“The Small People”

Given how bad a situation BP is in right now, I’m not sure it was a hot idea to have their non-native English speaking Chairman speak off the cuff in front of the TV cameras. But I feel like there’s at least some chance that to how much BP cares about the “small people” was a language barrier issue. I mean, it’s not even idiomatic English condescension. That would be referring to the “little people.” Any Swedish speakers out there who might be able to give us some insight into what phrase in Swedish he might have been carrying over into English?