Lax Lex fails to plug the gaps

As BP struggles to plug its leaky well in the Gulf of Mexico, I wonder if the Financial Times's once respected commentary column, Lex, is struggling to fill its own holes left by a recent reshuffle.

In today's paper the column says: "The last time BP cut its dividend, by 50 per cent in 1992, its chief executive resigned shortly afterwards."

Bollocks. Back then, David Simon (later Lord Simon of Highbury) had just been appointed chief exec - and he hung around in that role until 1997. Might Lex actually be thinking of former BP chairman, Bob Horton, who resigned five weeks before the oil group cut the dividend?