and how he's rebuilding his family's life and how a self-made billionaire will rebuild the economy. plus, a scene stiller -- >> i wanted to hear you say it. >> from broadway to hollywood, she makes waves everywhere she goes. >> i said, i'm so sorry. >> kristen, her life, loves and her fabulous voice. "i want somebody i can bitch about i want somebody i can't live without >> this is "piers morgan tonight." sirri charred branson one of the world's top businessmen with a life so glamorous he has a private island but his home went up in smoke, literally, a few weeks ago and he's here to tell the story, sir richard, thanks for coming on. i want to start by saying how voir i am about what happened to you. i know what the house meant to you. you built it from nothing and it must have been so full of memories and souvenirs and everything of your extraordinary life. how are you coming to terms with what happened? >> well, the first half an hour, was obviously, horrendous because i was woken up by my son and i looked up and saw 200 foot flames coming out of it and knew my daughter, nephew, nieces, my mother and friends were in the house. and that was truly horrifying. and then -- once we managed to rescue everybody and everybody was safe, it was a house. it had tons of memories which it will continue to have. i did lose a momentos. we've regroup and we'll rebuild and we'll have an even more beautiful house with lots of memories for the future. >> i'm sure you will. what was extraordinary when we read the detail was how fast this fire took a grip of the great house. it was just a matter of a few minutes and, boom, the whole thing seemed to be going up. yet, there was a huge storm with massive rainfall going on. were you surprised how fast this happened? >> yeah. it was like something out of "wutherring heights." looking up at the house and seeing these enormous flames. 19 mile-an-hour winds, rain like you've never seen it. and it -- you know, just proved the power of fire and wind together. the rain was not going to have even a little dent in it. and from one end of the house to the other end of the house, you know, it was about seven minutes. so the importance of moving quickly when there's a fire, you know, was obvious and i was fortunate that i had -- my son, my nephew, moved very quickly and as was reported, kate winslet was good enough to sweep my mother up in her arms and her children and help get over out really kwel quickly so all is well. >> that was an extraordinary thing. kate winslet gave an interview she believes looking back on it, they were four or five minutes away. if they hadn't been so quick in the house, potentially all dying, such is the veracity of dying. she scooped up your mother and helped to carry her out of the house, is that right? >> she did. >> and you know, she had two young children to get out as well. they were quite steep, dark steps they had to go down. and she was magnificent. and, if she wants an upgrade, i'm sure we can sort something out. >> and i hear at one stage, richard, you ran to the rescue but you were stark naked not an image we'll dwell on for too long is that right? >> the yes, certainly not the thank you think about at the time. the -- my son was banging on the glass of our window screaming, you know, the house was on fire. the house was on fire. and i leaped out of bed and looked up at the house and saw what was happening and i just started running, yes, stark naked towards the house in the pouring rain and i happen to run straight into a cactus on the way, which could have been very painful. i think not quite as bad as it sounds. but -- anyway, my son got there slightly quicker than i did and fortunately, by then, kate and others had managed to get everybody out of the house and you know, we soon realized that -- we managed to make sure that everybody was there and you know, stood with kate's kids and put something around me by then. and you know, just talked about life and the fact that stuff really is not that important, although there were a lot of precious things going up in the fire, the fact that everybody was well was obviously all that mattered. >> what did you lose, richard, that was irreplaceable? i heard you kept a journal for years and that the only copy of that went up in the fire. there was no backup. is that right? >> i'm not very technical, sadly, and i finished writing "losing my virginity" the second edition of it, and it was close to going to press. and sadly, that went. but -- and, obviously, years and years and years of notebooks which i keep. and, again, you know, i just have to -- ask a few friends to jog my memory and i'll be able to get the book written and, you know, a lot of the other momentos, they felt important at the time when i had them. they don't feel that important now that i've lost them. so, you know, when i was young i had a houseboat that's lived on. and, again, lost everything, including photo albums. but once again, it taught me that these things are not -- things are not that important, even photo albums are not that important. it's the present. and your loved ones and friends that matter. so one of those things. >> lots of dramatic stlings happened to you over the years. i can never work out if you're one of the world's unluckiest people or luckiest because you always manage to survive yet, you get bedevilled by all these crisis. which category are you in? >> that's a good question. i was arguing with a friend about the existence of god or not over dinner in the great house just before this fire took place. and the next morning i was thinking, now, is god -- was god really nice to