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This is very good news for BP and it is very good news for the U.K.
It is good news because it provides further enhancement of oil supplies, which, because of the rising demand for energy from emerging economies, will be needed until the age of nuclear electricity and electric cars, augmented by wind and sun, is upon us. That age is yet a few years ahead. It is also good news because it enhances a strategic partnership with Russia which is very much in the interests of our country as a whole. It is good news for investors and savers and pension funds, in whose portfolios B.P. is a major component. It is good news for the Treasury, because eventually rising profits will bring more tax revenue. It is good news for BP, after all the very bad news from the Gulf of Mexico. It is good news because the deal was sealed by the Chief executive of BP, who is American.
America will see it as bad news. It will see it as bad news because, since it broke away from British Empire, it has always been jealous of Britain’s world capacity in trade and finance, where we punch far above our weight. It will see it as bad news because its gut reaction is to find fault, or pick a quarrel with every initiative without an American stamp. This is in sharp contrast to the generosity, friendship and capacity for doing good of its individual people. At this time its people are divided among themselves in an old fissure which runs deep. In such times unity can be found against a common ogre beyond the border. There has been far too much BP bashing in the U.S., with a somewhat venomous use of the word British, when much of the fault lay with American partners or employees as well as regulators and government agencies. It needs to stop.