He was the one who gave a very moving speech in the final task (an event for business-people) about his father wanting him to become a footballer and how he wanted to make his father proud etc etc.

I think Katie Hopkins is a little too toxic at the moment.

Ah yes, thank you. The name certainly rang a bell and I knew he was notable for something but I just couldn't remember what or what he looked like.
I found this list of last year's candidates, with photos, which may be of interest to anyone else like me whose memory of them is poor, once a series is over. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/t...?frame=2544774

In all fairness, Neil wasn't very memorable for much else, apart from seeming to be a genuinely decent bloke - so he slipped below the radar a bit.
There are a few amongst this year's candidates though who light up the radar - for being Comedy Gold!

Think it was in the corporate away day task, actually.

Luisa saying on her twitter that they won't be having her on as a guest

Strange one as it would retain most of the viewers from the main show

More so as she was one of the contestants with the best basic trading skills seen on the show. Her market stall task is probably the best model of how it should be done.She's also articulate and usually accurate in her summings up.

Katie could spot and sum up fools, but she never really shone in any task herself.

Disagree. Much as I dislike Katie, you can't deny that she was a strong performer. She messed up a couple of tasks, but on most of them she was very capable, especially when she was Project Manager. When she led her team on the doggy product task, for instance, she led the girls to a really strong win, everyone enjoyed being on that team and felt motivated to work, and in the boardroom when asked how she was as a PM the response, from the whole team, came as 'Fantastic' (how many other times has that happened?) There are other things as well - I think the only tasks she really did poorly on were Tasks 6 and 8 (people will say Task 5, but I would argue that her performance on that was a bit stronger than it came across).

I agree with you on Luisa though.

I think Luisa's antics since losing tomLeah have made her pretty toxic in the real business world.

She was a good candidate (in tasks where she was working in her own area of competence) but was an utter bitch unless she was getting her own way, and I for one was very surprised that she wasn't fired because of her lack of inter personal skills well before the final, especially in the week where she humiliated Jason and was incredibly rude to the people in the offices where it was filmed. Her sound bites showed she was incredibly immature, and she seemed quite thick at times, eg getting all her cash projections so wrong.

Katie on the other hand was a credible businesswoman, and still does run a successful business of her own as well as writing a very readable column, and of course her notorious rent a gob appearances on TV. In her series she performed well in most tasks and was an excellent project manager. She set out to win and probably would have if she hadn't been pulled up on the childcare thing. It's actually to her credit that she put her daughter first at a time when she could have carried on.

Of the two who would I rather see popping up on YF? Katie by a country mile -

I remember Neil Clough for doing what Neil Clough did best. which was no more that Neil Clough talking about Neil Clough in the third person

I completely disagree with you - in fact, I would swap a lot of your comments about the two ladies around, but each to their own.

I do not believe that Katie wanted to win at any point. She certainly had the intelligence and the business nous to - that was evident from the tasks - but her approach and mannerisms were thoroughly at odds with what you would expect at a job interview. For example, on her application in answer to the question 'Have you ever lied or cheated to get what you want?' she wrote 'Yes, to get someone else's husband, because I wanted him.' I don't think that anyone who wanted to be taken seriously would have written that on a job application. It's fine to big yourself up, even potentially say controversial things, but something like that will make a potential employer think that you are firstly untrustworthy and secondly either don't really want the job or are so foolish that you haven't realised that writing that is a death trap. I think that she wanted to go a step beyond Saira and Ruth in the fame market by being a memorable character - and in fairness to her, if that is what she wanted she managed to get it, so credit to her if she actually enjoys being a public hate figure.

Luisa is controversial, but I never saw as being especially unpleasant. I didn't think that she did 'humiliate' Jason - she was very frustrated by the way that he was dithering around and thought that she could do a better job, and the team clearly agreed when they chose her to take over from Jason. The people in the offices have actually been pretty positive about her in interviews. She was actually able to get on with people - she and Leah seemed fairly close, for instance - she just didn't take prisoners, but I did not feel that she had malicious intent at any point. Unlike Katie, I also felt that Luisa genuinely wanted to win - her emotions came to the surface in the final task after she thought she'd messed up the pitch, and to me that looked really genuine.

