Richard's Blog - January 2013

Time to retire the morality police

It's amazing what crops up on Twitter. A quite bizarre tale has been thrown up from Saudi Arabia, where 'Agents of the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice' (government-salaried vigilantes) decided to close down an educational exhibition featuring plaster models of dinosaurs - scaring children and parents in the process - on the grounds of enforcing public morality. It's nothing short of depressing to see the same old stories come out of Saudi Arabia, especially when las…

Plastic on our airlines

Came across this open letter from one of our passengers to David Cush, Virgin America CEO, and myself over the weekend. Having confronted the issue of plastic bottles on Necker recently it’s good to see passion for reducing waste alive in our businesses too, here’s my response… Dear Beth, Thank you very much for your post! I agree with your thoughts on how we must leave 'no stone un-turned' in terms of looking for ways to reduce waste. It’s appreciated when someone take…

Time to stop blast fishing

This shocking video has emerged from the Mentawai Island chain, a collection of roughly 70 small islands which are part of Indonesia. As you can see from the footage, some local fishermen are using gunpowder to stun or kill schools of fish before collecting them. The process, known as ‘blast fishing’, spells destruction for the ecosystem that exists on the ocean floor. The area was badly affected by the tsunami in 2004 and as a result social conditions on the islands are poor. The…

Recruit with Conviction

Anyone who knows me and Virgin will tell you we have always been willing to stand on the edge of convention, to come up with new ways of looking at things and new ways of doing things. We have supported youth culture and, as a business, have stayed young in heart and spirit.We have believed in giving people opportunities – to be creative, innovative, independent and open-minded. That means also standing against prejudice. One of the areas of prejudice that we are in danger of increasing …

Who is your lookalike?

Who is your lookalike? Virgin Media are on the lookout for the best doppelgangers around. They’ve found an excellent Usain Bolt lookalike, and the world’s fastest man will be judging the competition himself. Enter your own lookalike and you could win all sorts of goodies, from new tablets to signed Usain books and t-shirts. While in the UK recently, I found my very own lookalike. What do you reckon? He even likes his tea the same way. Head over to Virgin Media to find out more…

From Student to Change

Today marks the 45th anniversary of the first issue of Student, the magazine I created as a teenager that started the Virgin story.We first published Student on January 26th 1968. Take a look at the cover - it featured the likes of Vanessa Redgrave and David Hockney, and was a youth-culture magazine that protested against the Vietnam War.To get it started, all it took was a few pennies to call advertisers and contributors from the school phone box, a lot of determination, and a bit luck.I̵…

Cardio Tennis

It is no secret that we are big tennis fans. We held the Necker Cup recently and a lot of fun – not to mention enjoyable sport – was had by all.Meanwhile, many of you will have been gripped by the Australian Open taking place at the moment. The Andy Murray v Roger Federer semi-final was a great match. Who do you think will win the tournament? My loyalties are torn between Necker Cup star Novak Djokovic and British favourite Murray – good luck to both. In the men’s doubl…

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