Thank Graham,
You are obviously very up to speed on these matters!
However, the information on the page that you kindly shared does not explain the logic behind why this is happening. It mentions '..for security reasons..' which implies their security is suspect , they question their competence to manage it, or that they are just offloading to Gmail and minimising their duties - I suspect the latter. There is also an irritating expectation to 'place the burden of work' upon their Customers, by requiring them to dance to the corporate tune and set up loads of free accounts elsewhere. This latter action will make people think "Why not just use the new account and not bother with the NTLWorld one that I am paying for!" This sounds to me, that Virgin want the revenue but not have all the faff with providing a service.
There is another element of irritation. Imagine that I have a single Gmail account - how does one access say, 10 remaining NTLWorld accounts.
As mentioned I have been with NTL/Virgin since God wore short trousers and am beginning to feel grossly abused. The concept of respecting Customer loyalty seems to be a source of much merriment amongst the people I speak to at Virgin, having suffered unreasonable price hikes and managed eventually to have my monthly charge of £35 for a miserable 100Mb frozen for some years but see that everyone else around me enjoying considerably faster speeds for a lot less per month. I suspect they will try it on again soon but I shall walk.
I appreciate that you are a VM Customer and please don't consider any of the above to be aimed at you for I and I am sure many, really appreciate your kind guidance and wisdom ! I only hope that the individuals in VM might stray across this and have the grace to spend a moment considering their stance.