Clegg warns of ‘megaphone diplomacy’ over BP oil spill
By politics.co.uk staff
The deputy prime minister has warned against “megaphone diplomacy”, as the US and UK governments make concerted attempts to ensure the oil spill catastrophe did not affect bilateral relations.
“I’m not going to start intervening in a debate which clearly risks descending into megaphone diplomacy,” Mr Clegg said during a visit to Madrid.
“I think everyone is united on both sides of Atlantic obviously, quite rightly, and understandably within US administration and I’m sure within BP itself, to deal with this problem. It is an ecological catastrophe – It does need to be dealt with.
“I don’t frankly think we will reach a solution to stopping release of oil into the ocean any quicker by allowing this to spiral into a tit for tat political diplomatic spat,” he continued.
“So I and whole of the British government want to play our role, as much as we can, our constructive role to find a solution to what is a huge environmental disaster.”
President Obama will meet with prime minister David Cameron over the weekend, where the spill is set to be top of discussions.
“This is not about relations between the United States and its closest ally,” said US state department spokesman PJ Crowley.
“BP is a private company and this is about the impact of a tragedy in terms of the explosion of the oil platform and the resulting oil spill,” he told reporters.
Mr Cameron has walked a careful line over the issue and refused to criticise the president’s rhetoric, as some of his backbenchers and the Tory mayor of London have demanded.
It emerged today that the amount of oil gushing from the leak per day stands at 1.7 million gallons – double most previous estimates.
A device placed on the well by BP shows some limited signs of success, but the problem is live and currently unresolved.
Mr Obama’s attacks on BP became markedly more severe recently, when he said he wanted to know whose “ass to kick” in the company.
Most analysts considered the remarks a direct response to growing domestic criticism of his handling of the crisis. But the president has to rely on BP technology to plug the spillage, and he cannot allow his animosity towards the company to hinder efforts to end the crisis.
British political figures had been irritated by Mr Obama’s use of the name ‘British Petroleum’ – a name the joint US-UK company has not used for some time.
“BP needs to do everything it can to deal with the situation, and the UK government stands ready to help,” Mr Cameron said yesterday.
“I completely understand the US government’s frustration. The most important thing is to try to mitigate the effects and get to grips with the problem. It’s something I will discuss with the American president when we next talk.”
