How Oil and Accents Made Britain a Figure of Hate in Us Halls of Power

Summary

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TONY Hayward was already the most hated man in America before he arrived on Capitol Hill. His appearance before the House of Representatives Energy Committee was a ritual humiliation. For seven hours, BP's chief executive insisted he knew nothing about the Deepwater Horizon rig pumping barrel upon barrel of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, disavowed responsibility for safety failures and declined to comment, while members of Congress expressed their displeasure for the cameras.

Hayward has been a punching bag for anti-corporate rage ever since he planted his Oxford brogues in his mouth once too often. Thanks to the Home Counties lilt to his accent, this has sometimes crossed over into outright xenophobia. New York Congressman Anthony Weiner summed it up for NBC television: "Whenever you hear someone with a British accent talking on behalf of British Petroleum they are not telling you the truth. That's the bottom line."

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Extract

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How Oil and Accents Made Britain a Figure of Hate in Us Halls of Power

Other politicians have been as quick to grandstand, sensing an easy, populist target. Senator Kit Bond referred to "British Pollution, if you want to call it that." Sarah Palin, whose husband worked for BP for many years, u...

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