MAFS spoiler thread.

[marmiteadict]

As the current thread is restricted only to discussing what is actually happening on the show, I thought I'd set up a spoiler thread where Instagram posts, Daily Mail articles etc are allowed to be discussed.

In no way is this meant to replace the main thread and discussions about the show. Just so that comments that are not allowed are able to be discussed.

Where can I find the MAFS podcast?

@browneyes77 I went to the podcast app on my phone and searched for MAFS Hysteria.

Yes, they really are easily discovered. That’s what I did last night when I finally watched the episode with the two new weddings.

I’m Mancunian, I’m in a big finance job and I know the Manchester business community. The bullshit alarm was ringing as soon as I heard Sophie trying to present herself as the Sheryl Sandberg of Manchester. It was so obviously bollocks.

I looked into it. Sophie, allegedly ‘global head of partnership’ or ‘head of channel’ in tech, is nothing of the sort. Of course she isn’t. Would a real mover and shaker in tech behave like her, or go on some stupid trashy reality show? Of course not. Nor would anyone in such a role in their twenties be desperately trying to impress everyone by bigging up the importance of their career. They simply wouldn’t need to do it. Nor would they take months of sabbatical to be on some stupid reality show (which I am watching, haha).

Here is what she really does. She works at an organisation called TechManchester. They are so small that they file micro company accounts. There are three employees. Three. 3. Not hard to call yourself a ‘global head’ in those circumstances, is it?

TechManchester are a company limited by guarantee. What this means is, no share capital has been injected by the founders. Companies limited by guarantee tend to be charities or sometimes trade associations. In this case they have a negative balance sheet: the accounts are abridged so not much detail, but the net assets will be negative because the company operates using a directors’ loan from the founder. Entrepreneurial businesses re not limited by guarantee. Businesses paying big salaries are not usually limited by guarantee. She’s a bullshitter.

What TechManchester are doing is similar to what another much bigger organisation called TechUK do. They ask businesses, usually SMEs, to pay an annual subscription in order to network and to shape the content of tech education y working with universities. They also tend to offer conferences etc to make extra money. Sophie will be calling businesses trying to get them to subscribe. That’s her ‘channel’ and ‘partnership’ that she’s calling herself the ‘global head’ of. In the three-person business that’s basically a small charity.

I can’t bear silly deceptions like this. It undermines women who have genuine tech careers, or are aspiring to them. This idiot says that she dropped out of university ‘to work in tech’. As if she were too entrepreneurial to study or whatever. Bollocks. She dropped out then got a mediocre job selling subscriptions to small businesses. I really hope that her fairy story doesn’t encourage other young women to think that that is how life works. Drop out and you too could be filmed walking through Manchester with Selfridges carrier bags, pretending to talk business on a mobile phone and dressed in a ludicrous outfit. That sort of thing would get you laughed out of any serious tech business.

Got it! Thanks!

@Iamthewombat Please don’t drag Selfridges into this. It’s my favourite shop 😢😢😢

I believe him too. There was nothing there anymore - he was v clear her vulgarities were pushing him away and she STILL persisted with talking that way

I get that MAFS likes a story. Of course it do. Jonathan is a pleasant but dim Yorkshire bloke and he probably knows it. Hence the “work to live, I wouldn’t mind being a stay at home dad” thing. I’ve known (not biblically) loads of men like him. So to get the contrast the producers think, ooh, we need a high flying career girl (I hate that phrase and use it advisedly). They stand no chance of finding anyone of the right age who (1) has a proper business career and (2) would participate in this tripe, so will poor, deluded Sophie’s collusion they present her as a pound shop Sheryl Sandberg.

The bit about boyfriends allegedly being intimidated by her supposed career success and saying ‘don’t tell me what you’re earning or I’ll be sick’ is pure fiction. It was an obvious set up to introduce some tension with Jonathan the joiner. Sophie will not be earning a big salary. Her shopping and flat are most likely subsidised by her parents, who are at pains to present themselves as posh (her father’s cravat in the wedding car!)

Sophie also made much of her wish to ‘inspire other women to work in tech’ and mentions ‘data centres’ when describing her job. I doubt that she has any clue what a data centre is, or what cloud computing is. I think that she has confused herself, probably via wishful thinking, with the person who founded TechManchester, the three-person tech leviathan limited by guarantee.

The founder and sole director of TechManchester is Gail Jones, who is in her forties. I know who she is. She and her husband set up UKFast, a hosting/cloud computing business in Manchester, more than twenty years ago. A private equity house bought a percentage of the business, making the Joneses wealthy. Good on them. They are genuine entrepreneurs. Gail Jones is active in encouraging women into tech and STEM. She set up TechManchester as a sort of giving back to the tech community/helping SMEs enterprise. Sophie doesn’t work for UKFast, but for TechManchester. She’s a bullshitter.

