To think SurAlun (now Lord) Sugar should not be in government?

[mrsshackleton]

I mean, seriously, who is Gordo going to drag on to the sinking ship next? Simon Cowell? Amanda Holden? Piers Morgan?

Appointing SurAlun as "business tsar" looks like the cheapest and most desperate publicity stunt to me. Does he think we'll be impressed because he's on telly? I am

As Margaret Thatcher said when Geoffry Howe resigned over his clash with her " economic advisor" Sir Alan Walters

"Ministers decide, advisors advise".

As I recall, a previous winner of The Apprentice was pretty much condoned by Sir Alan for lying on his CV (with Sir Alan saying it was sometimes necessary to get on in business). So if lying and cheating are the name of the game, I'm sure he'll be in good company with the politicians.

For me though, a spoonful of Sugar won't help the Labour medicine go down...

Please link to these 'shocking' things Lenin

Alan Sugar in The Telegraph on employing women etc

He's right insofar as ANY business should be wary of employing someone, anyone, that will bugger off for a year, on full pay, leaving you with a temp that doesnt know the job or care about the consequences of their actions.

In the majority of cases this will be women leaving to have children. It is a nightmare situation, especially for small businesses, to have to pay twice for someone to do a job.

He is also right that companies employ people to make money for the shareholders, not to pay them childcare.

And he is also entitled to his opinion that women bosses discriminate more, presumably based on his experience in business. That doesnt consone discrimination, it is just his experience.

But back to my original gripe - he has shown absolutely NO reluctance to employ women on the apprentice.

If someone that was turned down for a job at Amstrad would like to come here and tell us about it I am all ears, but I still see no evidence of someone 'proud to discriminate against women'

Lostpuppy - where can I get one of these wonderful jobs that give you a year on fully pay for maternity leave? I'm pregnant so a quick answer would be very much appreciated....

Businesses are only obliged to pay SMP and they can largely reclaim that from the Govt so it is not a case of having to pay twice for the same job. If an employer chooses to give more generous benefits (as mine does) then that is an incentive that the employer has chosen to give to attract the best employees. There is a business case for doing that.

I'm still not seeing any proof of Sir Allan Sugar's discrimination against women.

He has just employed a woman of child bearing age on a six figure salary.

I can't believe Londonone's comment about 'falling for the claptrap of him being self made'.How is he not that ??

His business career has been patchy to say the least! In recent years many of his businesses have foundered and it is only the presence of a large property portfolio that has kept him where he is. PErhaps I was wrong in suggesting he isn't self made I was more trying to illustrate that much of his current wealth has come from speculation and the market rather than the "good honest grafting" that he likes to bang on about!

Someone once said that there are three types of people:

Those who make things happen
Those who things happen to
Those who say "What happened?"

Walt Disney went bankrupt 7 times before he struck gold with Disney.

Successful people do not give up. They are doers who are proactive in making things happens and if it does not succeed, they move on to the next thing but they do not give up or rest on their laurals or sit around sniping or feeling sorry for themselves.

Sralan grew up on a council estate, left school with no qualifications, started trading with goods from his van and now has a business empire. He knows the target market that he is appealing to and delivers products to that market. That is how one conducts business. He grafted to achieve his business empire and the naysayers who snipe about his achievements do so because they don't know how to make things happen for themselves.

I see you can't help yourself spokette! Tell me do you use the word grafting day to day or just reserve it for rough diamonds like sugar!

I used the word grafting because you used in when you wrote ""good honest grafting"

Going back to my original OP

My feeling - it just seemed a teeny bit of a coincidence that a flailing government would announce the appointment of SurAlun who heads up a very popular TV show whose final was on Sunday on a Friday when they were up the creek without any sort of paddle whatsoever. The timing of it all was just and imo was incredibly patronising (and it didn't work, hah!).

Oh I was taking the piss!

Londonone,

Lord Sugar's company produced a range of affordable MS-DOS-based, and later Windows-based personal computers, the first of which was the PC1512, priced at £399 in 1986.
It was a HUGE success, capturing more than 25% of the European computer market.

Yes, 25% of the European computer market! And that included corporate sales in direct competition with IBM.

Amstrad products are in almost every home - they produce almost ALL Sky boxes for example.

And Sir Alan is the star of the Beeb's most popular telly programmes.

The bloke has been and still is a success, why some people have to knock him down I have no idea.

If we were in America he'd be a national hero!