Judging BP

There are two equal and opposite mistakes to make in respect of the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

One would be to rush to a premature judgement that negligence or culpable failings by BP were the cause of the disaster before any proper investigation has taken place into whether this is actually the case. There is a case to answer that some journalists, politicians and campaign groups in the States appear to have fallen into this trap.

But an equal and opposite mistake, which some newspapers and politicians in this country have been urging on David Cameron, but which he has wisely resisted, would be to rush to the opposite conclusion that BP is innocent.

There needs to be a proper investigation, preferably when tempers have cooled, into how the leak happened, why, and whether more could have been done to stop it and take corrective measures. This is necessary both to learn from what happened and reduce the risk of it happening again, and to ensure that any blame which is due is allocated justly, not just pinned on whomsoever is the most convenient scapegoat.

It is not in the interests of either Britain or the United States of America for people on either side of the Atlantic to start taking up hardline positions antagonistic to the other without first stopping to make sure we have established the true facts.

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