Coronavirus

[Oracle]

I’ve just found a pic on a Facebook group of the shop as I think it was.

There were a couple of steps up , under an arch , then a small door on the right. Pokey place.

It seems to be a solicitors now. They’ve moved the door to the right of what was the window, so the entrance now is straight off the road. It wasn’t way back when.

Yes that's just where i thought i remembered TOwer being!

The Bull Street one, was that the one almost on the corner of Corporation Street, opposite where the Wetherspoons is now? in the late 90's/early 2000's was also a rave/dance music outlet downstairs, and had loads of decks set up downstairs to try-before-you-buy the vinyl.

I'm sure at that time it was called something like The Depot, then at some point it changed to Tempest Records... gone now of course...

[Oracle]

They had hacked virgins computers, and were switch selling passengers telling them the virgin flights were cancelled. That’s not shenanighans, it is illegal.

Branson always has had trouble getting the U.K. establishment to play fair.
Civil servants took it on themselves to cheat.
He was cheated by BA, cheated in the train tenders, cheated in the lottery award. Even the NHS cheated him. Yet lefties put that down as him suing. All he wanted was the ethical tender process promised in law.
Why should he take it lying down when they cheat?

Hardly virtue signalling. His airline was better, the passengers thought so.

The EU has always cheated too.

I'm aware of the early 90s. Around the time BA's profits were in the 100s of millions and Virgin were trading at a loss.
The cost of the early 90s shenanigans were a few million an yes dirty tricks, and they paid for them, but Branson was an early form of virtue signaller. My airline is much better, more ethical etc than your airline.

Branson didn't leave it there. He tried for years to take them for 100s of millions in the States and it got kicked out.

In the mid 90s BA were on of my share "punts" when I first started to dabble. I did OK. Bought in, sold at a decent profit a couple of years later and then managed to pick them up cheap not long after and sell again at a profit.

My beef was how BA had been shafted by the EU Commission, Commissioner Kinnock at the time. BA led an action against Air France at the ECJ along with Lufthansa.
They won.
By a signature post case, Kinnock retrospectively reversed about 4 years of legal process.

[Witton Park]

[QUOTE=Oracle;660249]They had hacked virgins computers, and were switch selling passengers telling them the virgin flights were cancelled. That’s not shenanighans, it is illegal.

/QUOTE]

From what I can recall, Virgin needed to subcontract their system to BA. They didn't have a Departure Control System.
Virgin had their customers personal details added so they could contact them re any delays etc. That was something airlines didn't do at the time.

So it wasn't hacking in the sense we know. The information was there with BA as the airport.

Yes it was wrong, but BA ended up flying Virgin passengers for free as they had no endorsement.

[Oracle]

It was hacking , and breaches of data protection, but a lot worse too:

Eg BA impersonated Virgin staff. Redirected them to BA

What they did was criminal in the US
Lord king should have been sacked.

From what I can recall, Virgin needed to subcontract their system to BA. They didn't have a Departure Control System.
Virgin had their customers personal details added so they could contact them re any delays etc. That was something airlines didn't do at the time.

So it wasn't hacking in the sense we know. The information was there with BA as the airport.

Yes it was wrong, but BA ended up flying Virgin passengers for free as they had no endorsement.

[PeteS]

You remember oasis?
Was it still jossticks and afghans when you were there?

Sort of....
It would have been late seventies and into the eighties. There was still the odd stall selling hippy stuff but that was intermingled with punk, heavy rock gear, alternative fashion and various counter-culture outlets. Later on the new romantic scene kicked in when Barbarellas was the place to be seen and it was never the same again.

[Graham Breeze]

It was hacking , and breaches of data protection, but a lot worse too:

Eg BA impersonated Virgin staff. Redirected them to BA

What they did was criminal in the US
Lord king should have been sacked.

I've ordered Tom Bower's book "Branson: Behind The Mask".

I suspect he might not totally agree with you Oracle.

[PeteS]

Yes that's just where i thought i remembered TOwer being!

The Bull Street one, was that the one almost on the corner of Corporation Street, opposite where the Wetherspoons is now? in the late 90's/early 2000's was also a rave/dance music outlet downstairs, and had loads of decks set up downstairs to try-before-you-buy the vinyl.

I'm sure at that time it was called something like The Depot, then at some point it changed to Tempest Records... gone now of course...

That was the first virgin megastore. The Bull Street shop survived into the mid 80s I think. It was opposite what was John Lewis then. I think it's all offices on that side of the road now. It was near the corner with temple Row.

[Oracle]

I've ordered Tom Bower's book "Branson: Behind The Mask".

I suspect he might not totally agree with you Oracle.

Branson is complex.
He clearly is a showman.
He’s had successes and failures.
He is marmite, and the British establishment hate him.

I admire anyone who creates 10000 jobs.

But as for the dirty tricks, it’s all true: read Martyn Gregory’s book.
It was serious, deliberate and nasty. BA determined to put him out of business. On that, I expect bower to agree. Hard to disagree when it becomes high court evidence in excruciating detail.

[Travs]

So apparently there will be a compulsory quarantine introduced to air arrivals into the UK "in early may"... but until then, and for the past however many weeks, thousands of people a day are flying into UK airports, then going wherever they like...

And some UK budget airlines are opening up flights again into Europe shortly...

But don't go the park/beach/fell...

[anthonykay]

So apparently there will be a compulsory quarantine introduced to air arrivals into the UK "in early may"... but until then, and for the past however many weeks, thousands of people a day are flying into UK airports, then going wherever they like...

And some UK budget airlines are opening up flights again into Europe shortly...

Meanwhile, New Zealand has been quarantining all arrivals since the middle of March. Interesting how they have had very few COVID19 cases (even relative to their population).