Mary1:

As a simple rule of thumb about Branson: if he's behind something, it's an incompetently-managed stunt.

He's responsible for overwhelmingly the worst railway company in Europe: and by any standards, the service he provides on that railway is far, far worse than when those services were operated by bureaucrats.

He's the main protagonist in trying to squeeze RyanAir out of Charleroi (because when a real entrpreneur competes with him, the little mummy's boy can't take the pressure).

And Concorde was just another stunt. The Concordes couldn't be maintained because Airbus Inustrie simply refused to continue providing maintenance facilities. So Branson's plan was to run Concorde, for GBP1 below BA's first class fare, until the aircraft were within an ace of falling from the sky. Using the fact that - say - a year's rental of these planes for 5 million was pretty good value, if you stood a reasonable chance of recouping most of the investment as souvenirs at the end of the process.

This had nothing to do with sustaining technology. It was a way of continuing his fantasist pissing contest with BA (in which he's the only contestant), while acquiring the raw material for thousands of tacky souvenirs.

If he devoted one millionth of the time to running the monopoly railway he controls in much of England, he might stop being a national laughing stock.

And if you're not careful, I'll tell you what I really think.

I wrote already in the forum today that there are some strange things happening with the posts. Flanneruks reply to me first came with Tulips as the posters name. I was about to ask Tulips why he/she had such opposing posts when the name changed to flanneruks.
To flanneruks- he makes a good enough job with Virgin flights- I don't see why he couldn't be given a chance. Can't comment on his trains as I haven't tried them!

Agree about the rail, but I have to say, the first time I flew Concorde to Barbados (and business class BA back) Virgin had just started flying to that destination. Imagine my surprise to receive a letter saying that BA had reduced its fares to Barbados, and we had to pay less than what we originally booked for. That was a first for me (an airline reducing its fares AFTER I had booked), and it would not have happened if Virgin had not started flying there.