Glory be. All the oil in the Gulf of Mexico, all those billions of barrels, that were supposed to devastate the fishing industry and the wetlands, has suddenly disappeared. Vanished without a trace. One day talk is of decades of pollution, death of all marine life,communities ravaged by loss of jobs, hound Tony Hayward and drive BP to bankruptcy and the next day there is no oil. The news anchor at CNN this morning was trying very hard. She had two experts who sounded positive and optimistic. One was of the opinion that the oil had genuinely gone. Oil is a volatile substance, lots of dispersant had been used, the effect of bacteria in the water and the dispersing effect of wind and tide had all helped. The anchor tried her best. Could the oil be hiding somewhere to emerge later? If the oil sinks to the lower levels where oxygen levels are low then it could hang around for very long time but if it stays in the aerobic layer of water it disperses very quickly was the answer. Could a lot of the oil have entered the food chain already? Possible but doubtful. Could the chemicals used to disperse oil have entered the food chain? The answer was ' don't know.' Such vast quantities of dispersants have never before been dumped into the ocean so we have to wait to see if they turn up in fish and oysters. Question is what does it do to US and British relations? The Obama administration treated BP very harshly forcing the company to pay out billions of dollars so that BP has reported $ 17 billion of losses in the last quarter. British pension funds are dependent on BP dividends so it is going to hurt British pensioners. Perhaps this will force the British to abandon their slave status and be free once more.