She just follows the script

And it may indeed be just that - although as I have said I like her and find no problem with what she says - she is usually right in any case from what I can see.

One of the advantages of stating the bleeding obvious - something that everyone can see - is that you are bound to be 'right'. The only reason she says stuff therefore is not to illuminate but rather to demean and destroy the candidate.

I think its because she throws people under the bus and tried to take over in a couple of tasks last year hence why people don't like her

Have to say her sneering at Alana (and the bloke who sold the cigars to her for "falling for it") tonight is - I feel - an encapsulation of why people aren't fond of Karren moreso than Claude.

Sure Alana might have used "female charm" (which was more goofy than charming) but to be fair why shouldn't she use whatever tactic she so chooses to help her get a leg up? If it works it ain't stupid. No need to put Alana (and even moreso the actual random salesman) down when they're simply complying with the task.

Exactly. And if Claude had said those exact same words, he would be called a misogynist. How typical of Karren to bash female contestants, when she claims to be all about wimmin in business.

I felt really sorry for Alana. She looked crushed when she was criticised in the boardroom. I thought she did well. They all use questionable methods when trying to get a bargain, and Alana's was far, far from the worst. I actually thought she did well, by simply being sweet and polite, and pretty much making no bones about the fact she was begging.

Last night she was very unfair to Alana both outside the shop and in the boardroom. Why shouldn't Alana try to charm the seller. it's been done before on The Apprentice and I don't believe for one minute it doesn't happen in real business.

There was also no need for her to interrupt Claude when he was explaining to LS about the printers. That came across as very unprofessional and something I'd expect from the candidates not one of the advisers.

Spot on. Not only did she offend Alana for actually doing a good job and getting the end result, but also offended the actual salesman by making him sound thick and naive "why did he fall for it?", WELL, he wouldn't have fell for it if he was talking to Karen, because she's a bitch.

"It's not professional", you cannot tell me that being a nice, pleasant person is not a good tactic. They moan when they go in and sound too "salesy" and now they moan when they try to build up a friendly conversation,

Karen is an imbecile.

Alana 1
Karen 0

I'll tell you why I think it is, Claude when he started this role everyone was used to him been brutal and then we see more of him as a human and his sense of humor now and again. With Karen its been the opposite, most people thought she was more kind hearted and was maybe too soft, don't know if they've told her to be more direct like Claude but she has taken it too far and appears bitter and nasty at times, so people are seeing a new side of her too, mostly negative.

Definitely negative. I noticed a huge amount of negative Karen tweets during the recent episode whereas Alana was being praised.

She is equally nasty in her comments in her column the Sun football section.

She writes for that rag?
Disgusting thing for a peer (or any supposedly intelligent person) to do.

#don'tbuythesun

I didn't' know she writes for the Sun. Another job being paid lots of morey for doing nothing useful. Seems she is totally lacking in class all round.

The UK's most popular paper

Yes you got there before me Sulla.

It's been number one for decades - and still is.

So for the poster who said no intelligent person should read it - that is a bit insulting to the majority

If you didn't know she writes for the Sun how do you know that she is "paid lots of money " ? And furthermore if you have not read it how do you know she is "doing nothing useful " ?

A bit more " making it up as you go along " it would seem.

Hopefully it's very insulting to them.

You have lost me with that my friend

didn't Karren almost lap up on a previous series where someone used their female charm to get a diamond for next to nothing and now its almost banned...

Cigar-gate. Karren was indeed critical of Alana's negotiating style but, in line with the subject of this thread, what did Claude say about his team?


Claude then referred to Trishna's directive to walk away from unsuccessful negotiations.


Yet another double-standard from the Brady-bashers? I think so.

Ironically, they may have missed a trick. Did Karren mix up the two negotiations in her boardroom account? It was Jessica's guy who said he was going to bed.

I like Karren but I do think that she was wrong what she said about Alana because I agree she had every right to used whatever tactic to get what was needed - and she did.

But Sugar was much the same - in fact worse.

I like Alana very much and thought she was excellent in the task - and what I also like about her is that she does not try to a blame others.

It seems clear that she will not win and that as soon as she is one a losing side she will be gone.

Which is sad.

Majority? Perhaps you mean largest minority. You must be a Sun reader.

I disagree that Sugar was worse than Karren. As I was watching I was bracing myself because I was worried that he was going to rip Alana a new one for no good reason. But - to me - what he said seemed very half assed. "Eh it's not very business like is it... ". I don't know I just can't help but feel like if Karren hadn't made a song and dance about it then LS wouldn't have commented on it at all; but because she went so hard on Alana he felt the need to agree with her just to keep up appearances. At least that's how it seemed to me.

I thought he went much harder on Jessica for her sales pitch to the cigar man, but rightfully so of course, at least Alana didn't thoroughly annoy her salesman.

But yes, as you say, it's sad for sure but I'd be highly surprised if Alana wins this, she's being trodden on left, right and centre. Seems the only person on the entire show who hasnt unfairly stuck the boot into her at one point or another is Claude.

It is fact that she systematically screwed the public purse and got a seven figure personal bonus for doing so.

In other words, she got a great deal for West Ham, which is surely her job. To make any of this relevant to last week's Apprentice we'd need to know if she negotiated this deal by begging in a girly way or by falsely claiming she only wanted the stadium for her dad.