British Ethics: A Dark Comedy

North Sea Oil Drilling by crawfish head

Yesterday, January 6th 2011, the UK Parliamentary committee appointed to look into whether the government should enact a moratorium on deep-water drilling in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico-BP oil disaster, has ruled out the need for a halt to new projects before new regulations can be put in place.  In an absurd and stunning turn of logic, the report discusses the myriad of reasons why such a moratorium is necessary, particularly in the UK, before concluding that it is not necessary.  This freshman coalition government of the UK, by this report and an already long list of betrayals of the public interest, is demonstrating to statesmen and governments everywhere that constituents are not united in their willingness to defend their rights in the face of blatant misrepresentations and misallocations of public offices and resources.

The report makes light that any clean up of a spill in the North Sea, whose conditions are much less calm than in the Gulf of Mexico, would be infinitely more difficult.  The report suggests a number of regulations which should be enacted, both to safeguard against possible accidents as well as to prepare in the event of such accidents; also the report demonstrates how British law is murky as to who could be held legally accountable in the event of a spill.  However, without imposing a moratorium, there is little impetus for government and business to work together to put such regulations in place.  Companies such as BP and Chevron have been moving ahead with their projects in the North Sea with approvals and licences, furnished by Cameron's coalition government even while the BP well in the Gulf of Mexico was still hemorrhaging oil.

Indeed, a veritably horrifying dark comedy is unfolding in the UK, which makes a mockery of ethics, representative government, and makes plain the arrogance of power.  David Cameron's pledge to make the new coalition government the "greenest government ever" seems as conniving and opportunistic a statement as the installation on his home of a wind turbine, machines which he previously cynically referred to as "bird-blenders." 

BP Deepwater Horizon Gulf Oil Disaster, by US Coast Guard

First, there are the appointments made by the incoming "austerity" Prime Minister Cameron who came to office after the Gulf Oil disaster began.  Johann Hari reports that "The Prime Minister thought the best person to be his 'Cuts Tsar' was John Browne... he was the head of BP, until he was forced to resign in 2007 because he was shown to have lied in court testimony... Browne arrived at BP promising to do exactly what Cameron is promising to do to the British state... He said you could slice out great chunks of staff and provide the same standard of service.  The workers he sacked included BP's specialist engineers... As the investigative reporter Tom Bower has written: 'Hundreds were fired and replaced by subcontractors... Browne ditched BP's in-house expertise'...  The consequences were soon clear. BP's Texas City refinery blew up, killing 15 workers, and the official investigation found that BP 'tolerated serious deviations from safe operating practices, and apparent complacency toward serious safety process risks at each refinery.' Browne carried on cutting anyway, in a process Bower argues 'led directly to the current catastrophe' (Gulf spill)... the Prime Minister believes the best person to oversee his cuts agenda is an oilman whose last cuts destroyed the Gulf of Mexico... It's an inspiring model to apply to our schools, hospitals, and transport."

There is the appointment of oilman Tim Eggar as a government liaison to oil companies.  Eggar's recommendations helped shape budgetary and energy policy which, in spite of Cameron's public stance of fiscal restraint and green government, gave major tax breaks to oil companies and incentives to continued expansion of exploration and operations in the North Sea. 

Among other appointments, there is Conservative Cameron's appointment of Lib-Dem MP Vince Cable to 'Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills' as an ostensible gesture of unity in the formation of a coalition government between the Conservative and Lib-Dem parties.  Cable is a former Shell executive from back in the day when Shell was working with the Nigerian military to dispossess landholders and murder dissident leaders such as Ken Saro-Wiwa.  Recently he boldly stated to UK students that his Lib-Dems "didn't break a promise" in the wake of the trebling of their university fees, in spite of a Lib-Dem manifesto which plainly committed the Lib-Dems to explicitly opposing any changes to or increases of fees.  Cable's portfolio and ministry was directly responsible for the new fee structure, and while feeling the public heat before the vote on the matter he insinuated he might abstain from voting in parliament on the new fees - which itself would still have been a denial of his party's platform to oppose changes to the fee structure - he went ahead and voted in favor of raising tuitions anyway.  He is further chameleonic in his self re-branding as a left-wing politician, after years of supporting economic liberalisation in the form of proposals to privatise UK health insurance as well as Tony Blair's liberalisation of financial markets, which in turn helped to create bank failures and housing bubbles in the UK. 

Sherwood Forest, by Puptoes74

Perhaps bolder than all these political maneuverings is the decision by Cameron's government to put all of Britain's forests up for sale, a move that has already seen private interests move in to purchase and fence in forests previously accessible to the public.  Only a few regulatory changes stand in the way of these National treasures being razed to the ground for timber, development and a quick profit.  Indeed, there seems little other purpose than that to purchasing the land, which in its current form can provide no income for the purchasers to recoup their investment.  The irony of the famous Nottingham/Sherwood Forest being up for sale has not been lost on British journalists, who wonder aloud how Robin-Hood would react to having his hideout sold out from under him.

Those following Cameron's government more closely would point out further betrayals, not just of single promises, but of the cornerstones of his party's and supporter's political ethics:  Halting any increases to payments to the EU in a time of austerity; Protecting pensioners from increased costs of living; the list goes on.  He has baldly favored his political and business allies at the expense of his honor and credibility among the votership.  In spite of this, is it possible he believes he could win a second election?

English "Bird=blender" c. 1820, by Martin Pettitt

The actions of the coalition government in the UK have been a bold rejection of the fear of being held accountable.  They evidently know that they can say one thing plainly and just as plainly do the opposite.  They apparently believe that the public will accept the Orwellian truth that 2 + 2 = 5.  People of free will and democratic tendencies the world over have much to fear from David Cameron's government, who by example is, so far, demonstrating to the unscrupulous and unethical everywhere that people at large will mainly fail to defend themselves.  Or perhaps it was he who inherited this knowledge from George Bush?  Of course, lies and duplicity are nothing new to politics.  But is it possible that it is such the norm, that the votership, still engaged at rates around 50% in English speaking nations, not only accepts this reality, but are more and more willing to cooperate with it?  Those who are not can certainly tell it to the riot police in the streets.


Read more about

David Cameron's appointments and environmental policy:
http://www.johannhari.com/2010/07/15/now-david-cameron-shafts-the-environment

UK parliament's report on deepwater drilling:
http://www.platts.com/RSSFeedDetailedNews/RSSFeed/Oil/8376186

UK forests up for sale:
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-for-sale--camerons-green-credentials-2177929.html

Vince Cable:
http://www.newstatesman.com/uk-politics/2009/09/mehdi-hasan