Richard's Blog - January 2012

Ask Richard 15

Here are a few more answers to some of your many questions to me online. @MackODonnellyWhat advice would you give to someone who's recently grown a beard to trim it?@bruffstarIs it true you set a bin on fire for a job?Ryan Schade via FacebookWhat do you do when you're full of ideas and you can't keep focussed on just one?@careerlady1951Have you started to rebuild your home after the fire?@AcquireAssetWhat do you think Europe should do about the debt crisis?@AmberRenaeHow do you …

40 years of Virgin history now in a bank

Just occasionally an advert is more than an advert. Clever of the team launching Virgin Money to pick 40 years of Virgin history as a way of showing what people will get with our new bank.

Honour, courage, humility and humour with Ted Turner

My son and I stayed with Ted Turner on his estate in Florida earlier this week. An Estate that took me back to the era of Gone with the Wind. Quite beautiful. With gorgeous Oak Tress covered with drooping moss. Riding on horseback we were speaking about the importance of reputation and honour and how certain business leaders had destroyed their reputations by being too greedy. Ted has one of the quickest minds of anyone I know. He said one of the best lines on honour was written by Shakespeare …

Lunch with Stephen Hawking

I am very honoured to be invited to lunch with Stephen Hawking on Sunday to celebrate his 70th birthday. It should be a fascinating day with Britain's greatest living scientist and I'll do my best to share some of the highlights with you. Stephen is also one of the first going into space with Virgin Galactic and he is passionate about the need for mankind to start exploring and occupying other planets."

Energy dramas in 2012

Struck by this email from my friend Dr Jeremy Leggett over Christmas highlighting the growing divide between those that believe in the absolute necessity of investing in renewable fuels and those who ignore the obvious need – preferring to focus on short term goals and profits. I believe we must keep investing in alternative fuels to help reduce our Global carbon problem. Those fearing that economic growth will be stifled by investment in renewables are wrong. We should look at these new i…

Newcastle United and Virgin Money

When Crystal Palace got into the FA Cup Final back in 1990 (with current Newcastle manager Alan Pardew in the team) we swore never to sponsor another football team. Just thought we could never get lucky twice.Today looks like I was mistaken. It was Manchester United that beat Crystal Palace in that FA Cup Final. Well done Newcastle for sweet revenge!Ok, I accept we're jammy bastards!…

Lessons to learn from Costa Rica

My daughter Holly and son-in-law Freddie later tonight have dinner with the ex-President of Costa Rica, Jose Maria, on the first night of their honeymoon in San Jose.It was his father who abolished the army, navy and air force 60 years ago. As a result the people have flourished with great education and health services. May all other countries learn from this, and from what Cuba did, and send doctors out into the world – not bombs.

This caught my eye

Don’t know if anyone else in the UK has spotted this on during ad breaks on TV yet? Very mysterious, will try and find out more…

Time to change Britain's time zone?

Samoa and Tokelau have changed their time zone by 24 hours to fit in with their principal trading partners. Britain should change it's time zone by one hour to be on the same time zone as the rest of Europe. There would be numerous benefits. Little downside. If Scotland wants to remain one hour behind Europe, they can opt to do so, but this should not deter England and Wales from changing. Scotland could also consider children going to school one hour later.…

Necker moon

Took a photo of the moon above Necker to help decide where to put the Virgin Galactic hotel! Photos by Charlie Smith

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