What A Woman

"Be in the game, not of the game," is a Bart Simpson line that could be applied to Katie Hopkins, the scarlet woman in The Apprentice, who showed you can use an hour of prime time television each week for ten weeks for self promotion above and beyond the call of duty.

The closing ten minutes of last nights penultimate show featured some of the most astute camerawork and editing seen on a 'reality' show for a long time. Having survived the first two parts of the final cull, Katie had sworn, career and domestic, devotion to Alan Sugar and she waited with Kristina (an Irish accent guaranteed to melt a man's heart at 40 paces) and Simon (nice but dim) for the 'you're fired' moment. There was clearly something amiss, her blue eyes were less blue than usual and her red cheeks, normally the colour of Edam rind, lacked their usual lustre.

Katie, the 31 year old mother of two from Exeter*, had supposedly reached the semi final stage without consulting her parents about whether or not they would look after the children whilst she went off to be the new Nicola Horlick.

Actually the thing that struck me most about Katie was that she was a throwback to the 80's and 90's when women used their boobs and legs to get on in business. Karen Brady pointed out recently that Katie's style was out of keeping with modern business practice, well that may be the case but £90,000 a year shows that somebody must have been admiring the view. And that's another point, why go on a show where the prize money is only £10,000 a year more than you earn but you have to move your family, or at least yourself, from Exeter to London?

Well Katie used the eleven weeks to promote herself well. She was more memorable than all but two of the contestants who began the series and her singular ambition will no doubt enable her to achieve her goal of being the CEO of an international company before she reaches 40.

*Look I know it's not important but they always put ages and hometowns in the papers!