Since the show, Luisa and Katie have both done a lot of interviews, but for me I tend to think that Luisa means what she said for. I confess to possibly being slightly biased as I tend to agree with Luisa's points more, but I also feel that Katie's viewpoints don't stack up at all. She seems to think that it's acceptable to throw playground insults at people when they're arguing a point better than her and to denigrate children on national television, but disgusting to get fat - double standard much! She also seems to consider her own opinions to be more valid than scientific research - in the conversation about attachment with the late Peaches Geldof, Peaches was making examples of studies to back up her points. If Katie had reason to disagree or believe that these studies are invalid, she could have responded with cases and examples of her own, but she just muttered, 'There's always a study, there'll be another study saying something else,' (where? You should at least use examples to back up your arguments, otherwise people will question what standing your viewpoint even has beyond personal opinion) and the only thing that even came close to approaching an example was when she said 'Sweden is now saying that they've produced a country full of brats' (there may have been a point there, but it had a number of flaws: 1) What is the definition of a brat? 2) Where is this sourced from? For all we know, Katie spoke to one Swedish person who had that opinion, or even just made it up.) I also struggle to understand what Katie's business actually does, or who would employ her with the reputation that she has built for herself.

Katie is employed by the likes of "This Morning" to provide controversy whenever she appears.

Her comments can be extremely controversial - but she does say what a lot of people think rather than pussyfooting around being politically correct (eg her interviews on daft names for children and employing obese people). As regards her application form - her comments about going out and getting what you want were valid - her example left a lot to be desired though. Luisa's claim to have the sex appeal of Jessica Rabbit and the brain of Einstein were far more risible, and trying to get ahead on sex appeal is insulting to most credible business women.

IIRC, Luisa's company(ies) were proved to be dead ducks last year - and her business idea was nothing new as there are already companies out there offering the same thing, and she'd have to sell a lot of muffin cases and piping bags to make the same profits as Leah's cosmetic procedures clinics do on one treatment.

Luisa also seems to have decided to be a media celebrity rather than a serious business woman since she appeared on the show, but behind Katie's Rent-a-gob appearances on TV is a very successful business woman, who is still making money and in the spotlight 8 years after appearing in the series which she didn't win!

Were Luisa's Jessica Rabbit claims actually written on her application form? They all say it in the camera interviews, it's an entertainment show and they have to do that to make the producers warm to them. But I don't recall anything like that coming up at the interviews when they were actually reading her CV.

As for Katie saying what people think - well, she doesn't say what I think. Maybe other people think it, but it doesn't mean that I necessarily agree. And I say what I think as well, and when Katie started out I admired her for that, but then I realised that she is actually only doing it to get attention, not because she has any understanding or knowledge of the subject. There's nothing wrong with going on television and expressing opinions, but if you're doing it to hurt people and make a name for yourself, I think that's wrong. (Which is what Katie does - she says that she doesn't let her children have friends with inappropriate names, but how many children at her kids' school do you reckon have been told by their parents not to play with them because of their association with her? Some of the things she says encourage bullying - for example, she said that she hoped Tanni Grey-Thompson had some thumbtacks lying around near her. It's fine to dislike her for whatever reason and even to be vocal about it, but targeting someone on account of disability is something entirely different.)

Yes, that's how I saw Katie too. She was capable and as you say well liked by her teams. A strong woman with leadership qualities. Sugar thought highly of her.

I'm pretty sure that Margaret Mountford picked Luisa up on the Jessica Rabbit comment in the interviews so it must have been there, or at least it was referred to.

Allowing for Katie's years of experience since her series, and the fact that the prize has changed, I still think Katie would win in a head to head with Luisa. she is articulate, astute and runs a successful business as well as managing the Katie Hopkins character she has created since. Like or loathe her, she has made a bigger success of her life by NOT winning, because she got on with the day job whilst developing the outspoken character we see on TV. Once she left the show, she set up her consultancy, whereas Luisa dumped her cupcake business and went into the CBB house almost straight away - at least Katie left it a couple of years before going into the jungle.

