Yes, it's true Joanna did come up with the book frame (I do not even give that product the dignity of calling it by it's real name), but as another poster pointed out, it was really the only idea available.

That will probably be her biggest error in the series (and hopefully last), but it wasn't just her error. Laura, being PM, did not exercise enough control over the team and process to ensure that that the product was good quality. And then of course there was the whole exclusivity issue. She herself did not contribute to the creative process.

And in fairness to Laura, that team in general was seriously lacking in creativity (as this year's lot seem to overall). Hell, they didn't even seem to be able to work as a team. That was why no good ideas were on the table. So I had a bit of sympathy for Laura when she said "if I had the option, I would take the whole team into the boardroom". Or words to that effect. They were really all as bad as each other on that task.

The ultimate result was a product that was half-hearted, both in terms of design and pitching to the retailers. So I think there is collective responsibility for the book frame, not just on Joanna's shoulders.

You seem to be completely missing the point (unless I'm misremembering).

Laura closed a deal and the Paloma wanted to make an unauthorised exclusivity deal with the second shopkeeper that would have meant that Laura's sale could not have been honoured.

This was the reason for the cat fight and, given that they were told they were going to be judged on their individual orders I cannot understand why anyone is surprised that any competitor would fight tooth and claw to ensure that either their order stood or they were in some way compensated.


I don't think you're clear what 'spin' is. Spin is trying to make one thing sound like another. You agreed that what I said about trying to get more work was correct so you cannot, at one and the same time, call it 'spin'.

As to 'being a pain', that's a matter of opinion. Sugar has made it clear many times that he doesn't like people who are lazy and keep under the radar, Laura was understandably annoyed at being sidelined when she was willing and able to do more to help the team.

Of course, it's a matter of degree - we don't know just how much of a fuss she made - they clearly didn't show it all as Sugar's little outburst demonstrated,


This is complete nonsense.

You know perfectly well that Sugar always wants to know, if one candidate claims that they weren't in agreement with some aspect of a task, whether or not that candidate made the point clearly and unambiguously.

Not raising your hand right above your head is in no way making such a statement.

Picking her up on it was a pointless and stupid piece of showmanship one the part of S'TB'B as he tried to play the part of the 'no-nonsense' business leader (and I'm pretty sure that it was one of the things to which Nick was objecting).


There's no need to watch it again. In the world of grown ups people don't need to shoot their hands up in the air as if trying to impress teacher. All the need to do is make some sign of assent.


In your opinion, obviously.

In mine, it was just one of the examples of Stuart behaving like a patronising prick. (Which I think, in his defence, is down to his inexperience - he's trying, unsuccessfully, to emulate the characteristics of hard nosed businessmen he's seen, either in real life or TV/cinema.)


That was exactly my point.


Your take.

As I saw it she didn't think the skiing was a good idea (correctly) and was just not particularly enthusiastic about it.

It's another lose/lose situation> If she'd made a big fuss about it she's have been criticised for whining, so she reluctantly goes along with the minority view and gets hammered for something so pathetically trivial as how high she raised her hand.


I rolled my eyes at your going along with the Baggs person in his pompous and patronising way of dealing with something that was pathetically trivial and irrelevant to anything of note.

The task was lost on Laura's decision on exclusivity, the rest is all background noise (in hindsight).

If there was one task where the PM should have been fired it would have to be that one.



While I agree that she is not as responsible for the product as Jamie was last week (just seen the repeat, and he really ought to have been fired), she did come up with a product that many ridiculed at the time (the name was good, but nobody understood why this product would appeal to anybody).

That's actually nonsense.

Laura quite correctly would not make a decision on that on the spot. Look what has happened to other candidates who have made exclusivity deals.

That episode is just an example of the grotesque unreality of the tasks and the moving goalposts that all the candidates have to deal with.

There's no way that in r/l Boots would have demanded a decision there and then. In reality, the pitch worked and they were interested in buying.

The fact that Laura refused to second guess the product's designers on their attitude to exclusivity should have been irrelevant, not something that swung the task from one team to the other.

Apparently, everyone seems to assume that if Laura had, without any specific authority to do so, offered exclusivity, Sugar would have allowed it to stand, unlike the two other exclusivity cases (Lindi and Paloma) where he disallowed the deals.

