Every now and again – as I’m sure most people do – I catch mention of something that I suddenly feel inspired to Google. Earlier on the local news, Richard Branson was mentioned. ‘Cool guy’ I thought, ‘Let’s look him up’. So I did, and what I found initially impressed and even excited me: Branson’s empire of Caribbean islands, megayaghts, airlines, spacecraft and just about everything else under the sun seemed exotic. I thought I liked him at first – he did have a cameo in Casino Royale, after all. But then I looked a fraction deeper, and found a man who definitely is not cool: a man who has been accused of evading tax; a man who once proposed paying NHS GPs to refer patients to virgin healthcare. I soon saw him as just another capitalist, albeit a lucky, charismatic one. I had fallen briefly into neoliberal hero worship. Thinking about it this afternoon, I realised that such people should not be seen as heroes, for they are just greedy. Who cares how many private islands a guy has. It would be far cooler if he had used his energy and luck to contribute to society, to improve everyone’s lives not just his own. As I was saying to dad when he visited earlier, we must see ourselves as members of a group rather than as individuals. We need to progress as one. Yes, Branson might give to charity to salve his bourgeois guilt, and may even profess left-wing tendencies, but the essential fact remains others starve while he sips martinis on his private beach; and the same selfish mentality which won him his empire also motivates the Tories and their cuts, currently doing so much damage.