Hurrah! Anti-capitalist Apprentice on the slide

It has long been apparent that The Apprentice, the BBC show, may be a secret Marxist plot to discredit capitalism. The image it presents of commerce and competition is so ludicrously cartoonish that it cannot be anything other than a dastardly attempt to bring down the market system by stealth.

Theoretically, the show is entertainment aimed at promoting entrepreneurialism. In practice it caricatures and discredits capitalism.

Lord Sugar – inventor of the pioneering Amstrad PenPad, also known by the PDA600, which in 1993 revolutionised human civilisation – is the host for the BBC. Watching him be mean to the contestants could turn even a pro-market person like me into a communist.

But then the contestants – “business consultants” and “novelty goods salesmen” – for the most part do deserve what Sugar doles out. Anyone who has seen the Apprentice and then still goes on it needs their head examining. It is a deplorable programme. The plinky-plonky music and snide editing designed to accentuate stupidity. The way in which the contestants are put in situations where they end up goading each other. The lack of empathy. The involvement of Baroness Brady. The stupidly pointless and naff prizes for the winning teams. The endless use of the term Lord Sugar, which is emblematic of the urgent need for the abolition of the House of Lords.

Now, there is good news. The show appears to be on the slide, which is a rare boost for under-fire capitalists who want capitalism reinvented and replenished.

Not only were the ratings reported to be down 900,000 at the launch of the new series, suggesting that the viewing public has had enough of the Apprentice approach to life. In the US, where it began life, invented by Dagenham-born boy Mark Burnett, it was famously hosted by the barbarian Donald Trump, who makes Sugar look reflective and modest.

There is more good news, however, for those who want the show to be “fired”. This week a contestant sensibly walked out on the latest British show. Aleksandra King left The Apprentice before the stupid task had even started.

The 38-year-old business consultant said: “I have found the process overwhelming and stressful and really intense and I just want to go home. Right now.”

She had had enough of Lord Sugar, she explained:

“[He] is massively successful and he has his way of doing things but I wish I could do it in a more collaborative way and instead of carving each other up, working together. Lord Sugar so similar to my father. They are really nice, they’re both successful and they do things in their own way. But they are very dominating, you sort of feel like you’re a kid at home with Lord Sugar. Although I love and respect my dad, I’m not going to run my house the same way he has. And it’s sort of the same with Lord Sugar. I feel like he’s had his time and he’s doing his thing in his own way but it’s not really for me.”

It is an interesting analysis, and Sugar’s unreflective response to her decision was rather revealing. He would not have to pay for Ms King to be driven away from the Apprentice: “On the positive front I’ve saved myself a cab fare.”

All this risks obscuring a real entrepreneurial revolution that has taken place in the UK in recent years. Start-up formation increased by 4.6% in 2015. A record 608,100 companies were launched. As Luke Johnson, serial entrepreneur and chairman of the Centre for Entrepreneurs, put it at the time: “We have seen a record number of new businesses created for four consecutive years, proving that entrepreneurship has become engrained within the UK’s business culture.”

Starting a business is hardly easy, but at least in the UK the bureaucracy is at a minimum compared to the nightmarishly complicated situation in France. The UK is also miles ahead of most of its rivals – such as Germany – in terms of the digital economy, new businesses and older businesses moving online. Home shopping and delivery that we take for granted in the UK is not the norm elsewhere. It is an upbeat story, and across the country people are collaborating, working together, quietly building their businesses and creating the economy of the future, with absolutely no need to go on the Apprentice to be shouted at by a business consultant or novelty goods salesman who has seen Oliver Stone’s Wall Street, Game of Thrones and every series of the Apprentice and thinks that is how one should behave.

Perhaps the dreadful Apprentice has played a part after all. It is a “how not to” manual.