Branson sees off the French in record time across the Channel
SIR Richard Branson exacted revenge yesterday for England’s football defeat when he broke the 40-year-old world record for the fastest crossing of the Channel by an amphibious vehicle.
The Virgin chief, at the wheel of a £75,000 British-made Gibbs Aquada which travels at 130mph on land and 30mph on water, made the 22-mile crossing to Calais in 1hr 40min 6sec from Dover. The previous record was 6 hours set by two Frenchmen in 1964.
As you might expect, a flotilla of 30 motorised dinghies with cameramen and reporters followed Branson across the Channel while a helicopter hovered overhead. Officials from Guinness World Records were in the support party and verified the feat.
The Virgin publicist-in-chief, dressed in dinner suit and black bow tie, said: “We went much faster than we expected. We hoped to do it in slightly under two hours. It’s always great to break a record. It is particularly satisfying to have taken this record from the French so soon after they broke our hearts on the soccer pitch.”
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The only turbulence Branson encountered was from a cross-Channel ferry that sailed close by. The ensuing wake almost swamped Branson’s vehicle and the dinghies which were in hot pursuit.
Branson, 53, emerged from the amphibious vehicle clutching a Union Jack to the strains of the James Bond theme tune. “All I need is a pretty woman now,” he said.
At which point two attractive blondes in Virgin Atlantic uniforms appeared on cue.
Peer of the Year
LORD Strathclyde, Tory Leader in the Lords, has again been nominated for Peer of the Year by the respected House Magazine. The nomination came despite the unfortunate mishap of five Tory peers having the whip withdrawn after making vaguely positive noises about the UK Independence Party, but that setback was an aberration for the party’s jovial puppeteer.
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Flat rejection
THE commentator Germaine Greer has turned her feminist gaze to regeneration. Condemning a £2 billion plan to turn three listed gasholders at King’s Cross, London, into flats, she said, “I can only guess how many gasholders have already gone from urban centres across Britain, and in return we’ve got parking lots and supermarkets without a single decent building among them.”
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