The Staggers

The New Statesman’s rolling politics blog

Richard Branson: There should be a European army - and we should privatise Radio 1

A preview of David Miliband's interview with the Virgin boss.

By New Statesman Published 12 July 2012 15:39

Richard Branson in Las Vegas. Photograph: Getty Images

In this week’s NS Interview, the Virgin Group founder, Richard Branson, tells David Miliband that Europe should have a single army:

“Governments worldwide are spending more than they’re making. So, if you take the army, air force and navy, it would seem to make great sense for us to try to work as one in Europe. We’d end up having a much more powerful army, maybe an air force to try to defend the continent as a whole, and would reduce cost dramatically by working with the rest of Europe. I suspect we will end up going to war less often because we will know that Europe is that much stronger when it comes to defence and we will save a lot of money.”

Branson also calls for the privatisation of BBC Radio 1 as part of looking into “every single aspect” for saving money in Britain:

“As much as it’s great to have the BBC as a public-service operator, if you privatised Radio 1, gave it strict remits, put the money back into the rest of the BBC, that would help fund the public-service aspect of the BBC and it would make sense.”

Asked by Miliband about the crisis of culture in banking, Branson reveals that he tax-dodged when he was younger:

“I learned my lesson when I was 21 years old when I had a rap on my knuckles for trying to save some money on exporting some records and not paying my taxes properly. And I decided that I wanted to sleep well at night."

Businesses would be foolhardy, says Branson, to not hire tax lawyers:

“Our English companies will pay British taxes, our overseas companies will pay overseas taxes and lawyers will tell us how to mitigate taxes as much as possible. Every company will take that kind of advice. And not to take that advice leaves you uncompetitive.”

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20 comments

Wed, 2012-07-18 13:54 — Goji (not verified)

Nice article..... interesting.
Goji Goji fructe goji

Sun, 2012-07-15 00:58 — mbrecker (not verified)

Actually, go one step further with the BBC. If you're going to censor people for no valid reason and spend millions to get the "hot" names for chat shows, then just do away with the license fee. Call yourself 100% commercial and compete with everyone else.

Sun, 2012-07-15 00:47 — Posh Tosh (not verified)

Nationalise the railways as we are bailing them out for the greatest investment stolen off the pensioners off the pensioners,taxpayers and workers since Queen Victoria was alive.

Stop cowboy outfits running part train companies , making ours the most expensive in Europe, and then getting us to pay what their shareholders ought be investing in.

Mr Branson - you comfortable go along with the bankers, the politicians, done any more protest T-shirts to sell the addresses to US security since the Vietnam War made you rich?

Sat, 2012-07-14 04:38 — Will581Stan (not verified)

Yeah, they can do certain things useful with their brains... ANN3 has it correct.

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Fri, 2012-07-13 22:07 — Davidaslindsay (not verified)

The worst of the 1960s meets the worst of the 1980s: the Branson-Miliband platform, previously known as New Labour.

Fri, 2012-07-13 22:51 — Herbert (not verified)

Precisely.

Fri, 2012-07-13 23:27 — Davidaslindsay (not verified)

D Miliband, obviously.

E Miliband is very much under the influence of the antidote, on which see http://davidaslindsay.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/blue-horizons-and-beyond.html and http://www.lulu.com/shop/david-lindsay/confessions-of-an-old-labour-high....

Fri, 2012-07-13 21:24 — ClaireL (not verified)

@ Frances Smith

Here's the viewpoint of someone "out there on the street - that you've never heard of before"! I agree that Branson should stay out of pontificating nationally what he thinks about army procedure. He should stick to what he's good at, business. It's typical that when someone gets to be a major success, they start playing God with politics and military procedure and stuff they really know little about. It's obvious he knows little about what's going on with the big bankers wanting world domination with money, governments and their military, making a one world government, not a democracy, but a totalitarian tyranny, because that appears to be their aim. Unless he prides himself among the big banking elite these days, in which case, he's lost any esteem I ever had for him.

