Without doubt, quite the most awful book I’ve read for many a year; a totally sycophantic tribute to a man who comes across as a total narcissist. I wouldn’t be surprised if Sugar commissioned Burden to write the thing himself. No self respecting biographer could come up with such a shallow account, so totally devoid of critical comment and reflection unless they had had their pockets stuffed with loot. There is no doubting Sugars entrepreneurial bent, but never forget the old adage; behind every great fortune lies a great crime.

Burden, in a belated attempt to try to distance Sugar from his obsession with making money, one of the more dreary preoccupations of we humans, offers this concluding quote from the man himself: Its only money. What you have to worry about in life is that your loved ones and the people close to you are healthy and well. Its just money. If I lost it all tomorrow I would go and make some more. So what? It is not my God.

Strange, but having ploughed my way through this tedious biography, that is precisely the conclusion I reached about Sir Alan money, and the power and adulation that goes with it, is very much his god. Little wonder that Rupert Murdoch is so full of praise for the man. By his friends shall we know him! The fact that Sugar should sell his hugely successful Amstrad business to the Murdoch media empire is a perfectly fitting epitaph for the man and his life; one narcissistic megalomaniac selling out to an even bigger one.

Of course I know nothing of Mr Sugar other than his public persona and the superficial portrayal presented of him in Burdens work. It is possible that away from the spotlight, a more thoughtful, reflective man is lurking, though somehow I doubt it. In Alan Sugars case I fear it is a case of what you see is what you get the grating arrogance of the self-made man. If only we were all like him, I can hear him say, we too could be multi-millionaires. Unfortunately, the reality of capitalism is a little different.

For every big winner under capitalism there are countless millions of losers, each of whom would have contributed, by their toil and suffering, to the extreme wealth of that one winner. Amstrad, by Burdens own admission, relied on the cheaper prices of Far East manufacturing. It doesn’t take a top notch investigative journalist to know exactly what that means. Sweat shop labour in the East to make mega profits in the West. Suddenly our Sir Alan Sugar doesn’t seem such a nice guy; just another ruthless capitalist, masquerading as the all round family guy who loves to give to his favourite charities.

There is one vaguely intriguing chapter offered up by Burden, that being the account of Sugars time as Tottenham Chairman and his partnership with fellow wide boy, Terry Venables. This three-way partnership was always going to end in tears, and so it did. To get a feel of Sugar’s empathy with the world of professional football we need only ponder the following Sugar rant: Listen to a fucking football player? Will you get real? I don’t know why you’re wasting your breath talking about what a fucking football player says. They’re scum, total scum. They’re bigger scum than journalists, don’t you understand? They don’t know what honesty or loyalty is. They’re the biggest scum that walk on this planet and, if they weren’t football players, most of them would be in prison, its as simple as that. Do not believe a word that comes out of their mouths. All they’re interested in is themselves. Totally themselves. Pxx

When I think of the quiet, professional loyalty that players like Ryan Giggs, Phil Neville and Paul Scholes have given Manchester United over the years, I find this sweeping generalisation needlessly insulting. Yes, many top flight footballers do put number one first, but not more so than the worlds industrialists, bankers, financial speculators and their pliant politicians. Of these powerful modern day villains, himself included, Sir Alan is a little more circumspect.

Charlie Burden winds up his ode to Sir Alan in his nauseatingly obsequious style: The boy from Hackney who became a multi-millionaire, television star and inspiration to budding entrepreneurs everywhere, Sir Alan Sugar is an example to us all for the way he has conducted his life. Dubbed probably Britain’s greatest entrepreneur by none other than Rupert Murdoch, he is so much more than that. A national treasure and star in every sense of the word, the business giant might put on a grumpy front on The Apprentice, but do not let that fool you. For Sir Alan really is as sweet as they come. P255

Successful entrepreneurs probably do have a significant place in the history of human affairs, from whatever century they may hail from. But, as we begin our journey through the 21st century, the question we should ask ourselves is just what social value has each entrepreneur created. Sugar made his big money making satellite dishes and other bits of electronic junk for Rupert Murdoch’s Sky TV, and although this is admittedly a subjective assessment, it is extremely doubtful that the world is a better place with the advent of Sky TV. Rather than producing quality programmes, as the old terrestrial channels once did, Murdoch feeds the planet a diet of dumbed-down game shows, recycled US sitcoms and a continual supply of the new drug of choice wall to wall sports coverage.

One could argue that Sugar helped popularise cheap computers via his Amstrad range and to that extent he could be applauded. But it could equally be argued that the PC was already well established in the global marketplace, and Sugar merely jumped on the bandwagon, his prime objective, and over-riding theme of his life being self- enrichment. The grotesque dynamics of The Apprentice merely seeks to perpetuate and glorify this obsession with entrepreneurial success at the expense of the opposition. What would be more fitting for our age would be a programme that promoted the culture of cooperation, accountability, transparency and sustainability; words quite alien to the Alan Sugars of the world. The Rupert Murdochs, the Richard Bransons and the Alan Sugars no only one creed; enrich thyself and sod the rest.