Bast*rd Branson

Richard Branson has told Virgin Atlantic staff unhappy with the wages offered by the airline to quit. In a letter to 4,800 cabin crew, the Virgin boss warned he would not be meeting pay demands. It comes after union members voted to strike in January in protest against pay they say is lower than at other airlines, including British Airways. Branson admitted that rival airlines often offered better basic wages but said that they did not offer the perks that came with working for a "smaller, more friendly" company. The 48-hour strikes are scheduled for 9 and 10 January, and 16 and 17 January.

"For some of you, more pay than Virgin Atlantic can afford may be critical to your lifestyle and if that is the case you should consider working elsewhere," Branson said.

Easy for this parasite to say when his extravagent lifestyle depends upon the labour and toil of others . He was 9th in the Sunday Times Rich List 2006 worth just over £3 billion . Today, his net worth is estimated at over US$8 billion according to Forbes magazine . Branson's Virgin Atlantic admitted to colluding with British Airways on a fuel price-fixing scheme which cheated the customers of both airlines out of many millions of pounds.Branson did not see fit to apologise personally for his company's actions.
Branson's business empire is owned by a complicated series of offshore trusts and companies. The Sunday Times stated that his wealth is calculated at £3.065 billion; if he were to retire to his Caribbean island and liquidate all of this he would pay relatively little in tax. As the respected ex-City editor Frank Kane has written of Branson: "Financial journalists can make no sense of the figures filed by his companies, a mish-mash of around 250 private and offshore corporations, further confused by frequent changes of name at year-end."

Branson has a criminal record for tax evasion. When caught, he was fined £20,000 plus £40,000 in taxes, the equivalent today of nearly £1 million. In 1988, Branson wanted by buy Virgin Music back for the same amount of money, per share, that he had sold it for, valuing the company at £248m. The shareholders agreed, although they were unaware that Branson had already agreed to sell the same shares to Pony Canyon, a Japanese media company, for £377m.
During his launch of Virgin Cola in 1995, he claimed that his new drink had 10 per cent of the market, while, in truth, it had fallen to just 3.3 pc.
"We're earning £1m profits a week from Virgin Cola," Branson claimed.
However, insiders knew the business was actually losing money and was worth a fraction of his assessment.
Branson's ventures involving clothes, cosmetics and a Belgian-based airline, Virgin Express. In all three companies, the original investors lost money. He made a bid to buy Northern Rock on the cheap and the Daily Mail , no friend of the workers , describes Branson as the last man to be trusted with the company .

This self-seeking self-publicist should take a flying f*ck at himself .