For me; I see Lorraine as this great manager of a small/medium-sized firm. As someone who works in the SAS environment; I really feel someone like Lorraine wouldn't fit in. And it has nothinfg to do with looks. It's about personality clashes etc... Lorraine is abbrasive and rubs people up the wrong way. It doesn't matter if she is wrong or right; its about the fact that others would get irritated and annoyed. And this could cause problems. People like Debra and Lorraine would make me hid in the ackground and keep well away.

It's just not that easy to suddenly be a person who is persuasive. You need to be someone who is able to quickly pick up on body lanuage and adapt answers to your audience. Lorraine just does not have this. She is sometimes (not always( right and when she is wrong, she antagonises. She doesn't motivate or initiate creativity either. and if you cannot build and maintain good relationships in business, you will never succeed. Bottom line.

Good post and I do see your points.

Whatever the reasons were for their initial irritation and annoyance, it's true that she does seem to get this reaction from the other contestants regardless of whether she's right or wrong, and this has been a growing theme from around week 2 or 3.

But human nature being what it is, I still suspect that if she was a beauty like Kate, Jasmina or Debra, she would have found it easier to win them around and get heard. I just feel a bit sorry for her because she just can't seem to win no matter what she says.

Yes - Lorraine to win.

We know she won't all with James will probably be fired first next week - but here's hoping! She could be SAS's secret weapon to flog off his property portfolio before the whole market collapses.

I feel sorry for her too. I like Lorraine and I think she is a competent candidate. She doesn't have the dynamic nature of Yasmina or Debra, Kate's people skills or James easy going humour, but over the weeks she's emerged as competent, thoughtful, full of good instict and I think she's actually taken stuff on board and developed which some of the other's haven't. I think too she's shown in recent weeks that a lot of the early stuff was down to Philip and she's risen above that and showed she's better than he was. Her comments last night about grace and intergrity were interesting too.
I also think it must have been quite hard for her to live and work with Kate over the last few weeks, as Kates loyalties clearly lie with Philip and under the surface Kate holds Lorraine responsible for Philips departure.

In some ways I think Lorraine was this years scapegoat, cast in the Lucinda role to cause controversy and entertain the audience. Full credit to her then that actually she's risen above all that, proved she's more than capable for the job, and I for one would love to see her in the final.

She is my favourite candidate, but I feel the whole "I'm slow in the thought process" comment is coming back to haunt her and I can't see her making the final unfortunately. She is a strong candidate though, despite her flaws. She speaks and demonstrates common sense and manages a team very well, by showing off good leadership skills. She can also fight her corner in the boardroom, which is important in surviving the competition.

I really thought she was going last night, but I'm glad she didn't. Despite Howard being a decent candidate, he's highly forgettable and Lorraine has been at the forefront a lot more.

I feel sorry for Lorraine overall. She's recieved a lot of flack this series from Phillip and Yasmina especially. Also, people from the general public setting up negative Facebook groups about her It really isn't called for and I don't see what she's done wrong to recieve such negative criticism.

Yasmina attacked Lorraine once and now Lorraine is receiving a lot of flack from Yasmina?!! Lorraine has shown that she is not a victim a that she can fight her corner very well. Yesterday she turned on Howard despite him being very supportive. She completely misunderstood why he presented with her saying that he just wanted to make her a scapegoat if they lose.

I meant she has recieved a lot of flack overall (from Yasmina once, from Phillip numerous times and from the general public).

She can certainly fight her corner, but have you read the article about her recently? It suggests she is struggling from her experiences on the show If it's true, it is very sad.

Only by those who take a very superficial view.

In most real business the requirement to make absurdly rushed decisions does not play an important part in day to day life.

Preperation, research and planning are the real skills required and these do not put people who take more than 5 minutes to marshal their thoughts at a great disadvantage.

Something she failed to do yesterday. Lorraine is her own worst enemy sometimes. She wants to be respected but often plays the victim or tries to appeal to SAS in reference to her hard life and struggles, something he can emphasize with. She is my no means a victim or weak. you can see that every time she enters the boardroom with carefully orchestrated answers. Which is clever and I have to respect her for that. Kate and Howard had some points that could have been raised about Lorraine to contradict some of her points raised but none of them thought to raise them. For a start, I would have raised the instinct point. Lorraine has good business acument, than instinct in my opinion. If she had good instinct she would have picked top selling items yesterday and she didn't. She has been right on many occasions, but she has also been wrong on many occasions. She had a lucky escape last night as, out of the three, she underperformed the most yesterday. She is going to have a huge fight on her hands next week as she has a lot of negative perceptions to overcome. Even Margaret has changed her mind about her. The only real thing that she has as some kind of "push" is her life. SAS can emphasize with her life and may feel he wants to give the chance to someone less polished. but I still can't see her winning this. In terms of negatives and criticism; she is right down at the bottom with James and Debra at the moment. And Debra has the edge out of the three due to her strong sales abilities which means she shines in this area, even if she falls under par in other areas.

I didn't want Lorraine to get fired yesterday for not selling the products. It was Kate's fault as much as Lorraine's and Howard's.

However, I don't believe that Lorraine or James has a realistic chance in the final. Both have more negatives than positives.

Debra is now a possibility but if SAS can take Debra, why didn't he take Tre 2 years ago. He was good in sales and he has a better business acumen than Debra. SAS considered him a risk.

The most realistic scenario is Yasmina vs Kate.

Lorraine rocks!!!!!!!!

I'm heartened to see so much support for Lorraine

She's sort of the odd one out. And it makes me like her even more!