Tee hee! Don’t worry. Selfridges can survive this slight.

I get that MAFS likes a story. Of course it do.

That typo makes me sound like Snoop Dogg. Of course it DOES, that should say!!

It’s fairly new and certainly when I worked in a school a few years ago was being rolled out nationwide.

There we’re some issues though as basically police had to know that children were involved and which school they went to - if it’s a NRP in their own home they may be inclined not to mention the children.

@beneathhereyes Check of Gemma saying robbed her of a family, her poor two kids? What are they???? They never get a mention.

She did mention the kids though! She shouted that she had 2 kids as if he was 'abandoning' all three of them when he decided to leave.

Honestly she's acting like her loving husband of 20+years and father of her kids has blown the family apart, when in reality a perfect stranger who she was paired with for a week just doesn't fancy her.

@Iamthewombat so in basic terms, Sophie is a cold caller?

Not far off! Then when she gets businesses to subscribe she’ll be calling them to schmooze them. Globally managing her channel, see.

TechManchester is in the same building as U.K. Fast, which changed its name last year following some escandalo, so she’ll be encountering proper tech people in the canteen, I suppose. Poor Sophie.

Yes poor Gemma thought she was getting the perfect nuclear family when she was walking down the aisle.

Sophie's dad's comment about Jonathan not meeting girls like Sophie in York is even more funny now we know she's a glorified telephonist.

@LydiaBennetsUglyBonnet
I believe him too. There was nothing there anymore - he was v clear her vulgarities were pushing him away and she STILL persisted with talking that way

I mean, I think the dude is a piece of work but I really don't know how Gemma couldn't not see glaringly that it was over - I actually felt Johnathan's comment was pretty accurate. I do believe that Matt may have told Gemma (and she has alluded to this in her IG stories) to keep the decision to separate out of the filming so that they could continue in the experiment but I don't believe she didn't know how he felt - throughout he has been shown on the show very clearly (if aggressively) saying how he feels about all sorts and strikes me as the type of person who will happily tell you how he feels.

I do feel for Gemma as I believe her when she says Matt was also making sexual remarks (if only perhaps on their wedding day) but think she took it way too far - she saw that as some kind of indicator that there was something definitely there and then acted as if they'd been married 20 years and he'd cheated on her. Matt said in his IG that the producers had asked him not to tell Gemma about Whitney prior to the dinner party (he said it's the only time he "listened" to them, but suspect it's because he did want to drag her down).

@LydiaBennetsUglyBonnet
It’s fairly new and certainly when I worked in a school a few years ago was being rolled out nationwide.
There we’re some issues though as basically police had to know that children were involved and which school they went to - if it’s a NRP in their own home they may be inclined not to mention the children.

Sorry me again - that's interesting, thanks for clarifying. I won't go into too much detail but the police were involved on my property in front of our child, so sounds as if the school will have it on file (they know informally).

Oooh forgot they were releasing an interview with her, thanks for the reminder!

Anyone else notice Duka desperately trying not to laugh when everyone was outraged by Whitney fancying Matt. Covering his mouth with his hand so hard to stop the smirk.

Not a fan of Whitney but in her favour she does not have the foul, filthy mouth that Gemma has, which would turn off any man who was half decent. Not a fan of Matt either but I'm with his on this. He could have massively taken advantage of the sex starved woman but he didn't.

George: 'Thomas is a disgusting person' [and repeat]. Projecting again George? because to me he is the absolute worse individual on the programme. The anger in his face is chilling. Go back rugby tackling/scrums, which cover a multitude of suppressions.

I'd have literally done a backwards limbo off that bridge to get away from him...rather have pond weed and frog spawn all over me than matt!

I found this for Sophie www.linkedin.com/in/sophiehlbrown/
must remember to take a new linked in photo wearing tight white pants...

DH doesn't take much notice when MAFS is on but he was loving the drama last night.
He actually asked what was wrong with George because he 'looks like an angry bird'. I said he's just an angry man 🤷‍♀️

That's really interesting, wombat. I'm not being sneery about Sophie because I agree that MAFS wanted the story of "girl boss meets humble man" and was prepared to shoe-horn anyone who remotely fitted into that narrative.

Sophie could have said no! But she’s probably not smart enough to realise that even a cursory scratching of the surface is going to make her look like an idiot.

Her career isn’t going anywhere so she’s probably got her eye on a career as an influencer. Oh dear. I could write the script now. How to be a business babe blah blah use your feminine charms in the corporate world rhubarb rhubarb hey have you seen that Boohoo dot com have a new range of business babe suits starting at £12.99 zzzzzzz

I don't think this is correct, I am LinkedIn with Sophie I don't know how, I've been a member for a long time - and have many connections, and she doesn't work for Tech Manchester, she works for Cloud company.