He may still be more popular in Britain than he is in America, but these days the Brits have a new message for President Barack Obama.
Back off.
As the Obama administration has joined the chorus of U.S. politicians lambasting BP over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, a plume of anger is rising across the Atlantic at what many see as an unfair castigation of a British icon. U.S. officials have demanded that BP suspend dividend payments for the time being, and Obama has said he would have fired Chief Executive Tony Hayward if Hayward worked for him.
"The president should make it clear that he has no desire to destroy a great global company," Malcolm Rifkind, a former Cabinet minister, warned Friday. "The future of its chief executive is for the company to decide and not for the White House. While he might, as he has said, wish to 'kick ass,' he should concentrate his energies on more productive activity."
