How John Browne, BP and the Old Boys Network keep the arts well-oiled

How John Browne, BP and the Old Boys Network keep the arts well-oiled

It’s 10.30am on a spectacularly sunny winter’s day and I’m in the Members’ Room at Tate Modern.  The room overlooks the Square Mile – London’s financial district – and the view symbolises the growing pressures on artists and arts organisations to seek funding from the private sector, specifically from business. Looking once again at the panel...

“Summer of Tears” in Louisiana’s Bayous

Frontline waterkeepers from Louisiana’s bayous have begun to tell of the devastation caused by the Macondo rupture in the sea floor. Tracy Kuhns, is the Louisiana Bayoukeeper as well as running the Fishing Community Family Support Center. Her husband, Michael Roberts, is a fisherman and they live on Bayou Barataria where fishing is down for multiple reasons, one being...

Skytruth challenges BP attempts to downplay spill

Tiny Skytruth have been challenging BP’s estimates on how much crude is spilling out of the Macondo well into the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The organisation began analysing satellite & radar data soon after the Deepwater Horizon rig sank on April 22nd. BP initially claimed 1,000 barrels were spilling daily – after Skytruth pointed...

Who to blame for the Gulf of Mexico spill?

As the leaking crude in the Gulf of Mexico chokes sperm whales, wipes out local fishing incomes and ruins tourist destinations, we’ll see continued debates over who is to blame. Obama is pointing at BP, insisting the company won’t be let off the hook. BP’s claiming that they weren’t really on the scene – Transocean...

BP & Shell offshore failures in North Sea endanger workers

As crude continues to pour into the Gulf of Mexico and Tony Hayward can’t work out what he did “to deserve this”, it turns out the company is having problems with offshore operations in the North Sea as well. The British Health & Safety Executive has warned both both BP & Shell that they are failing to...

Outsourcing explosions – a BP speciality?

The explosion on a BP rig off Louisiana on Wednesday will remind Americans of BP’s atrocious safety record. Eleven workers are missing and almost certainly dead, with seventeen injured after the “Deepwater Horizon” drilling rig blew up while drilling a deep well in the Gulf of Mexico. BP CEO Tony Hayward promised change when he took...