Fri, 2012-07-13 16:47 — Herbert (not verified)

I'm beginning to wonder - how much did David Miliband pay the New Statesman for this publicity opportunity? We know things are bad at the NS, but are they really this bad?

Fri, 2012-07-13 15:17 — Qwertboi (not verified)

The boss of VirginEasyMoneyfromtheState shows himself to be a lowlife.

I'm looking forward to reading the whole interview in the physical New Statesman.

"There, but for the grace of g*d......"

Fri, 2012-07-13 21:32 — Clens (not verified)

Just shows how deep a thinker this guy Branson is doesnt it, Europe has quite enough trouble without trying to have a Euro army! We do however have NATO which is something different. Its hard enough to get the UN to agree anything militarily. Now the olympic games - yes they should have an army!

You can just hear the Branson wheels going round cant you - oh yes Virgin Radio one, and a European air force, I would be really cool running that too.

Fri, 2012-07-13 12:24 — frances smith

ok, this is not the whole interview, but miliband asks branson about the crisis of culture in banking and branson starts talking about tax avoidance.

there are millions of people out there on the streets who don't know how to solve the banking crisis, why not save time and money and just interview one of them? and it might increase sales as we are all quite bored with richard branson now, but the views of someone we have never heard of would be refreshing and new.

why are so many new labour blairites so convinced that rich celebrities have any idea how to solve the problems of the real economy and real world when their contact with it is so limited.

time to remove this cancerous growth of celebrity worship from politics, when can we start?

Fri, 2012-07-13 12:24 — the cleptoid (not verified)

what a dull interview. miliband - wake up. your playing behind the scenes carefully composing ur image for the next leap, when your party stands in shame, like the other two main parties in england. im bored as heel with your voice, wake up man.

Fri, 2012-07-13 12:22 — Silican (not verified)

Your view is premised on the idea that tax laws are decided by the demands of the electorate rather than those paying £250,000 for a meal with the PM, hundreds of thousands to parties or millions to lobbyists/think tanks (lobbyists with charitable status). Do you think that the view of the electorate was that the top rate of tax should be dropped to 45% while the 40% threshold should be dropped to £35,000 (therefore even lower in real terms)?

Fri, 2012-07-13 11:23 — Herbert (not verified)

What a pair of chancers. Branson always likes to ingratiate himself with whoever can help him out - Thatcher, Blair... you'll always find him hanging around. He is one of the things that is badly wrong with this country.

Fri, 2012-07-13 10:30 — Poor.Old.Tired.Horse. (not verified)

Nice juxtaposition of quotes. So he doesn't dodge tax, but he will act on lawyers' advice to 'mitigate against tax'. Ultimately, what's the difference?
Further proof that despite his beardy hippy persona, he's just another businessman. I hope Milliband calls him out on this...

Fri, 2012-07-13 13:30 — Mrs.Josephine Hyde-Hartley (not verified)

I suppose the difference , whatever it may or may not be, is affected - perhaps even intentionally affected..like this.." hey i'm so big, rich and thick i thought i should do what these lawyers told me.."

But the thing is i daresay, who is instructing who here? I daresay burden of sorting out that little point might probably end up dumped on the taxpayer via the FSA or some other search type concern.

Fri, 2012-07-13 10:30 — Poor.Old.Tired.Horse. (not verified)

So he doesn't dodge tax, but he will act on lawyers' advice to 'mitigate against tax'. Ultimately, what's the difference?
Further proof that despite his beardy hippy persona, he's just another businessman. I hope Milliband calls him out on this...

Fri, 2012-07-13 10:51 — Frogger (not verified)

Premium bonds, ISAs, sale of your main property, zero rated VAT goods are all 'tax mitigation' activities. Should we be paying tax on these things in your world? At what rate?

Tax is a state imposed activity, so it is up to the state to define the rules, and change them in line with electoral demands. It is up to us to follow those rules, and because they ars so complex, experts are needed to help us do that.

A better argument would be that of radical simplification of the rules wouldn't it?