Tim Murgatroyd generally seems to rail against anyone who earns more than he does. Last week his anger was mainly directed at his arch nemesis Richard Branson (We’re throwing cash at the rich, May 7).

This throws up an interesting twist on class war. On one hand we have Tim, educated at Oxford. On the other hand we have Sir Richard, who is dyslexic and left school at 16 to make his way as an entrepreneur.

Among the businesses that he set up is Virgin Atlantic, taking on the bloated nationalised British Airways, facilitating competition in the UK long haul market for the first time. This led to cheaper fares and more choice for ‘ordinary people’ and helped pave the way for deregulation and the current low cost airlines.

More controversially there are his railway companies. Yes there are problems with the franchise model. But the service provided is far superior to that under nationalisation when British Rail was dogged by strikes, delays and cancellations. In 1997 (the year of privatisation of the train operating companies, or TOCs) some 4.15 million people used York Station. Last year it was 9.83 million. So Virgin (and the other TOCs) must be doing summat right.

The siren call of the far left for re-nationalisation can be alluring, but reality suggests privatised businesses are far better at running companies than the Government.

Mike Huffington,

Walmgate, York