to boycott America

[dolphinsandwhales]

Due to the BP ruling. BP did wrong but trying to bankrupt them when US companies have done as bad if not worse is really underhand. All good for the US oil companies though...

I don't suppose it will do any good, but I used to like the US but now I see it is hypocritical.

How on earth will you go about "boycotting America" - and are they likely to notice? Otherwise, what would be the point?

I was pretty annoyed that Obama kept emphasising the British Petroleum bit. He practically made out the US had been wronged by the nasty British.

How on earth will you go about "boycotting America" - and are they likely to notice? Otherwise, what would be the point?

Exactly. Boycott it all you want. America will not notice and certainly will not give a damn.

Don't think they'll notice.

Agree with you though. That was how they originally handled the disaster anyway, blamed it on BRITISH Petroleum.

Like all boycotts, this is intended to make the boycotter feel good even if it does not make the boycottee feel bad.

Tis politics - there is still a lot of anger in the areas affected by the oil. The further any american politician can distance themselves from blame the better so 'British' deflects away any responsibility.
Not sure how a boycott would help though.

US companies have not been "just as bad", this is the worst spill in US history, and our communities around the gulf are still out of a job in that area 4 years later because of this.

BP took a giant shit on our shores and we're stuck cleaning it up.

They should have to pay every penny to the people and communities whose livelihoods they destroyed.

It basically comes down to, when you're in someone else's house, you don't fuck the place up.

Boycott the world's largest consumer market with investments and cultural influence in every corner of the world? Good luck with that plan.

You have a bizarrely intense amount of love for a large oil conglomerate though, I must say!

I was in Louisiana when the oil spill happened and it was awful to see it all playing out. So much of the economy was screwed, and this is an area that was only just beginning to get back on its feet after Katrina. I was astonished at the way that those involved handled it, disappointed that they tried to shirk responsibility, concerned for the long-lasting environmental impact and gutted for my friends and their friends who were affected by the spill. 11 people died and thousands of people lost their livelihoods and the whole time BP were making it worse by delaying claims, refusing to acknowledge the extent of the damage done and generally making things even more difficult for the people whose lives had been ruined.

I don't think any amount of money can make up for that, but I do think that making an example of them for their lax approach to safety is the only way that things can change. This is a company with a long history of environmental and health and safety failures, so it's not as though they haven't had ample opportunity to clean up their act so to speak.

Quite apart from anything, BP is not a 'British' company (despite the way they were portrayed in the aftermath of the spill) they are a global brand with a huge presence in America, so it's not as though it's the Americans vs the UK in this matter - it's a superpower imposing sanctions on a global conglomerate that has been responsible for the deaths of a number of US citizens over their history and holding them to account for the latest in a long line of disasters seems like the only way to proceed.

I lived in America when this happened, BP is not British it's a global brand they dropped the British yonks ago, due to this, it just suited politicians to hark back to its old name.

YANBU OP i have v. few shares and the few I have are with BP. But seriously to the people from the US I have a question. Do you think Union Carbide behaved better than BP in Bhophal India?And U S Oil Company ESSO did not crown themselves in glory over the Amoco Cadiz spill (just saying). And I have boycotted the US since 9/11 anyway because flying is stressfull enough without the extra layer of security the US insist on (probably) quite rightly since then. Everyone I know who has to fly say the same thing that a) their queues are even longer than ours and they are sick of surly aggressive US Immigration officials. Miami was singled out as having the rudest for some reason..

Sorry x posts, that will teach me to get involved in the bake off on iplayer mid post

I'm going to have to agree with DoJo's more compelling take on things; particularly the last paragraph.

Besides, the notion of boycotting 'America' (assuming you actually mean USA and not the entire continent), is as PPs have said. What difference do you think you can make with such an action?

It's a bit like the the Danish cartoon controversy of 2006 when some Muslims called for the boycott of all Danish exports (which were largely believed to be beer and pork products at the time)...just saying.

If BP had been AP and had dumped the crude on the Isle of Wight they would have walked away from it and ignored the English courts and Obama would have backed them in doing so.