You are misremembering - the first deal that was being ruled out was Sandeesh's. This is why Sandeesh was the one to call Paloma outside - to demand half of the second deal as compensation. The deal Laura was seen closing was outside of Soho, and therefore not affected by Paloma's shonky exclusivity deal.

Also, exclusivity deals have been allowed to stand on tasks where a team has designed a product themselves, for instance in the case of the Bodyrocka last year.

I definitely saw the Stuart confrontation as a much bigger black mark against him than her though. He said "votes for waterskiing", then she didn't put her hand up, so he yelled "VOTES FOR WATERSKIING!" at her, as though her not putting her hand up was somehow not enough evidence that she didn't want to do waterskiing. I think she then realised there was no point fighting 3-1 with Stubags as PM and just went along with it. She could have been more hard-line and a bit less sulky (possibly) about her disagreement, but really what would be the point?

Well, in that case, I'm 100% wrong on that part. If Laura was trying to get a share of a deal that didn't affect her own she didn't have a leg to stand on (unless there was a chance that she would have been able to try for another deal in that area in the time available but would have been pre-empted by the exclusivity deal).

Edit :On second thoughts, I think that's what you just said...

Wrong again, as I've always thought she was one of the strongest. And I think you'll find many others have too.

Unless you conducted a poll on here, that's a blatant unqualified statement - as are many of your others.

You can look back in the threads from earlier this series, no point in getting all hostile.

It is not going to make me like Joanna more or anything

In general, people took an early dislike to Joanna and know they have come around on that opinion. Nothing odd about that statement.

I think the view was coloured by someone jumping in and starting a 'hate' thread which gave detractors who might otherwise have kept their own counsel somewhere to vent.

It seems that each series there are a couple of people who get 'taken against' for no good reason.

joanna racially abused a asian taxi driver as her boyfriend atatcked him physically

class act

A lot of people have things in their past of which they're not proud.

It's typical that a scummy gutter press 'journalist' would go to the trouble to dig that out.

It was five years ago and a one off incident.

Get over it.

Did you make that bit up? Not even the tabloids have tried to suggest that anything that serious happenned.

I quite like her (only watched last weeks episode last night and 'great' might be stretching it) however, if I have to listen to her say 'fink', or I was 'f'inking' I might lose the will to live,

yeh true, someone should have told martin luthor king to get over racism aswell

Telling someone who's dragging up a past incident of someone making a racist comment five years after the event to let it go is in no way comparable to telling someone who's been mortally wounded as a result of a racist attack to let it go.

Racism is never acceptable but dredging up an old, one off, action to discredit someone is nothing more than petty spitefulness.

BTW, I would have thought that someone of the stature of Martin Luther King deserves at the very least the respect of having his name spelled correctly and capitalised.

i dont care if someone was racist 5 years ago or yesterday,i dont like them, just thought others might be interested to know some info about joanna

i hope she doesnt win thats for sure

No hostility - the point is everything you've 'observed' about her has either been biased, inaccurate or totally made up...therefore your credibility is zero. Just in case you missed it...

Joanna's sexy and clever....I might just get over Sandeesh's exit

I never thought she could but now there is a chance she could be in the final 3-4.

Joanna is probably the strongest candidate with Stella but think Joanna has more spark at this point it would be a travesty if they aren't in the final

stella and joanna should be in the final, no question

laura just has the wrong attitude - rather than whining about not getting the opportunity to go to a large pitch (which she'd probably have cocked up) she should have been trying to sell for the team to ensure they won!

it's no coincidence that Stella and Joanna are that bit older - it really shows

I like how well Stella and Joanna work together, tonight when Joanna was with The Brand and Stella was with Laura they both lead the other rather than partnered then they partnered up again once both in Germany and won the task for the team, same happened last week as well.

Joanna does have the edge for me over Stella but we'll see in coming weeks!

I think its a two horse race now between Stella and Joanna. The last two weeks they've single handedly taken the weaker team to victory. They've carried Laura and Baggs the Brand - what on eath would Chris/Jamie/Liz have done with those two?!

Joanna's come on leaps and bounds.

There's a natural warmth about her that I like. She manages to charm most the clients she sees.

I think she's leap frogged Liz and Stella to my number one spot.