After 18 years at Rompers, I'd be seriously sad to see it go. However, it has little or no potential for expansion, and there seems to be little government or military notice taken of its proximity to its main customers. Since Wroughton closed, it hasn't had much of a USP. The much-vaunted North/South runway isn't a huge advantage - I never heard of Brize being closed while Lyneham remained open, but there have been several occasions when the opposite was the case when snow has closed LYN.
As for Richard buying Brize by stealth - what for? Does anyone really think that Virgin would decamp from Heathrow in favour of Carterton Intl? Not a chance, people, dream on! Virgin has an engineering hangar under construction at Heathrow (not that Brize's facilities could accomodate any of our aircraft anyway), and we do so little training in aircraft that an aifield would be of little use.