UNDER normal circumstances, seeing and hearing that the Government wants to bring in fresh expertise to create more entrepreneurs and give young people a better grasp of business opportunities would be welcome news.

But these are far from normal circumstances – certainly as far as anything emerging from Westminster or Whitehall is concerned. Sir Alan Sugar’s famous Rolls- Royce, gliding towards the beleaguered bunker that is Number 10 Downing Street last week, raised more than a few eyebrows.

It was, after all, just hours before the final of this year’s The Apprentice was to be broadcast.

Thus, Sir Alan’s media profile (which is very rarely low) was at an all-time high.

For critics of the Prime Minister, the mooted appointment of Sir Alan as an enterprise Tsar, ennobled to the Upper House to boot, looked like a hastily dreamed-up plan to gain some positive profile for a seriously damaged leader.

For those with a genuine interest in developing a stronger enterprise culture in this country, the timing looked convenient rather than well-conceived.

And with the spectre of Lord Mandelson, spin doctor extraordinaire turned business secretary (a portfolio one imagines has some bearing on enterprise) in the shadows, the notion that Sir Alan was being wheeled in to bolster public opinion gathered momentum.

What’s emerged since the meeting is that, yes, Sir Alan could become an advisor on enterprise and getting young people into business. And, yes, he says he has heard that he might become a Member of the House of Lords in the process, and, no, there is no question that he is being used by the Brown camp. We’ll see.

By last weekend, Sir Alan faced suggestions that his role was not compatible with his TV career. Critics called on him to make a choice between the warm glow of media attention or the warm embrace of his new ermine robes.

Sir Alan insists the proposed role is in no way political. That stance might turn out to be hard to sustain.

Strip away all the other things going on in Westminster this week and it’s possible to see the merit in Sir Alan's appointment.

The shame would be if his experience and genuine credentials for the task in hand were to be wasted or frittered away by spin doctors playing political games.

THE BOZO FACTOR: PAGES 8-9

MATT JOHNSON is chairman of Mando Group.