BRANSON THE BILLIONAIRE BEGGAR: nationalise, don't subsidise!

I don't think I'm unique in feeling increasingly irritated by attempts at guilt-tripping the low-paid and average-paid worker to cough up for all sorts of charity drives for the NHS. 

Don't misunderstand what I'm saying: the NHS is a cause that cannot be matched for its worthiness, especially in these times of horrendous, fearful crisis, when NHS staff (along with millions of other workers) are risking their own lives to save others. 

But since when did it become a charity? 
Is that what the Tory government have in mind for it after the current pandemic fades a bit? 
Sell even more of it off to private profiteers, cut taxes on the rich even further, slash funding even more than they've done for several decades already - and have incessant charity appeals, which those on modest incomes tend to pay far more towards proportionately than the rich do?

It's especially annoying when you look at what else is going on in this lockdown, with the wholesale bailout of big business by the same working-class and middle-class taxpayers who are being shamed by charity appeals.  

One of the most grotesque sights in the Covid-19 crisis is the queue of begging billionaires asking for bailouts from the public purse, in the form of government tax breaks and other grants.

Near the front of the queue is Sir Richard Branson. 


He's the 312th richest person in the world, and the 6th richest in (?) Britain, with a personal fortune of £4.2billion.

Branson lives on and owns the private 30-hectare Necker Island, part of the British Virgin Islands archipelago. 

Branson on his private Caribbean beach: is this his idea of social distancing?

But he recently reassured us he does so“to take advantage of the weather rather than the tax breaks”! 


Not entirely true. 


Last month Branson shifted his $1.1billion stake in Virgin Galactic Holdings - his business for space tourism for billionaires - from Delaware in the USA to the Virgin Islands. He did so on the very same day (16 March) as share prices on the USA Dow Jones Index collapsed at the worst rate for any single day on record. 


Over the past 22 years Branson has collected £306million in dividends from Virgin Trains, and by getting those dividends sent to him on his island, he's had it entirely tax free. 


From the safety of his island, Branson now has the audacity to demand £700million in a bailout from the Australian government and another £500million from the British government.

He's backed in these demands by the bosses of Airbus which makes Virgin planes and Rolls Royce which makes its jet engines.

Meantime, Branson laid off 8,000 Virgin Atlantic staff, telling them to either take extended unpaid leave or take voluntary redundancy. 

Branson's Necker Island house: that reminds me, I must do the hoovering!

This brass-necked billionaire beggar has paid no income tax whatsoever in Britain since moving to the tax-free British Virgin Islands 14 years ago. 


In the spirit of entrepreneurship, his portfolio also includes Virgin Care, who were awarded £2billion worth of NHS and local authority healthcare deals.

You've guessed it: Virgin Care have not paid a penny in Corporation Tax and is ultimately controlled by Virgin Group Holdings in British Virgin Islands, one of the world’s main tax havens. 


Health campaigner Dr John Lister earlier this year accused Virgin healthcare of “playing a parasitic role in the NHS, fragmenting services, poaching NHS-trained staff and undermining nearby NHS Trusts." 


Now the Blairite billionaire is shamelessly rattling his begging bowl, demanding public subsidy for his private profit.

Branson is but one grotesque example of the queue of similar big business beggars who expect the working class to endanger their lives at work or take a 10% to 20% pay cut - if they're lucky enough not to be made redundant.

Bird's eye view of Branson's house: I could do lockdown in that space! 

Instead of subsidising private profit for the parasitic rich, we should demand democratic public ownership of their assets. 


The airline industry should be nationalised – not subsidised - to integrate it into a modernised public transport system, which can plan free public transport, reduction on reliance on air travel. 
Alongside democratic public ownership of rail and bus services - including Virgin Trains. 

Measures to not only combat the growing climate crisis - which they vastly contribute to - but also create hundreds of thousands of skilled, well-paid, unionised jobs in a socialist Green New Deal.