But the scale of the damage to the ocean and the coastline has not been as bad as first feared.

And now that the BP has capped the well and the clean up is well under way, the damage to the company may also be more limited than was previously expected.

Although BP has come under immense criticism for failing to prevent the catastrophe and being too slow in its reactions, it is hard to think that any of its rivals, even its American competitors, would have done things any better.

Certainly outgoing chief executive Tony Hayward and chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg made a few public relations gaffes early on, but they were under enormous pressure, particularly from President Obama.

If BP’s reputation suffered as a result of the crisis, so too did Obama’s. He was quick to use the spill for political gain and to beat up what he wrongly called British Petroleum to curry favour with American voters. He did Anglo-US relations a lot of harm.

He was quick to heap the blame on BP, though not its US partners, when the spill happened, but has been slo

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Investors are feeling sickly after the rollercoaster ride on the financial markets this year.

The FTSE 100 pushed giddily higher from February to the middle of April, when went from 5,060 points to 5,825 and looked set to test the 6,000 barrier. But since then it has endured a stomach churning lurch back towards 5,000.

It has been a similar story for the euro which has hit a four year low against the dollar, while the pound has suffered ups and downs too.

The whiplash on the markets was triggered by worries that Greece’s debt crisis could see the country default on its loans and fall out of the euro.

Worse, other struggling countries could follow, threatening the future of the single currency.

All that against the background of a stuttering US economy, overheating in China and the prospect of a double dip recession.

Even the dreaded D-word has reared its ugly head again as some doom-mongers have talked about another depression.

Governments and central banks are pulling out all the stops to prop up the likes of Greece and p

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When things go wrong there can be a high price to pay, for the workers who risk their lives on the oil rigs as well as for the environment.

Eleven people died and 17 were injured when the Deepwater Horizon exploded. That should serve as a reminder of the bravery of those who work offshore, often in very difficult conditions.

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The cost of ecological damage caused by the slick is only just becoming clear as it gets closer to the shore, threatening some of the most important wildlife habitats in the world.

It is also a disaster for the reputation of BP. Chief executive Tony Hayward insists that the company was not to blame for the accident, but to his credit he has said that the firm will take full responsibility for cleaning up the spill.

There will be a financial cost for the company and shareholders have already felt the effects, with £13billion wiped off its stock market value in less than two weeks.

As well

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The way things are going it may not be long before the law is changed to introduce quotas of women in company boards.

A report by the Treasury Select Committee has suggested that a lack of females at the top of City firms may have hampered decision making in the run up to the financial crisis.

It is careful to stress that suggesting that having more women on board would have made the crisis less likely is stretching it a bit.

But even so chairman John McFall urges the City to “improve gender diversity”.

He says Parliament will want to see “evidence that this voluntary approach is yielding results”, but then comes the veiled warning: “If it does not then the pressure for compulsory measures is likely to grow”.

Gordon Brown has already hinted at some kind of compulsion, the French are pushing through a change in the law and the Norwegians already have one.

It’s clear that there’s something wrong when half the population accounts for just 12 per cent of boardroom jobs i

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Pressure is building up to make the battle of the sexes more equal when it comes to filling company directors’ seats.

Gordon Brown used International Women’s Day to call for more equality at the top of the corporate tree, hinting at changes in the law if progress is too slow.

That could mean imposing quotas on companies, though a half-way house would be to force stock market listed firms to explain their policy on females in the boardroom.

Norway introduced a 40 per cent quota on listed companies in 2005 and France is planning to introduce similar legislation.

The Norwegians can certainly tick the equality box, but the jury is still out on whether or not it has improved the quality of their businesses.

Since women make up half the population, it cannot be right that they make up just 5 per cent of chief executives and only 12 per cent of directors on the boards of Britain’s FTSE 100 companies.

Those that have reached the top have proved they are as good, if not bet

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