It seems like everyone involved with the show lost the plot this week.

The girls and boys teams were finally mixed up to try and defuse the situation but instead it spread the arguments and tantrums.

Where have they got this batch from? They really could start a fight in an empty room.

The stress levels of everyone including Alan Sugar seemed to be at breaking point - for the fourth week running he was clearly very angry at the contestants for making such basic errors, losing money and generally falling out with each other.

As for Simon, he even admitted he was out of his depth and the nail in the coffin was starting to cry halfway through the task.

It's impossible to explain to people just how stressful and demanding this competition is.

Simon has been in the Army for some considerable time and been put in very demanding situations; for him to go through all that and then crack here must have been a shock for him.

The major difference of this competition is you are really alone, people will covertly work against you and sometimes no matter how well you do, others can let you down.

I could see in his eyes that he just didn't know how to deal with that - it's a far cry from the camaraderie he'd have been used to in the Army.

The thing that upset me the most was the fact that Simon had worked so hard for everyone else when they led tasks and for his team mates not to have worked for him was just unforgivable.

I must admit I agree with Simon that his talents are certainly as a number two, he's deeply committed, full of energy and a real grafter and out of all of the candidates I'd be more than happy to give Simon a job.

Unfortunately Sir Alan isn't looking for a number two; he wants someone to run one of his companies, or so he says.

In reality the winner will be given a task to carry out under supervision of one of his other Directors so Simon probably would have done a good job for him.

Without a doubt there are countless other contestants still in the competition who are nowhere near Simon's standards and I feel he should have gone further.

The competition is too much of a lottery - people like Lucinda and Lindi are total wastes of space but they haven't been taken into the boardroom, either ny being on a winning team or just pure luck.

This does often mean some of the better contestants go too early.

As for the task, I was shocked again at the mistakes being made.

Last year and with the two previous series most of the tasks went wrong for minor reasons like running out of time, or someone printing labels wrong.

But this year it's basic business principles that the candidates are falling down on.

It seems that none of them know how to operate basic technology either, like a camera, printer or a laptop.

That is even more ridiculous when you want to work for Alan Sugar who made his fortune from selling technology-based products.

From the initial meeting where Simon put himself forward you could tell the team didn't want him in charge.

Both Alex and Claire were roadblocks in his way throughout the whole task.

They made it so difficult for him to manage them and added to his stress levels knowing he would break, they sensed the weakness and attacked.

It may be the way to win in the Apprentice but they have both lost a huge amount of my respect.

In my opinion someone with integrity and pure ability should win this, not people who win by the default of setting others up for a fall.

The sales effort seemed to go well. Both teams had lots of customers to sell to but both stopped selling during the day because they couldn't deliver.

The technical problems they had really stifled them.

Rather than giving people the option of coming back in 2 hours or paying up front for the goods to be posted out to them, they just decided to stop selling.

Knowing you have a production problem shouldn't stop you selling your products - you just under-promise your delivery schedule.

These lot both over-promised and under-delivered which is why they had so many unhappy customers.

Judging from the crowd around Team Alpha's stand, the David Beckham look alike was a very popular idea. It was the one crowning glory I saw all night.

However, knowing how the tasks worked, that idea would have been provided to them along with one or two other themes so nobody can really take credit for the vision on that one.

Putting Lucinda in charge of anything, let alone technical things, was either a big mistake or a way to get rid of her.

Clearly Helene and Jenny Celerier do not like Lucinda - and it's easy to see why.

She's lazy, unhelpful, always crying and clearly manipulating situations to put a spanner in the works.

I suspect that using Lucinda in that task was Helene's get out clause if the task went wrong.

How on earth did they get away with selling a print out on A4 paper for £15.99?

If I'd been asked for that much money for that I'd have laughed and walked away.

So hats off for getting the money in there - but even at that they only made just short of £150 profit.

Although Simon wasn't helped by his team, he really should have addressed the issues with production much earlier in the day and for that reason Alan Sugar did have justification for letting him go.

However, I really thought Sir Alan completely bottled it in the boardroom.

Claire was out of order and had it been the American version of The Apprentice I am sure Donald Trump would have fired Claire for her attitude.

Instead Sir Alan almost did it but then sent her back to the house with a stern warning.

He must really think she has something to make her a potential winner to not get rid of her on that performance.