Virgin on the ridiculous

There is no denying that Richard Branson is a business genius, you don't make a billion without getting something right after all, but he is a fool in equal measure. Pretty much every press launch I have been to Branson has ensured the focus of media attention is on him and some silly stunt, be that hanging from a crane in a spacesuit or jumping off a tall building and doing himself no favours in the family jewels department. Occasionally, it seems to me, the tomfoolery crosses over from the PR side of things and encroaches on business territory. It is the only explanation I can think of when I have had the misfortune to travel on a (late as usual) Virgin train. It is also the only reason I can think of that he entered into that war of words with Sky TV, a war that was truly verging on the ridiculous and which every outsider I spoke to agreed he could never win.