Within Reason

Even as one member of the energy cartel squeals with horror and sacks people at the prospect of paying some taxes, in accordance with the serene balance of the markets another deserving cause has just handed its chief executive a double-strength payout. Bernard Looney, head of environmental sanity at British Petroleum, received £3.8 million in salary and bonus and a share award of six million, besides one or two other benefits in case of hardship. BP has admitted to annual profits of twenty-three thousand million thanks to the benevolence of Vladimir Putin and the heating and/or eating expenses of some expendables on the mainland: a performance to which the Looney payout was explicitly linked by the chair of the company's pay committee. In mitigation, the bonus was slightly reduced because of an increase in "recordable injuries" among the workforce, and the termination of four human resources before their work potential had been fully actualised.