us by allowing us all to survive? or was he punishing me for questioning his existence? anyway, i have been very fortunate in an extraordinary amount of times and somebody's very kind up there, anyway, getting us back from balloon trips or boating trips or, you know, whatever, safely. and so i am grateful. and now i'm spending most of my life trying to say "thank you" by working quite hard on important causes to try to make a difference. so we'll see how it goes. >> do you believe more or less in god since the day after your conversation over dinner? >> well, look, i believe in evolution. and i think evolution is magnificent, absolutely wonderful. i think the world that we live son magnificent and the creatures are magnificent. we have to fight to save the tigers and save the limas and save tim perilled species and look after the people that are on this earth. save the imperilled species. i think religion has done a lot of harm over the years and just because one's born in one country and not another country and shouldn't necessarily think that our god is the right god and somebody else's god is the wrong god. so -- i see myself as a humanitarian who loves people. maybe one day, somebody will be able to convince me that there is a good and there is a particular god. but to me, you know, i just love people and that's to me, the most important thing. >> do you ever pray? >> i found myself on one of my balloon trips, where i was 99% definitely going to die crossing the pacific. everything had gone wrong that could go wrong. it seemed to be no way out of it. and i think there was a little bit of sort of, saying -- if you exist, i'll be really grateful if you can get me to the other side of the pacific. >> and despite the fact that you survived that, with your .1%, you still don't believe? >> i would love to believe. and i think it very comforting to believe. my father died recently and he was -- he didn't believe but he was a wonderful man and, you know, wonderful family man and wonderful with people. great sense of humor. but obviously, it would be very comforting to feel that he's still somewhere. but he's definitely here in spirit with all of the family. you know, if somebody can convince me that there is a god, it would be wonderful. but i do believe that evolution is likely to be the truth. and anybody who questions evolution, i find it completely utterly bizarre because -- and evolution is magnificent. that's all i can say. >> we'll take a short break. we'll come back and talk to you about the economy, the global economy. in particular, the american economy. and the impact that's now having on what your thoughts are on how to get out of this hole. ♪ priceis it true thata-tor. name your own price.... >>...got even easier? 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what is the best, simplest way, to get out of this tank? >> i think why it is is well reported. it was basically, greed. a vast amount of overspending, both in the public sector and in the private sector. how the get out of it? i think there are various different ways and i think the companies like virgin and other successful companies around the world, must expand. they must be taking on new people. and if they've got spare resources, they've got to be putting it do good use. they can't sit back and wait for the recovery because if they sit back and wait for the recovery the recovery will never take place. if you talk to an average workforce, you'll find that there are at least 10 or 20% of people who resent only getting two weeks holidays. you know, would be quite happy to work, say, to job share with somebody else to work six months on or six months off or job share with a week on-week off basis. they may have children at home or they may have a partner at home who is also working and therefore, they can afford to do so. but they're frightened of actually telling the company that that's what they would like to do. so i think companies need to be braver in talking to their workforce. being for flexible in the hours that people work. giving people a chance to go to job share. giving the people a chance going part-time. and this in itself, i think, would get 5 or 6% of those people out of work back into the workforce because by these people job sharing, that would create jobs for people who have got no jobs at all. and i think would make a very, very big difference. >> what do you think of president obama and the way he's tackling this? it seems he came into office his primary concern was to bring in his health plan which he did. it got a very negative response from many americans and many feel that rather than focusing on that what he should have done was tackle unemployment and as a result, unemployment still necessariles under 10%. he brought in this big new jobs' plan last week. are you impressed by the way he handled this or disappointed? >> look, i think he would have done quite well not to have been elected when he was elected and waited four years because he was -- he had the worst stack of cards of any president for a long time. he was handed a bankrupt company by the republicans. and he's had to, you know, do everything he can to avoid a 1929 crash which, i think, we only just avoided by the first stimulus package. if we didn't have that stimulus package we would have had a 1929 crash. if more banks were allowed to go bankrupt we definitely would have. so i think he put out some big fires that were raging when he came into power. his health care plan, i'm british. there's a lot of talk in america about how bad the health system is in britain. i think that's exaggerated. if i fall