Lee McQueen Dodges The Apprentice Bullet
LEE McQueen is the winner of this year’s Apprentice challenge. To him the spoils of an office job in Brentwood.
The Scotsman’s front page says the “bookies are not the only ones who made a mistake” and Alan Sugar erred when she passed over “feisty” Claire Young.
Someone should tell the Scotsman’s writers that bookies don’t make mistakes when the favourite loses and that when an outsider wins they make money. They should also tell the Scotsman that no bets were taken on The Apprentice because the show is recorded in advance and therefore open to cheating.
But under pressure, the Scotsman’s trainee hacks begin to gab, saying that “Claire’s vicious boardroom attack on Simon the arrogant bank manager after the photography task may have been unpleasant, but a lot of what she said was right on the money”.
That would be Simon the satellite installation engineer by day and, one assumes, bank manager by night?
And then there’s the whole honesty issue. The fact is that in order to make it on to The Apprentice in the first place, Lee lied about his education on his CV, claiming to have spent two years at Thames Valley University when he in fact dropped out after just a few months…A better man might have laughed and said “yeah, you got me bang to rights there, guv’nor, but I only lied because I want this job so badly,” but Lee compounded his error by making a couple of cringe-worthy attempts to blag his way out of trouble before finally admitting defeat.
But we all make mistakes, and it’s not like he’s trying to be a journalist where getting the facts rights is all important…
June 12th, 2008 at 9:25 am
am I the only person in the land never to have watched the Apprentice? am I also the only person who finds Alan Sugar’s contrived ‘miserable git’ personality UNendearing and nasty?
We’re meant to think he’s a hard-nosed business man on the outside with a cuddly teddy bear on the inside fighting to get out. Huh.
It’s not big and it’s not clever to be rude but no-one has ever dared tell him.
June… did you come across him in days gone by?!
Mods and Admin
Not had the dubious pleasure meeting him and don’t watch the prog either…I’ve met and worked with enough high flying shits in my time , which is why I have escaped the rat race and work with real animals, including rats
June 12th, 2008 at 9:59 am
Good morning anonymous blogger - enjoyed reading the above post.
Yeah, you got me bang to rights there, guv’nor. I am clearly guilty of confusing my Kevins with my Simons. The difference between what I did and what Lee did, of course, is that I made an honest mistake under pressure whereas Lee attempted to deliberately mislead people about his qualifications in order to gain an advantage over other Apprentice candidates who had worked hard to finish their education.
Oh, and then there’s the thing about Claire being the ‘Bookies’ Favourite’. I actually gleaned that bit of information from a press release on the William Hill website, which quoted Claire at 10/11, Alex at 11/4, Lee at 9/2 and Helene at 5/1. You can read the whole thing here: http://www.williamhillmedia.com/index_template.asp?file=10226
Granted, there is a line in there stating “Due to the fact that much of the programme is pre-recorded Hills are unable to accept bets on the final,” but the fact remains that the bookies offered hypothetical odds and made Claire their clear favourite.
Hill’s spokesman Rupert Adams said “In betting terms Claire looks a certainty and we would be astounded if she did not win.”
In that sense, I hope you’ll agree, we were right in saying that the bookies got it wrong.
All the best,
Roger
June 12th, 2008 at 10:03 am
I have some across Sir Alan - someone not a million miles from my family was engaged to his son… Sitting in a Spain cafe, a fan told him “You’re Alan Sugar”. His reply: “I’m often mistaken for that miserable bastard…”
June 12th, 2008 at 10:46 am
I like Alan. I like his no nonsense approach. What I don’t like is not being able to reinact his no nonsense approach where I work. I would be fired immediately for being rude and arrogant. It’s not being rude and arrogant its being real.
June 12th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
Lee McQueen did not lie.
He clearly stated on his CV that he did not complete the course at Thames Valley University.
Here’s a screen grab from that episode when Lee’s CV is shown: http://img102.imageshack.us/img102/5656/cvha1.jpg
See the phrase “HCIMA - Not Complete”
And here’s the transcript:
Lee McQueen: “When I was a trainee catering manager, they put me through to do a professional qualification in catering. I was there for two years, I was actually doing my HCIMA for that period of time.”
Bordan Tkachuk: “Are you sure it was two years?” (Were you working with the catering company for two years?)
Lee McQueen: “As far as I am aware, it was two years, yes.”
The whole thing has been completely blown out of proportion.
June 13th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
Roger - thanks for the comment. Bookmakers see thmselves as the barometers of public opinion - put your money where your mouth is. But their press release is not news, and not to be taken as fact. As for Simons and Kevins - well, after a while they all begin to look the same, and does anyone really suppose that after a few series of The Apprentice Sugar can tell them apart?…
June 14th, 2008 at 10:51 am
I knew Lee would win and only wish I had bet on him. I think The Apprentice is one of the best TV shows ever, and Lee was definitely the best candidate. Alan Sugar is great and really makes the show