This is a very sad day for me personally. Whether it is fair or unfair is not the point. I became the public face [of the disaster] and was demonized and vilified. BP cannot move on in the US with me as its leader … Life isn’t fair. Sometimes you step off the pavement and get hit by a bus.

— Demonized and vilified Tony Hayward, announcing his resignation as BP’s CEO with the kind of cringe-making quotes we’ve come to love him for.