The thing is: everyone starts to lie and lay blame on someone else the moment it's obvious that they are in the losing team.

No matter how they've praised eachother for the great team effort, or the PL' for doing a cracking job just minutes before, they hit on each other and defend themselves when they lose. Apparantly it's what is expected of them in this show and Stephen's not an exception.

Stephen admitted that it was a bad video and a 'bad day at the office'. Jenna taking the responsibility, saying she took a risk and holding her hands up, was in my view a strategical move on her part as she had heard how that attitude had saved Tom the week before. Jenna blamed Stephen though for the failure of the task when LS asked who should be fired, Stephen did not blame her, he blamed Ricky for allowing the cheesy video and I think that was fairer.

I don't particularly like Stephen, but he stood out for me in the first few episodes in a positive way and I don't see the very negative or even disgust that he apparently evokes in the people around him, including Nick and Karren.

Oh well

Stephen is far from the only candidate to have lied in the boardroom, but there have been some honest characters - Tom, Nick, Jenna, Gabrielle - and I would much rather work with someone with a bit of integrity in a business environment. To be fair, a lot of what Stephen does is deliberate deflection rather than outright lying - but it is an obvious tactic and it's amazing he's constantly allowed to get away with it.

I don't personally agree with you about Stephen's positive contributions in early weeks, but each to their own - we all see different things in different candidates. What I do see is someone who comes up with lots of ideas (a good thing), but most of them are bad ones (not a good thing).

I have given Stephen a hard time on my blog recaps over the past few weeks - not because I find him particularly hateful, but simply because I don't think he's any good.

http://slouchingtowardsthatcham.com/...glish-bubbles/

Thanks for that. One to watch in future, very well written and witty!

He's a slimeball. When on the losing side he tries to 'Big up' the PM in order they don't take him in to the Boardroom, when this fails, he then deflects all the negativity / failures of the task on to the next person. Doing it to Gabrielle last night was pathetic and he knew it. His ridiculous 'doubting' faces just makes him look like a prat.

Taxi for Stephen next week

Edit..His " He took the bet " when referring to AS not firing him was so cringeworthy, no wonder Tom looked at him the way he did

What I can't stand about him is that he starts building a case up against the other candidates the moment the task begins- the others always seem to get on as a team and listen to each others' ideas whereas Stephen starts raising his eyebrows and questioning their ideas at square one.

Welcome to DS carrielg

I agree with all the posts except the top one one each page......he is DREADFUL!

Sums up the worst character traits of the candidates.....irritating, dishonest, deflective, selfish, no common sense, single minded......I could go on and on and on

The best bit for me last night (apart from Steven nearly getting fired) was when Ricky said to him he has a tendency to deflect......Stevens response was to deflect! Idiot!

As if Sir Alan is gonna take him on board!

Thank you Socha! I have been reading the forum for a while but decided to join!
As a French-speaker the "Grandeur" comment last night made me howl with laughter- you'd think he may have learnt his language lesson after the belissimo situation! Mind you why would he- he had absolutely no idea it was another language!

Thanks! Always happy to continue the discussion either here or on the blog. We may not agree on everything - but the debate is part of the fun, isn't it?

Every reality show needs someone you love to hate. Stephen is the guy! I think he's playing the show the way it's meant to be played. He's very tactical, he doesn't like to take too much blame, he's smart at deflecting responsibility. He's cunning. I reckon most viewers want to see a bit of that on The Apprentice.

A wine expert in Tesco... says it all really.

Personally, I'm still rolling about from Dara's description of him as "Beaker", when he pulls his puzzled/disappointed face on YF last night. So true...
Sara Cox had him nailed as well ("Arrested for murder? Well, I don't see that myself...").

Entertaining BLOG from the Guardian, which I'm glad to see share's most of our views on Stephen and Adam...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-rad...2012-live-blog

My opinion of Stephen can be summed up in just one word - knobhead

I think Stephen is awful and he is far worse than some of the candidates who have already been fired. If he had been in the earlier series of the apprentice he wouldn't have got to anywhere near week 9. The only thing he is good at is talking absolute nonsense, which was shown yesterday in the boardroom.

My favourite quote from the blog so far:

He is awful. In every way.
The way he talks to other people is disgusting. Patronising beyond belief. "Specifics please! Specifics please!" he was snapping at Gabrielle in the boardroom. And good for her, she gave him plenty of "specifics".
Even the way he was conducting himself in Tesco, belittling Gabrielle again and chasing after the staff members - "Excuse me, can I have some assistance please!" - the way he said this came across not so much as a question but more of an order and had a rather abrupt and pompous tone about it as if he was really saying "Excuse me mere Tesco worker but why the hell have you not come over to help me yet!?". I would pretty much bet my life on it that he spoke to the Tesco workers like shit but it was edited out.
The only saving grace that he wasn't fired last night is that he will now probably make it to the interviews - where he will no doubt be tore to shreds. I can hardly wait!

Okay.... I take my words back....

After tonight's episode I'm convinced. I still did like him in the task and I liked his taking Ricky's feedback on board but I was flabbergasted when he laid responsibility for that decision with Ricky....

You were all right....

And to make matters worse, he proved he has no sense of humour on You're Fired.

Whilst a lot of candidates may behave despicably in the board room, they usually have the grace to accept the ridiculing they receive when they end up on You're Fired.

But not Stephen - oh no. He has to justify everything he did and he certainly didn't appreciate the sea of red that greeted the "should Lord Sugar have fired him" question.

To answer a prior post about hoping he would learn from how he is perceived – I don’t think so.

Well you're welcome to him. And don't come crying to us when he does something wrong, and blames you for it. In front of your Manager.

Take a look at post #42, the OP already changed their mind.

Stephen is an absolute slimeball who will step on anyone without looking back to save his own skin.

The ironic thing is, he manages to be a complete buffoon with it! The vast majority of his ideas are cringeworthy at best, he is far too sure of himself but demonstrates nothing to back this up and is more a less a bully/coward who deliberately targets those he considers to be weaker than himself. He's a wannabe 'Jedi Jim' who fails to hit that mark by a long chalk.

I got the measure of him very early on and, quite honestly, LS couldn't have done it better by knocking the twerp roght off his perch in a double firing. Well deserved young man!!!