I think that Lorraine is one of those people who attract a certain type of person who, perhaps suffering from their own insecurities, loves to put the knife in at every opportunity.

We have a few like that here.

It's fair enough not to like a candidate or not to rate then very highly but when certain people cannot see anything even vaguely positive about her without a densely typed analysis of why they think she's pants it's a bit sad.

Well that's the whole point isn't it - I'm sure a lot of people would be tempted to buy one if they could afford it so therefore it would've been a bad choice.

Personally I think Lorraine is a pain in the hole.

I don't think it's a relevant issue. One of the fired candidates (Paula or Kimberly, probably) said Kate has the opposite problem: because she's decorative, people assume that's all she is and she has to work harder to be listened to. Lorraine has the advantage of age, which, eg, Debra doesn't have. I don't see any need to blame other people for Lorraine's failings.

I agree with most of this. She's been made the perpetual scapegoat and I can help but feeling as though there is some sort of en masse vendetta against her, so far as the other contenders are concerned.

I think Lorraine has a lot of potential, particularly if in the arena of buying. She does seem to have insight.... but as you say if she forces it she's vilified, if she doesn't drive it home enough she's weak-kneed. Poor woman....

i'm liking Lorraine...would prefer her to win rather than Debra and Kate.

Lorraine to win! I think she is dismissedand disregarded by the other contestants and they haven't been able to quite work out why she is there. I think that they are a bit scared of competition.

And the ex candidates live with each other for weeks. There is no smoke without fire. Four candidates in the past five weeks have come out and pretty much said the same thing about Lorraine, Kate and Debra. And at the end of the day we see 1 hour out of what 48-72 hours. And they all rate Lorraine and James as the weakest, and praise Debra, Kate and some Yasmina. Howard says this week he spent hours sat with Lorraine holding her hand over this task. Did we see that in the show? He says Kate is the first to get stuck into a task and out selling. Do we see that?

They paint the candidates as "characters" of the show. And Lorraine seems to be painted as the underdog. But this show isn't a popularity show at the end of the day. It's about being an apprentice. Everyone in the final five have strong points.

The more I think about her and the more I remember the things Marg/Nick/SA have said about her in the BR.. the more I suspect she may be the dark horse winner this year. She has been spot on at least three times now with spotting products that have value, maybe thats what SA wants this year.

She also hasn't continuously driven her choices through or given clear logic or reasoning to sway people's opinions. There is no point being right and not having done anything about it, to then moan about being right after nothing can be done about it. SAS has told Lorraine on at least 2 separate occasions, if not more, why haven't you driven your choices through? And that could be her downfall. in terms of the key top attributes needed for business; Lorraine lacks skills in 2 areas. She is a poor communicator and poor team player. And she would be working in a highly pressurised environment and with a lot more "debra" and "ben" types. I understand it being difficult to drive ideas through with someone like Phil, Yasmina or Debra. But Howard is and was one of the more passive members of the group and a better listener. She had given clear arguments and really shown how much she thought it could sell, then he way have been persuaded. Instead she made a throwaway comment about an item, didn't say we should have this because.... and then starts banging on about how right she was and how they should ave chosen her idea after the process has ended. When, at the end of the day, Kate chose two top sellers and the "right" products. What makes them think they would have won with 1 more "right" product. I'm assuming this would have come out of the "toy" category and replaced the air guitar. A fat fryer is something a lot of people need and would use often. The richer members of the family, who would buy a unique interactive toy for over £200, would have not been the "majority" audience. Again, it would be like the rocking horse; would someone in that hour have bought it? I loved the dinosaur, but would not spend £200 on it. It's a lot of money for a gimmicky toy however cute it was. It was definately a risky item.

This rant isn't necessarily about Kate, but this "Pretty girls aren't taken seriously" line (in my experience) is one of the great lies of all time. I've been working over 20 years now, and in that time I've seen people not taken seriously because of their age (too young or too old), because they're fat, because they're foreign or because of their regional accent, but I have never ever seen anyone (women especially) being dismissed because of their good looks. Quite the reverse, I think people pay more attention to them... which isn't to say they're not resented, or that they're not perceived to be flirting to get ahead (for instance), but they're certainly taken seriously

Very true. (Particularly from a social/business standpoint) Someone in this forum remarked that "beauty and brains" were a winning combination (or words to that effect). You just to have to look at the so called music industry and actors/actresses to realise how much emphasis there is on "good" looks. Altogether pretty sad and shallow really.

On facebook there are about 4 Lorraine Tighe "hate" groups. One boldly refers to her as a f**king idiot, while another refers to her as an ugly b*tch. (probably says more about the congenital half-wits who instigated these groups in the first place, mind you. I'm speechless and I cannot for the life of me fathom what that girl has done to deserve that type of vitriolic bull)

Sadly it all just highlights this pathetic, socially conditioned preoccupation with so called "good looks". You just have to look at Donald Trumps Apprentice to see this. What a joke and hardly a fair representation of how most bona fide entrepreneurs or business gurus look...

Obviously to be so crude the people concerned must be halfwits, 'tis true.

But the actual problem is with their own insecurities and feelings of worthlessness.

You can see people here who must have spent hours crafting detailed responses to anyone who says anything about Lorraine in a +ve light. They're not stupid enough to pour pure vitriol, even superficially making it look as if they are offering a balanced viewpoint, but every half hearted compliment they write is overbalanced with a lot more that is uncomplimentary.

Obviously anyone is entitled to hold a poor opinion of someone but the sheer time and energy spent makes you wonder what personal problems they have that they feel such a need for negativity.