ill in britain and i want a major cancer operation for free on the national health, i can get it. i know that the quality will be good. and that applies to anybody in the uk. and so i think striving for a fair health care system in america was right. health care in america, for the poor, has been dreadful in the past. so i think he's right in trying to shake that up. >> you developed these two entrepreneurial centers in south africa and jamaica. do you think we need more centers like this set up by businessmen like you, encouraging that kind of en entrepreneurial zeal, that many think is gone? >> i think business leaders need to play a bigger part in tackling a whole range of issues than business leaders have done in the past. a lot of issues business leaders have felt, that's the government. our job is simply creating jobs and building companies for the benefit of the shareholders. i think the new -- the business leaders of the future should really try to play a role in helping society tackle problems, i mean, business leaders are more entrepreneurial. they survive longer in their jobs than politicians do. they have wealth to play with. and, therefore, getting out there and, you though, helping the next generation, maybe by setting up things like entrepreneurial colleges where young entrepreneurs can be given a leg-up is the kind of thing that i think business leaders should be doing. >> what about warren buffett's idea that all very rich people like he and yourself, should pay whacking more tax? >> there is -- i think the number-one priority is for government to get rid of waste of spending. but having said that, i think there's something in what warren buffett says and that is, there are some anomalies in america where warren buffett in particular, is paying, you know, a lot less tax than, maybe, than a switchboard operator is paying and that's obviously, wrong. and those anomalies should be sorted out. and i think that president obama is right in trying to get those anomalies sorted out. the idea must be that we get the economy back in booming again. that we invest -- that businesses invest and we create jobs that we can create wealth and that hopefully, we can keep tax down right across the board because that's obviously, positive in the longrun. >> let's take another short break and richard, we'll come back and talk to you about therun nomination race. and also, about your plan to take people into space. and whether i can be one of them. 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[ gnome ] your fingers are quite magical. welcome back. richard, of all the runners and writers for the republican race right now, who do you think may end up being the nomination to take on president obama? >> well, obviously, rick perry seems to be in the forefront at the moment. and i think what's sad is that we're already now talking about the next election. i mean, i think one of the problems in america is the facts that you only have four-year terms. in britain we have five-year terms. at least for the first three and a half years, three and a half, four years, whoever gets elect candidate think about running the country and concentrating on running the country rather than dealing with the next election. >> are you a fan of the tea party? because i guess in their essence, they are very bransonesque. they are a popular uprising of people that had enough of establishment and wanted to get action done through the power of people on the streets and they've become now, a more formidable political party as an offshoot to the gop. what do you think of them? obviously, many british people would find some of their views pretty extreme but that doesn't necessarily play out in america. >> i think the thing that worries me about the tea party is, you know, whether they care about people less fortunate than ourselves. i think there has to be a balance. and i'm just not quite sure from listening to them talk that they've got that balance. a other of them are rely kbous but in hearing them speak you wonder whether they'll really do care about people in desperate need of help. and so if they could get that caring side, then i think i would feel more sympathetic than i superficially do from hearing them speak to date. >> let's turn to one of your great passions at the moment. space travel. virgin galactic is well under way to getting the first of its vessels into the ether. where are you? when do you expect to take your first spaceflight? >> well, it's very exciting at the moment and exactly a month today, we unveiled the space port in new mexico which is stunningly beautiful and right out in the middle of the desert. and the space ship has finished. the mother ship is finished. and that will be going down to new mexico for the the unvailing. the rocket tests are going extremely well. and so, i think that we're now on track for, you know, a launch within 12 months of today. and i think that, you know, this could be the beginning of a whole new era of space travel which will be commercial space travel. virgin galactic, not only hopes to put people up in space but to be able to put satellitetion s up in space for a fraction of what they've done in the past. and one day we hope to do intercontinental travel using similar technology to that that we've developed to put people into space. so an exciting few years ahead. >> i have a bit of a vested interest in this. like you, i share the demise of the concord with a heavy heart and you tried to rescue it but were not allowed to. i need to get back from l.a. or new york to london in about an hour, richard. are you going to be the guy that ma