Mr Blatherskite only asks because his blueyonder email has been down today (again), despite all this rubbish that Virgin Media send through the post about it being "the mother of all broadband." Well it isn't, it's crap. Then we have Virgin Trains, and I yield to Guardian columnist Simon Hoggart over this one. Simon says (cue cheesy music) that Virgin Trains are rubbish because they're always late, overcrowded and half the trains are first class carriages with no-one in there. He also noted last week that the decision to make half these trains first class was made by Branson personally. That's man of the people Branson, by the way. Other train companies do this too of course, GWR out of Paddington to Reading and Oxford has half the train comprised of empty first class carriages while everyone else squeezes into the Ryanair-style second class seats. And the buffet section is always closed. So it's crap too, basically. Branson is still licking his wounds over his failure to land Northern Rock, but that was his fault for being too greedy. Northern Rock is actually a licence to make money at the moment as it takes in zillions of deposits and stuffs mortgage payers. Virgin Atlantic is a good product but the rest of the Branson empire is decidedly average. His awful email service being the worst of the lot (Mr Blatherskite rarely travels to Manchester). Come on Richard, up your game.