The Northern Echo:

 

YOU could hear the groans of Virgin Money's public relations advisers all over the North-East this morning...

The aim had been to calm the choppy waters surrounding the future of the Northern Rock Foundation - the North-East's biggest charity - and keep it afloat.

But Sir Richard sailed into the North-East in a blunt mood and chucked in a whopping great rock by telling the foundation to "get off their arse and prove themselves".

Queue the groans. It was hardly a comment like to galvanise the foundation or the North-East business community, was it?

With Virgin Money having taken over Northern Rock in the wake of the banking crash, there is no longer the same level of financial commitment to the foundation. It was naive to think that there would be.

Nevertheless, the company is willing to inject £1m a year into good causes, via the foundation, as long as other North-East companies make up the £3m annual shortfall.

It is a sum which has disappointed the region’s MPs but, in this very different economic climate, it is an offer which should not be casually thrown away.

Sir Richard's rock has, however, caused enough waves to cast a deal further adrift.

Put it this way - there is no sense here in the North-East that the foundation officials have leapt up off their arses in response to Sir Richard's encouragement. And the bosses of the biggest North-East companies have hardly been falling over themselves during the day with their cheque-books in hand.

Sir Richard Branson’s bluntness has made it harder to see how the region’s most influential charity can now be saved.

Sadly, that’s the bottom line