But proper preperation means that you can basically make the decision straight away as you already know your details such as whats the cost price of the item so you can never go below, that where james never really cared about the price he was always interested in closing the deal so while it may of got him 'more sales' he could actually of been costing them loads of money.

True - and it's a fair question to ask, although I think Roisin has largely answered it through her performances on tasks so far.

As with so many things in life it's a matter of balance, isn't it? Action without thought leads to mistakes and the likelihood of the need for fire-fighting. Thought without action leads to, well, inaction. Neither extreme is a good place to be.

How did Roisin keep so calm around James?

it's called class, she has it he doesn't.

^^ To both of you, has she, she failed badly on her candle task, which should of been "right up her street". That involved her key skills, pricing, profits, mark ups etc.

Even worse from a long term business point of view she sold out of her stock, lost the task, buy selling to cheap and not identifying the correct markets (hotels not Camden market). The other team sold less, for more and even had stock left so could of gone out the next day, and probably sold the same amount in monetary value again!!

Yes, she made bad mistakes as PM on that task - no question about that. But her performances since then have been very strong. We've seen past winners get away with errors but come out ahead on balance. I'd rather take someone who has made 4 positive contributions and 1 negative one over someone who has contributed hardly anything in either column. Ahem, Sanjay.

If that bloke who did pterodacytl impressions, acted like a drunken oaf and lied on his CV can win, Roisin should be a shoe in.

Oh I agree she's been very good, but by the way some are talking she's a shoe in!! She comes across very well and is easy on the eye, I know if it came down to her or Mark I know who I'd be rooting for. But she's certainly not the complete article, and is maybe too quite and thinky for her own good.

I thin Roisin's learned from that mistake in the candle task and thats a very great plus compared to James who's probably the perfect guy for a fire sale where you just want to clear everything no matter what price you get

Yep. she's learning, think I'd like to see her and Daniel in the final, with her to win. If Daniel makes it to the final, how many are really going to want to work with him?

Yep, definitely not a shoo-in - not least because we don't know anything about her business plan. (We thought Helen Milligan was a shoo-in until we realised her plan was terrible ...)

I stand by my belief that the favourites are (in no particular order) Roisin, Katie and the quietly impressive Solomon.

I think Mark isn't as well-rounded as he first appears, although he's indisputably a good salesman. And similarly I suspect Bianca is better than the glaring errors she made on the coach tour and board game tasks. But I'd have those two as dark horses rather than favourites.

As I've said elsewhere, Daniel, Felipe and Sanjay have no chance in my eyes. None.

I agree. She speaks up when she needs to rather than speaking for the sake of it (as many of the contestants do).

The main thing was being aware of how badly he'd looked in the show, and didn't much try to defend it. Instead he said he owed Roisin an apology and generally accepted any and all criticism, and was generally so humble it was hard to attack him. As Joe Lycett said, it would be like kicking a puppy.

But the difference was that Lee didn't have much serious competition. At the time of the interviews, Alex, Helene and Lucinda were unlikely to win, so his only big rival was Claire. I doubt he would have won against many finalists from other series.

Roisin is good, but unlike in Series 4, there are some pretty good people to pose a threat, namely Solomon and Katie.

Fair point. Those are worthy contenders, possibly Mark too. In S4 I thought several good people: Shazia, Simon, Rafe, went out way too early.

Yes, I agree. Sara as well.

Yes Sara too.

I'm honestly struggling to think of a single task where a PM has so comprehensively screwed up the job and engaged in such utterly stupid attempts at people management. The entire task was a total disaster - and his meglomania was responsible for all of the key mistakes.

He was like a petulant, paranoid ten year old who'd just drunk a case of Red Bull.

Rory Laing, the brains behind the Pooch Pouch?

Well Roisin screwed up her task right royally so there's one straight away was (partly down to Jame's fire sale but under her instruction).

I don't think she could have advised him to get the guy's name right beforehand and I think that was probably James's main mistake there. Katie saw that Daniel was taking completely the wrong approach in the his first 2 meetings and got him to calm it down a bit (or actually took over herself)


Sugar and Nick's attitude to James in the boardroom went against everything we saw of James in this episode and probably the series so far. I was afraid that he was going to be given a second chance at the end but luckily it wasn't to be.
I thought that the critisism of Roisin (is that right?) was a bit out of order. She, for me, is one of the better candidates, getting on with things and getting stuff done without shouting or making a scene.
I even thought Sanjay hasn't been too bad. Yeah, he's been a bit quiet but he still gets on with stuff in the background, stuff that needs doing but won't get you on camera. It was quite rude of Nick to interupt him in that way whilst he was trying to defend himself to Sugar, I thought.

If James had been saved from the axe and either Roisin or Sanjay had gone, I would have stopped watching The Apprentice there and then.

I didn't see the YBF love-in as I've seen enough of the odious little oik.

James accused Bianca of all the same waffle a few weeks ago about 'undermining', he just doesn't like it when people aren't kissing his ass, especially women it seems. Roisin handled him so much better than Bianca did though, he even said he was out of order with Roisin in Radio 1.

He was out of order with them both but more so with Bianca. It's ludicrous to compare the 2 scenarios: with Bianca, he was laying into her 'in private' thus she was able to let rip and give as good as she got - and why the hell shouldn't she? - whereas his and Roisin's 'altercation' was in front of potential clients so required a different approach. Both responses were completely different and yet both appropriate. And yeah, he has no option but to acknowledge Roisin's because it's the only one he's been pulled up on. Thug.

I didn't 'compare' the situations at all. I said he accused both girls of the same thing i.e. his 'undermining' accusation is all he can come up with when he knows he's in the wrong/being outsmarted.

Despite him having two convictions ( one suspended prison sentence ) for grievous bodiy harm or something similar ??

But as I don't know in what circumstances he got those I can't possibly comment, but on YF he came across well.