Oil found 5 miles off the coast of Clearwater, FL

[Suu]

They don't think it's from the spill, but my mom called me freaking out, hence why I'm awake. 

It could be natural, it could be from the Tampa Bay spill of 1990 that got sucked out into the gulf...but I don't know. I just went from being really sleepy to really mad in 2.5.

The majority of the oil is still 450mi off the coast of the Pinellas Peninsula, but USF is out there checking out the massive underwater plumes, and URI is on their way down there, as I'm sure a dozen other research universities with oceanography programs, and they say it doesn't look good. In fact, BP has already tried to get USF to leave.

What my mom wants to know now is if writing to the UK Parliament will have any effect, since BP is only a corporation within the UK. I told her that the UK is way more corrupt than the US, but she still thinks it's worth a shot.

Thoughts?

[Richter]

 

It couldn't hurt.  Worst they do is throw it out.  If there's some international list for nutty letter writers, I think I'm higher on it for my last missive to Norway supporting whaling.

[Suu]

As you know, my brother is already jobless. They had to close his restaurant since business took a nosedive in April, even though the Tampa Bay area hasn't been affected (yet). He has another job waiting for him in September, but even that now is shaky, since there isn't going to be a tourist season this year.


...I can totally get him a job in RI though, not that he'll go for it. He can't fish year-round up here.

[Pope Pixie Pickle]

BP is an INTERNATIONAL company with INTERNATIONAL shareholders, and our government are hell bent on reducing public spending.

good luck with the anti british bullshit.

[Richter]

As you know, my brother is already jobless. They had to close his restaurant since business took a nosedive in April, even though the Tampa Bay area hasn't been affected (yet). He has another job waiting for him in September, but even that now is shaky, since there isn't going to be a tourist season this year.


...I can totally get him a job in RI though, not that he'll go for it. He can't fish year-round up here.

Oh sure he can.  The bay doesn't ice over. 
You just need lots of long underwear, big wool sweaters, foul weather gear, and whiskey. 

[bds]

You're almost guaranteed that writing to the UK Parliament would be a waste of breath. If it makes her feel better though, tell her to knock herself out.

[Suu]

BP is an INTERNATIONAL company with INTERNATIONAL shareholders, and our government are hell bent on reducing public spending.

good luck with the anti british bullshit.

I never said anything anti-British, it's not like it's fucking news that you're government is a joke just like ours.

BP is a registered corporation in the UNITED KINGDOM. NOT the UNITED STATES. Your government is responsible and should do something just like ours, and if they don't want to listen to the US, then maybe the Mother Country can take care of them.

[AFK]

Well, I guess Clearwater should change its name. 

[Suu]

Well, I guess Clearwater should change its name. 

They shouldn't have ever been Clearwater, but that's another story.

[bds]

BP is an INTERNATIONAL company with INTERNATIONAL shareholders, and our government are hell bent on reducing public spending.

good luck with the anti british bullshit.

I never said anything anti-British, it's not like it's fucking news that you're government is a joke just like ours.

BP is a registered corporation in the UNITED KINGDOM. NOT the UNITED STATES. Your government is responsible and should do something just like ours, and if they don't want to listen to the US, then maybe the Mother Country can take care of them.

Huh?

[Suu]

Gotta go to work, can't discuss this now. BBL.

[Pope Pixie Pickle]

 

the tory government here will do fuck all. Hell trhey are so hell bent on reducing the deficit that they are cutting certain benefits that means it no longer makes sense for single parents in the UK to get into work if they can...

however... i found this list on the Scotsman website, on what the American government COULD'VE done bit didnt.  

but these are 10 things that should have been done by Obama.