I'm no particular fan of either of them, but in terms of being a success in the business world, Katie has achieved that - as well as being probably the most well known of all the candidates...... We hardly ever hear of any of the other candidates - no matter how notorious they may have been on their series. Stella is probably the second most notorious one after Katie because of her shenanigans after the series, but none of the others have come anywhere close to Katie's fame.

LOL! Katie was only liked by her lackey Ghazal

Well, and Paul obviously

And being the most notorious Apprentice to date is not exactly a compliment (as the show is still about business and not showbusiness).

How is it defined who would 'win' a head-to-head? Neither of them would ever give up contradicting the other one, so the only way to determine that is who people choose to side with afterwards - and that would probably be more on what their opinions were anyway than how either Katie or Luisa debated it.

I agree that Katie is probably the most famous candidate of all time, but I would say that she's famous in a really negative context. Whenever her name comes up in conversation, people usually say, 'Ugh, I can't stand Katie Hopkins' or something along those lines. Who would want to be famous for that? Compare that with Saira Khan, for instance, who isn't such a household name but has also become pretty well-known; some people dislike her, but just as many, if not more, respect her, and she at least comes across as genuine and authentic. She's not a hate figure. Would choose her position over Katie's any day.

Actually, I think pretty much everyone liked Katie besides Adam and Kristina, who saw what she was really like. A lot of Katie's unpleasantness was behind the scenes to camera, it was pretty rare to see it on task. I remember reading an interview with Naomi when she said that she was really shocked to see Katie onscreen - in the house she'd thought they were friends, they'd chat in between the tasks and got on well, and then she saw that Katie had said all these nasty things behind people's backs. It's been similar with other candidates - whenever you read interviews with them, they tend to say that they were pretty taken aback watching Katie back, because on the tasks themselves she tended to come across as quite calm and professional, whilst slagging people off to the camera crew.

Rather odd question, but does anyone know anything about Katie's family?

Someone called Maria who literally looked talked and acted exactly the same as Katie taught me clay pigeon shooting in the Highlands yesterday, and I thought they might be sisters

I am very curious about this.

Apparently she has a sister - but thats all that is known.

I'm know she does have a sister, but I don't know her name. You should have asked her! Did you know this Maria's surname? Hopkins is Katie's original family surname, not her husband's surname, so her sister may share the same name if she's unmarried or kept her maiden name. The other thing I know about her sister is that she was living in Bournemouth at the time that Katie's Apprentice series was filmed as Katie mentioned it in the boardroom once, although of course there is no guarantee that she's still there.

My auntie told me that she knows a woman whose children go to school with Katie's children, though that was a couple of years ago so that may not still be the case. Apparently Katie invited this woman and her family to a party once, but they didn't go.

Maria's surname was Hassall. I didn't want to be rude, because I genuinely think people could find that quite insulting if they weren't.

I am pretty sure Maria's father owned the shooting centre. Maybe they relocated from Bournemouth, for a new venture?

I was just so perplexed by this, as the similarity really was so uncanny.

Luisa still has her business that she proposed to Lord Sugar. She's financed it and set it up herself. How much its worth is unknowable, but I haven't seen anything to suggest Katie has been more successful . She's also successfully branched out into fashion, presenting and the celebrity news press, as well as doing a similar reality show to the one Katie did, and getting more votes and saying longer on it.

Katie is famous for saying things that are controversial. I have no idea what she may, or may not, believe. If you want something controversial said, she's your go to girl . Luisa is good at summing up situations for reality TV with real insight . if you want someone to comment on the news , you now use Michelle. If you want someone who would survive on basic trading skills its Luisa, or Michelle.

I don't think Stella is famous in the same way. She's famous for pointing out she was given a non job, and not managing to get a tribunal to agree.

If you take a look at Companies House you will see the financials, and they are dire. I would suspect that's probably because of the divorce...

I looked at Companies House as you suggested, and according to the information there, the first company accounts on Luisa Zissman's new business isn't due to be filed until next April. Her older business has only been operating for a few years, and any business person will tell you that it's hard to break even in the first year or two of business, but the Ebay shop seems very busy with 99.8% positive feedback, and according to the FB page they have customers in over 75 different countries. She has also published a cookery book which has garnered good feedback on Amazon, in addition to creating a lucrative little sideline in her media appearances. Not bad for someone still in her 20s.