Re: #BoycottVirgin
 

Branson does not own VM Liberty Global does. Just correcting your misinformation again

Re: #BoycottVirgin
 

I'll take Branson over Sir Philip Green any day.

Re: #BoycottVirgin
 

I wouldn't bother either if I were them, if past government's gave a toss about these areas they wouldn't have needed European handouts in the first place

Re: #BoycottVirgin
 

Exactly.

Cornwall got extra as its GDP was less than 75% of the EU average, so it received convergence funding, same funding chain as Eastern European nations, to try and bring it closer to the wider EU.

As a councillor of mine proved very few realise how many programmes the EU was actually funding.

All well and good saying it was our money, which is true, but our own governments clearly had other priorities.

Re: #BoycottVirgin
 

Arguably, EU schemes, ultimately funded as they are by our own contributions, are a disincentive to Government action. It also neutralises regional depravation as an election issue.

These sorts of things should be front and centre of UK government policy. Perhaps, when the government of the day can no longer shrug its shoulders and outsource the problem to Brussels, the debate will change and we will start to take an appropriate interest in them.

Re: #BoycottVirgin
 

Hopefully it will be money well spent rather than things like cycle lanes that lead to nowhere and suddenly stop.

In Bolton several years ago they reduced the bypass to one lane each way from two to provide a cycle lanes that no-one uses. All under EU funding.

Re: #BoycottVirgin
 

Or we'll just have huge swathes of the country left to rot like in the '80's, I believe the government of the day thought that exactly the appropriate amount of interest to take in them.

Re: #BoycottVirgin
 

He has no operational involvement in Virgin Media, I'm not even sure if he is still a shareholder.

The only involvement he has is the £30 million he puts in sky rocket each year from leasing his brand to VM.

Re: #BoycottVirgin
 

In fairness to Cornwall, its councils warned its inhabitants about losing EU funding if we left the EU. They are now seeking reassurances from the Government that it will be replaced by UK funding. It's not the councils who made their bed but their naive residents who trusted the Leave Campaign's many, often contradictory, promises.

---------- Post added 11-07-2016 at 00:00 ---------- Previous post was 10-07-2016 at 23:43 ----------

He's not a shareholder, VM is 100% a subsidiary of LGI.
In fact, many Virgin-branded businesses are largely owned by other companies eg
Virgin Music - 100% by Universal Music
Virgin Wines - 100% Mobeus Equity Partners and Connection Capital
Virgin East Coast Trains - 90% Stagecoach Group
Virgin Books - 90% by Penguin Random House
Virgin Active - 80% by Braite
Virgin Radio UK - 100% by News Corp

---------- Post added at 00:05 ---------- Previous post was at 00:00 ----------

Liverpool's been transformed by EU funding and has been one of the fastest-increasing cities for contributing taxes to the UK.
It's not the EU's fault if councils' schemes don't work out as planned, it's up to the councils themselves to devise robust plans.

---------- Post added at 00:06 ---------- Previous post was at 00:05 ----------

Totally. Or Mike Ashley.