In Paris........

"There is a problem," said the seated Frenchwoman buyer with cool objectivity, "The price is too high." Helen's pitch for the child safety car seat hit the buffers.

"We care for your children," said Helen.
"We care for the safety of your children," said Helen.

The Frenchwoman beamed at the Englishwoman, almost in gratitude, her warm heart overruling cool head. The rest was history.

Earlier Susan had asked that question , intuitively stumbling towards the keyword with which Helen would open the big padlock.

You don't seriously contend that French people don't care enough about their children do you? The store were implying it was too expensive for a car seat, not that car seats were too expensive.

The French are far more family orientated than we are, for example. In the UK restaurants and hotels have to advertise "children welcome". In France that is assumed.

You are Dan Brown, and I claim my five pounds!

Dan Brown writes certain things in the tiniest detail, then glosses over others with a great sweep.

"The alarm read 4:04 just seconds before it changed to 4:05 and began it's siren-like wake-up call. James Hero woke with a start, blinking and wiping the sleep from his eyes. He glanced at the time, cursing the early hour even though he had set it only 6 hours earlier.
He tumbled out of bed, finding his slippers and paced silently into the bathroom where he brushed his teeth, wet his face and then began to shave his whiskers that had formed overnight.
Once he was satisfied he dressed in the clothing he had set out the night before and walked down his stairs to the kitchen.
Breakfast consisted of eggs, toast and cereal, all of which was consumed with a large mug of coffee. He had already walked to the door to retrieve the newpaper. As the professor of modern Cluedo Makers, he had to be up with the news. Not for the first time did he feel glad that he had an insomniac paperboy.

After eating his breakfast he got into his car and drove to the airport. He walked towards the departure desk with his bag in his hand. His free hand went to his jacket pocket, and with a lurch he stopped on the spot. His pocket was empty. Where was his passport?

Chapter 2:

David was happy with life. he had a good job at the local airport, working at the departure gate. His wife of 17 years had given them 5 lovely children, all of who were bright kids. His eldest, David Jnr. was currently majoring at something in university. he spoke to him at least once a month, to see how the course was going.
He was just thinking he should call him tonight, when he spotted a man in a rumpled jacket walking towards him, a bag in one hand. As he man went for his pocket, David spotted something fall out.
"Hey, I think you dropped something" He called to the man with the bag.

Chapter 3:
It was his passport, it was on the floor behind him. He breathed a sigh of relief and got his flight and arrived at his destination, where a taxi was waiting to take him to the hotel, where he met the man who gave him a job."

In Viglen's cafeteria there's a growing xenophobia
Conditioned to reject for all their jobs
Any CVs submitted by the garlic Frogs
Mr. Sarkozy will be on you, stat,
If you say he's too small to have a wife like that
So I wouldn't ask if I were you
If those damn Frenchies love their children too

This is clearly not a comment on the French attitude towards children, it is a quote from the show. How you managed to get that from the OP is beyond me.

What the OP is trying to show is how Helen picked up on Susans stupid comments at the start of the show and use them to her benefit in the pitch. The change in heart is based on the buyers reaction to being told that the company the apprentice candidate was representing cared for children. Using the word 'your' is a method of making it personal to the people she was talking to, rather than being general about the French and French children.

Was Helen around when Susan made those comments ?
I thought Susan was with Zoe at the time.

I think the OP is clutching at straws and trying to give Susan credit for something on the most tenuous of excuses. (Which she does not need - she's made sufficient genuinely good calls of her own.)

You are correct, Helen was not with her then.

And the whole point of a booster seat is safety. Of course it's going to be mentioned in any competent pitch. It's not even clear how "do the French like their children" particularly relates to safety in a car.

Helen is a mature personable able businesswoman. Susan is a immature kid who is naive (but likeable).

Sugar knows this as do Nick and Karen

They also bring their grotty dogs in too.

What Helen said is a matter of record. I was drawn to comment by the sentence the OP added after Helen's speech, which is a matter of interpretation.


In other words implying that Susan was right all along to question the French caring for their children.

Yet that was the question Susan asked while pondering whether to go for the booster seat product. Are you saying you now realise she was wrong after all?

She wasn't 'wrong', it was a ridiculous question.

Helen is a PA.
Susan runs her own business.

The horse is already there

Helen is a lot more than just a PA. She's part of Gregg's CEO's management team. She worked her way up through local and regional management, so although she's never run her own business, she's very used to successfully managing somebody else's.

There's no evidence of that in her performance. Where did you find that info?
Her role is assistant. I knew someone like her, she was a PA and then she started showing the boss some of her skills and attributes in a private envitoment and bingo! She was an executive assistant. She had the same job though. She answered the phone and arranged meetings. She also attended all the board room meetings. She would email him before to tell him what underwear she was wearing. :-/

She is the PA to the head of the organisation. That is far more important than whether or not she has 'exec' attached to her job title. I agree that it's a pointless piece of fluff.


My post was certainly not aimed at how I imagine you!

I was just trying to make the point - by absurd exaggeration - that it is dangerous to conflate unrelated ideas about a person by implication.

You may have known someone who got an 'exec' attached to their job title by sleeping with her boss but is is a gross slur on everyone who happens to have that to suggest - as you were clearly intending to do - that it is a common occurrence.

Please be assured that I do not imagine you to be ugly or have personal hygiene problems.

The Chief Executive of Greggs described Helen's executive role on The Final Five. She's clearly far more than just someone answering the phone and sorting out his diary.

Her title is not PA, that's a very different job role and not an executive one.

And Helen's response was that the car seat was worth it because it offered extra convenience. Yet we didn't hear Susan asking, "Do the French like convenience?"