John Wight’s Coronavirus Digest #1

In this edition:

Richard Branson’s rebirth as an enemy of the people, Piers Morgan’s rebirth as a tribune of the people, and Keir Starmer’s tie

First a confession. Though I do share the public revulsion and detestation of Richard Branson’s attempt to have the British treasury bail out his airline, while swinging in his hammock on his sun splashed tax exempt private island, I cannot in good conscience touch on the subject without offering up my own experience of Virgin as a lifesaver rather than public money taker.

After breaking my neck in a car accident in northern Mexico in the early 1990s, and with the British government refusing to foot the bill for an air ambulance to get me home after six weeks and two operations in a San Diego hospital — and being the product of a family whose poverty was life long in duration — Virgin stepped in to provide two free first class tickets for me and the nurse who was required to minister to my medical needs on the journey home. I don’t claim that Richard Branson was himself responsible for making the decision that allowed me to get home, but as the owner of the company there’s no doubt he was responsible for establishing the culture within Virgin that was.