Richard, as an American, I can say that, for quite some time, BP had a pretty good reputation in this country. The general attitude was, if anything, a sort of reverse bigotry. "They must be pretty good. It's a British company." This, as contrasted with companies such as Exxon, with the Prince William Sound spill, and a number of other oil companies who had pretty well established that they were not very well "house trained."

But within recent years, BP's shoddy safety record, due mainly to their cost-cutting and safety short-cuts, has—quite understandably and quite rightly—undercut their previously good reputation.

To try to claim that Americans are bigoted against BP simply because it is a British oil company is disingenuous. Consistent with their recent abysmal safety record and an almost predictable result of their recent company policies, BP fouled up.

To claim that, merely because it is a British-based company, holding BP responsible for their foul-up is "bigotry" is sheer nonsense. Among other things, no one is holding the British people responsible for this.

Don Firth