Tom has just launched his new website.

Its very much like the man himself imo, all style not much substance. Its also unintentionally funny, esp the the press quotes hes selected - OMG Yahoo ("sultry stare perfected"), Dom Joly (seriously?) and noticeably omitting the unfavourable part of Nick H's comments on him.

Hope this new website doens't mean he's getting ready to be the winner.

http://www.tomgearing.co.uk/
http://www.tomgearing.co.uk/in-the-press/

He also said on Twitter that it had been put together very fast by calling in a couple of favors, which could explain the lack of substance also

I doubt it has anything to do with Lordalan's decision since it looks more personal-oriented than business-oriented

I think the fact he has put this out there makes it less likely he is the winner not more likely.


IMO If he was the winner he would be on lockdown and not allowed to put up websites.

wonder if the Apogee is his business idea for the apprentice? Says he started in January 2012 which would have been after filming finished.

Yeah Sugar likes to club to techno music in his spare time

After watching the Final 5 last night, I think Nick will be the winner. I don't have a favorite this year, but after watching last night show, I think Nick is the most deserving candidate to win the show. Nick comes across as someone who's worldly, mature and straightforward. Born and raised in Switzerland too (for me this is a plus as it is possible that he can speak either French, German or Italian).

The rest of the final 5 candidates does not seem to be as interesting as Nick. In fact, I switched off the telly even before the show finished.

What I can't work out though is why Tom, who went to Hampton School which is one of the top private schools in UK, speaks in such a whiny East London voice/accent and sounds like David Beckham.

Nick, on the other hand, only went to a comprehensive school and local college for his A-levels, yet he speaks more impressively than Tom.

It's a personal website, no more, no less. I wouldn't read anything into it one way or the other.

I'm pretty sure any kind of activity like this has to be cleared through Taylor Herring PR first anyway.

I'm not a personal friend of Tom's but I am a small contributor to the website - I'm writing his Apprentice episode summaries for him in addition to my weekly blogs at slouchingtowardsthatcham.com - and there's definitely more content on the way in the coming days/weeks.

And before anyone asks: no, I don't know whether or not he wins the final. I'm just a fan of the show who happens to do a bit of writing on the side.

Thanks for clearing that up

Looking forward to read you about yesterday's ep ^-^

The guy is so tedious.:yawn::yawn: He should have gone out first week.:yawn::yawn:

What's wrong with going to a comprehensive and local college? I wouldn't expect someone to be any more eloquent if they'd attended a private school or vice versa.

Besides, just because Tom has an unpleasant sounding accent doesn't mean he's less eloquent than Nick. I swear this is partly the reason why I see a lot of negativity thrown at Adam and Jade on this forum even beyond that of a candidate giving a poor performance - their voices could be grating to some people and immediately switches people off (though I personally like Jade's voice and think Adam would be incompetent no matter what accent he had).

There's nothing wrong with going to a comp and local college as Nick has shown. Nor did I say Tom was less eloquent than Nick.
It's simply that I can't understand why Tom who went to a posh school and acts posh, doesn't sound posh. And I wouldn't want to pay £15k a year in school fees to have my son come out speaking like Tom or Becks.

Yes, because a programme intended to find the best businessperson should be judged exactly like the X-Factor ... sweet Jesus ...

Is that the job of a school to have you change your accent if necessary because it could reflect poorly on you? For me an accent is a reflection or where you were born and/ or your familial environment and has little to do with school. And does an accent has such a strong impact on how good/ intelligent/ capable, etc someone is perceived to be?

I am not being sarcastic or judgemental one way or the other here, I am just genuinely intrigued by that notion, which sounds foreign to me, but maybe it's just a difference in culture?

It was just the way you phrased it as 'only' a comp and local college, and that Tom speaks 'less impressively' - I'm probably being far too technical but that is the definition of eloquence.

I don't know if the aim of a private school is necessarily to make people develop a more refined accent anymore, though that was certainly the way many years ago.

On a related note, one thing about Alan Sugar I do like is that he's not likely to discriminate against rougher sounding accents (maybe because he's from a working class background himself), whereas I imagine a lot of other top employers may do. After all, he's hired two Apprentices from Hull!*




*I'm from Hull which means I'm allowed to make this joke.

The winner will not know until Saturday. Two endings have been filmed, and the production team and the winner don't know who Lord Sugar has chosen until the day before the final is televised.

It's the job of a school to teach its students to speak properly and help them get ahead in life. People are still judged by the way they speak in UK as it reflects their social standing. That's why LS sent all his kids to fee-paying schools even though he claims to be proud of his East End/barrow boy background.

Of course it's a school's job to help them "speak properly" and "get ahead in life". But for me, you can have ANY accent and still be considered to speak properly, or even eloquently, since accent is determined by geography/ environment and is thus not a reflection in any way whatsoever of someone's education

I find that all a little baffling, but I guess it's a cultural thing! At any rate, thanks for taking the time to explain it

Well, it should be one of the jobs of a school to produce kids who observe the rules of English grammar in their speech, regardless of accent. I can see the argument for RP or BBC English perhaps smoothing away some of the bumps in the road, but it's a sad thought that that should still be the case.