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just finished watching the final five qualify: so it looks like mr. sugar is left with 5 candidates who don't know that caracas is in venezuela and think christopher colombus is british (which wasn't even mentionned in the board room)! good luck to him!

As a 62 year old retired marine engineer with an MBA I cringe at the educational??? ( University as well as the University of Life) attainments of the majority of the candidates since series1. If these are the people who will be effectively running our country in one form or another I feel for my grandchildren.
Tonight's episode was one of the funniest I have seen since Morecambe & Wise and the Two Ronnies stopped making programmes. Those stalwart Brits - William Drake( maybe they meant Sir Francis), Florence Nightingale and the Portuguese Christobal Colon (in Britain known as Christopher Columbus) must be turning in their graves: mind you I think that maybe Sir Walter Raleigh may have preferred being remembered as the discoverer of America than the first importer of tobacco and potatoes.
It was pointed out that Caracas was the capital of Venezuela but I'm afraid I didn't hear anyone translating the meaning of "El", and surely research would have shown that Mexican food should be served in separate bowls ( or compartments in a serving Box. A simple sum ie; 7x 60 was beyond the poor blighter.
Good Luck Sir Alan, it is just as well you are only contributing "peanuts" to a partnership that is doomed if left up to the eventual winner to be the venturer.
Mike

Enjoyed tonight's episode via iplayer (as usual - not available when it's live) but where is my usual 'you're fired' fix? You know when ´óÏó´«Ã½ works, it works great, but when something is changed, it's a pain in the neck trying to find out why, where, when and how. Was there no 'you're fired' this evening? Also while I'm here, why isn't there a direct link to the 'you're fired' program from the area where you watch The Apprentice on iplayer. I always have to do a search and yet I always watch them consecutively!

pensbymicj-you are not quite as smart as you think you are. Chris columbus was born in genoa,making him italian not portugese

scorpioeyes - Columbus birthplace is widley accepted as Genoa, but in the 1450s Genoa was a republic so not really Italian but Genoese ,-p

Getting back on track, this seasons crop of "talent" are well below par. 60 x 7, 4,800 Jim really?!?! C'mon man!! To get into the final not being able to grasp multiplication, good luck Mr Sugar!

Come on people, are you saying, you are perfectly knowledgeable in geography / history / mathematics when you have been through 11 weeks of pressure, hard work, tired etc? Give this guys a bit of credit. Its not their geograhy acumen thats going to create business and with today's techno, you can google your anwsers.
Back to the actual episode, I am glad that Natasha is finally out. Lot of us have gone through what people like her and Susan went through, but when you are top of the mountain, you forget what you went through and you in their young days. Treating everyone disrespectfully. Its something about her I dont like....its like a cattle transformed into a dragon but still makes a noise like a cattle/cow?
I have always told my wife the one to watch is Susan. She came into the show as kitten and now roaring like a cat. For the last 7-8 episodes, whenever she is back in boardroom, she consistently moans about how no one listens to her as they think she is young, vulnerable etc...but boy when she is in the boardroom, she fights for her corner. Even when with Jim in the car, she was like forget about what happenened in boardroom, and Jim was pointing out her fault, but she wasn't giving in. Amazing!
Back to the task - amazing ideology for LAS. I am amazed Jim & team came up with mexican...it be converted into fast food, but they failed to recognise how to make them!! What i dont understand is, these guys have set up business, lived their lives, earning loads (even Susan claims she had been to many mexican) and couldnt they have identified what creates a quick fast mexican food? anyway, credit to Helen and inventor Tom. They worked well together this time, though after mummy Helen told off Tom that he was naughty (last week).
The real test is the interview bit - I have a feeling Jim will crack, he is my favourite though. Thats because sometimes his anwsers are slightly arrogant. My guess will be its between Tom & Jim, though I think Susan is the dark horse....

It is not that Susan and Natasha did not get on. It was that Natasha did not like Susan finally standing up for herself and not accepting Natasha ignoring her and putting her down. Perhaps Susan should not have been so polite and reasonable in her defence, two well chosen words may have got the message across in a swift and definite manner!

Susan or Tom to win please Lord Sugar. Helen could be Tom's assistant!

I was really surprised that no one seems to have latched on to the fact that Tom is the clear winner. Being an inventor who has brought his product to the shelves, he fits the job description more than any of the other contestants. Alan Sugar has conveyed the final result in his decision to keep Tom in the process despite his enormous number of losses. None of the other contestants present the same money-making opportunity.

Being a PA/EA, I've been rooting for Helen as an EA, to whoop the rears of a lot of highly-strung business people but since she's done so well, she seems to think it's a ticket to make condescending comments to her 'colleagues'. For her to think that ones of the other candidates would be prepared to be handover their role of PM to her, and not know it would bite them in the rear later on, was naive of her. OK, so Tom jumped in a little to add some information while she was speaking during the fastfood pitch, but did she really have to say "You're putting off, Tom." A simple acknowledgement would've done. Likewise, in the Board room Tom was simply speaking 'cause he was spoken to. When AS said he then wanted Helen speak, she said sarcastically to Tom "It would be nice." I think she has good bus. acumen consdiering she's not had gritty business experience and a good contender but hope she doesn't get a little narcissistic from the success!