A whip-round for Richard Branson?

branson needs whipping!he has taken and continues to take the michael! Didn't he lay off his workers at the start of the lockdown with no pay? A narcissistic smug tax dodger that somehow the rest of us are supposed to aspire to?!
No doubt he will get away with this, an absolute disgrace........

Having travelled on Virgin Atlantic I think I can safely say it wouldn’t be any loss to the travelling public?

I heard somewhere that using the interest alone on his personal wealth, RB could afford to keep his airline staff fully paid till the end of 2020.

Well I offered to have a whip round with what we had in our pockets. Poor lad, maybe he could do what the rest of us do when cash runs out. That is, find a job. I'm sure the NHS or a nearby Care Home would snap him up as a Cleaner.

ExD Just a small point but the vast majority of us pay Taxes ALL of our lives - Not just Income Tax on our pensions, but Council Tax, VAT, petrol tax, Insurance Tax and excise taxes. There is tax on our savings (if any) Even the poorest, like me, are taxed on most things we buy except food.

Strange to think that the average minimum waged person is paying more Tax in this country than is Branson.

Well, almost 100% agreement on here. I agree with everyone who has said Branson shouldn’t get the money, nor should Victoria Beckham. What is it about these people that makes them so entitled?
Also agree about the smaller business owners who get paid cash in hand and don’t declare their full income. So now they’ll only be paid according to what they’ve declared. Good.

Victoria and David are well hard up maddyone they must be to imbibe anything quite as cheap as £2,000 bottle of wine! Of course if the vulgar duo high profile twosome didn't constantly put all this out into the public domain, we'd be none the wiser. The 21st birthday party for their eldest son cost something in the region of £100,000 plus

Marmite he may be, but I'm having to agree with Piers Morgan, it's the morality of it. 30 small potatoes compared the loathsome gurning, self promoting, island owning individual's empire. Nevertheless VB's staff furloughed out of the public purse for what is a failed vanity project seems ridiculous, particularly as previously the fashion label has had to have massive cash injections out of the Beckham's own money as it made year on year losses, so why not now

Would the world be a sadder place without her utterly stupid looking overpriced frocks rather unusual garments, although sorry of course for her designers and cutters etc., as I have no doubt it's their input that has given the label any kudos.

30 small potatoes 30 IS small potatoes

This man is a parasite. He sued the NHS a few years ago didn't he? Now he wants more of taxpayers' money. He's an overly-privileged person and another one of those with a misplaced sense of entitlement. Even if he does mortgage his island he will still be coated in money, and frankly when I think of the people living in high rise apartments in big cities who don't have more than a few metres to walk around in, the idea that someone else, a human being with the same two arms and legs and inside organs, owns an island is sickening and immoral.

I’m just wondering if Richard Branson’s daughter has volunteered to work in the hospitals. She is a qualified doctor, but never actually bothered to work as such after her graduation. She was on my daughter’s course and he was at the graduation ceremony alongside ourselves.

To think, at one time he was a bit of a hero - building companies that were so different from the established , rather old fogey ones.

I understand than RB himself is registered as "non dom" so doesn't pay regular tax here either. Also that Delta Airlines owns a slug of Virgin - so really not that much of a British link for Virgin at all.
I don't know what proportion of the company is owned as shares by the British public, but it is hard to think of subsidising a company that is part owned by someone who doesn't pay tax here and by a foreign company.

I'm happy to be corrected by anyone who believes this information is wrong.

Can't post a link but he's written a letter to his 70000 staff explaining reasons

Worth a read if you find it on google

My wish is that he had all these comments posted to him in CAPITAL LETTERS. These people need to hear from Real People.

Apparently when British Airways was going under in 2009 he said that it shouldn't be bailed out by the British government as the routes freed up would simply be taken over by other companies such as Virgin which is what business is all about. So what's changed since 2009. Oh yes, now it's his company that is ripe for take over.

We are currently on the phone to Virgin Atlantic trying to get a refund for our flights to California which were for May 6th. We have been on the line for 45 minutes now and since there is no announcement to say where we are in the queue we have no idea how long we may have to wait to speak to somebody. If we do manage to speak to them and claim a refund we will have to wait up to 90 days for the money to be credited to our card but of course if they do go into administration who knows what we will get back, if anything. We have managed to get refunds on our hotel bookings and will be able to cancel our single trip travel insurance policy and get a full refund but of course the flights are the bulk of the money we spent.

1. He does not want tax payers money, he wants a loan just as you or I might arrange with the bank.
2. He bought his island about 40 years ago when it was uninhabited and has made it in part into a holiday centre employing about 150 staff.
3. He may be rich but this is not cash in the pocket but company assets. If he tried to sell his aircraft (and who today would see that as an investment?) he would lose the business and countless their jobs, which he is trying to save.
4. He pays the relevant tax into the country where the business operates.
So perhaps people need to have a little think before condemning the man for seeking to try and save his ship at no cost to the taxpayer...and the employment of many.

If all Branson requires for his Airline is a loan, then he can approach any of the large commercial banks.

I regard to his island, prior to him buying it and turning it into a luxury venue for the super-rich, it was an undeveloped magnificent habitat for wildlife.

His airline should be allowed to fall into administration if the commercial banks do not wish to grant loans to it. From there the British government could take it over as a going concern at a rock bottom price as a medium-term investment for the nation.

He can pay up himself, I'm sick of the British government having to pay for people who can well afford to look after themselves

This is the man whose company Virgin Care sued the NHS after it lost out on an £82million contract to provide children's health services in Surrey in 2016. The NHS had to pay out an "undisclosed sum" to VC - so I think he's already had plenty of tax payers money. Let Virgin Atlantic sink. There will be another airline along to take its place as soon as this crisis is over, and they will provide plenty of jobs.

The owner of Necker really has got some NECK.

Unfortunately our virgin flight to Florida for our Golden Wedding was cancelled. Still waiting for a refund. It’s the best part of £1000. Unhappy bunny.

What he really cares about is his name. Had he sold VA then he would not be bothered.

As for his wealth, whether it was £4.7billion at some time that figure will be very much reduced in currect circumstances. Of course he does not have cash available, it is all investments. Then to realise some of those investments, if at all possible, he would have to do so at a considerable loss.

We can be sure that he has enough money to keep funding his personal lifetyle, but just like the vast majority of wealthy people his approach is to make more and more money from investments and is wholly committed to that. Pity he has not followed the advice of the Sage of Omaha who has shown all of us how to so it and the Branson way is not like that.

Warren Buffett is (and has done) keeping cash in the bank until he finds the investment that fulfils his investment model. He has made a few mistakes but those have been eclipsed by all the better ones. The man is a legend in his own lifetime.I'll bet all those high fliers are wishing they had followed his example.

I really, really hope that when the dust settles on this global experience we can remember what was of actual importance to us in our time of need, and value those people (key workers) and things (decent food and medical supplies) in future.

What we seem to be managing without are vacuous celebrities leeching off us, and most of the ways we've been killing the planet. If we don't stampede back to those things, there'll be more of a future for everyone.

Branson has good PR. He promotes the happy chappie face of an avuncular uncle.

I don’t like his other face.

Cheeky sod.