having said all that, I don’t even dislike America.

Some of their ideas, such as the cheeseburger, Television dramas, and Sarah Palin are not all bad.

But still, can Obama not see that torturing BP is really not doing any good for anyone? BP, as David Cameron so valiantly praised it, is the provider of millions of British pensions. At a time when the world is only just emerging from the largest recession for 70 years, is it really a good thing to prod one of the most fragile and major economies in the world? It is very irresponsible of America. If anything, they should be to blame, for the lack of legislation in their laws that states that oil rigs must have a ‘Blowout Preventer’, as the laws of nearly every other major drilling nation says there must be. BP didn’t really do anything wrong, they did not go against US law any more than any of the US oil companies drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. A US public servant hired to look at the rest of the oil rigs in the bay said that every single other company was not prepared for if such a horrific event happened on any of their rigs. All of them had just the same faults as BP did, and any such accidents on any other rig would result in the same catastrophe as is currently happening.

Don’t get me wrong, I agree that the Gulf of Mexico spill is a horrific incident, and the company involved should have to pay, but it is the fault of not just BP, but of the US government, of all of the companies drilling oil in the Gulf of Mexico, and especially of human nature. So BP shouldn’t be the only one to pay. One thing is for certain, America should get out their buckets and scoop up the oil floating around in their bay, ‘cause BP certainly aren’t going to give them any more.

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You will have heard about the recent troubles in the Falklands. Everyone who has looked at it will have experienced a glimpsing worry that traces back to 1982. For those of you that don’t see why such a small island so far away gets so much airtime, I’ll outline why it is that the troubles have started again.

 The recent discovery of huge oilfields just off the coast of the small south Atlantic Islands has triggered Argentina to make a ‘totally unrelated’ complaint about the sovereignty of the islands to the UN. They are declaring that they should be in control of the islands. Britain has quite rightly said that this is rubbish but Argentina still wants ‘Malvinas’. Don’t worry; Margaret Thatcher isn’t going to rise from the political grave just yet to declare Falklands War mk II, but the situation is quite perilous. Hilary Clinton says that the US will act as mediators between the British and Argentine governments over the issue, but the truth is, there shouldn’t even be an issue. So who has the right to the Falkland Islands? The British were in fact the first people to claim the islands as their own in 1592. Argentina only ever occupied them for a space of 13 years, between 1820 and 1833, but the islands have been British ever since. Technically, since the group of British citizens currently living on the islands are the only human settlers to go through two generations on the islands, they are the aborigines of the Falklands, since the islands were uninhabited when the European settlers found it. A Countries sovereignty can only be questioned if it’s inhabitants as for it themselves. Not a single one of the 3140 inhabitants of the Falkland Islands want to become independent from Britain, or be ruled by Argentina.

It is ridiculous, in my opinion that a group of islands, which 255 British servicemen died trying to protect, should have its status questioned, against its own will just because of the economic riches it has stumbled upon. Argentina should count themselves lucky, for the oil would have to be taken to Argentina to be processed and for long distance transport. This will boost their economy hugely. Much of the oil is even in their own waters, so they’ll get a further boost from that.  Did those soldiers fight and die in 1982, just for the land they were trying to protect to be given to the Argentine government less than 30 years later? No, they didn’t, it’s just that the diegos in the Argentine government have got greedy. If the UN had even as much sense as Baldrick, they would not even consider giving the land to the River Plate Republic. They will though. Superman Barack Obama will view his country’s trade with South America as being too important and he’ll be looking to gain a few brownie points off Argentina… or maybe some cheap oil points. Whatever the convaluted process may be, we should try and keep the islands that Thatcher so valiantly guarded 28 years ago. She didn’t know then the amount of oil in the waters around the Falklands, but the war paid up eventually. Let’s not just give it away.

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