Since his strategy dealing with the spill seems lacking thus far, Redstate editor Erick Erickson has compiled a Top 10 list of things to alleviate the disaster that Obama could have done but didn't.
1. Accepted help from the Netherlands when they offered it shortly after the accident. The Dutch, experienced in the oil business, offered prompt help for oil skimming booms and plans to create barriers to stop the oil from infiltrating into wetland areas.
2. Suspended the Jones Act, as President Bush did after Katrina, to allow foreign vessels into American waters to assist with recovery without having to swap ships and transfer equipment onto American flagged vessels.
3. Suspended the Davis-Bacon prevailing wage laws, as President Bush did after Katrina, to allow rapid deployment of new workers to help with containment efforts.
4. Suspended FEMA contracting and bidding rules, as President Bush did after Katrina, to allow a more rapid assignment of contracts to assist with the recovery effort.
5. Allowed coastal governors to immediately begin dredging to create barrier islands.
6. Talked to BP's CEO to establish initial metrics for progress to gauge BP's response so the federal government would have ascertainable metrics to determine when federal intervention was needed. Heck, he should have talked to BP's CEO period.
7. Not imposed a blanket deep water drilling moratorium, further crippling economies in coastal communities.
8. Talked to experts about how to fix the problem instead of trying to figure out whose "ass to kick."
9. Not waited to act lest he be seen as owning the situation. Guess what? He owns it now so why is he still on the golf course?
10. Not have wasted time trying to blame the accident on George Bush before diving in to take responsibility.

BP MAY be a british registered company, but Transocean, the company who's rig blew is AMERICAN, is it not...

Things have been fucked from the beginning, true, BUT I am not sure what statute of british law would give us some way of booting BP up the arse, and besides, David Cameron is too concerned with the impact it could have on british private pensions.

But people expect OUR govenrment to wade in when yours cant pull its finger out of its ass, amirite?

[Sir Squid Diddimus]

What the fuck is the British government to do about this?

Who's to blame? The company, the de-regulation (by Bush, NOT Obama) and the MMS

It's a private company. What Brittan has to do with it is beyond me.
BP itself, not Brittan, needs to be held responsible and accountable for their mismanagement of their rigs/wells/facilities and apparent inability to create a clean up response.
It's their fucking fault, not the UK, not Obama.

It's BP you want. If you want to point another finger, try the MMS. Where they should have been regulating and managing they were snorting blow off each others asses with their dicks in someone else's mouth.

The oil is headed here. There's no fucking stopping it cause nobody fucking thought of the "what if" and if they did for a split second they shrugged it off and said "fuck it, PROFITS people, PROFITS". There's nothing we can do, the beaches are fucked, fishing is fucked and I have to live with this shit. Don't tell me I'm too far inland to care, cause I fucking do weather I'm landlocked or not, I'm an hour and a half away from either coast and it's MY state no matter how much I hate this place. I'm pissed. PISSED. The beaches are one of the very VERY few things this place has to offer and they're fucked. The whole economy here will suffer, not just the coast. Trust me.
DAMN IT!

Thanks a lot BP. And FUCK YOU.

[Cain]

Writing to Parliament will achieve jack and shit, unless you get the right MP.  Try going through the list of MPs on TheyWorkForYou.com and find a Labour MP who rebels against their party, or a left-leaning, by UK standards, Liberal Democrat MP.  Norman Baker, for example. 

However remember the UK is currently ruled by an extremely pro-oil faction of the ogliopoly, and even the Lib Dems' second highest ranking member in the cabinet used to work for BP back in the day (the Minister for Business, Vince Cable).

[Payne]

I think it would be funny to write a massive petition to the UK government for this. Thousands of names. The "Fuck You" David Cameron would reply with would be lulzy, about as funny as all the people who started questioning his and the other Tories stance on the proposition.

There is of course precedent for Governments being held at least partly responsible for Companies registered in their domain, not entirely sure if it's ever worked that way for a Company who has pretty much the same amount of money in its coffers as its "Government" does though...

Also, you could always send a letter to the one and only Green MP in Parliament, who I'm sure would welcome any means of getting her name AND her message across the headlines.