Lord Sugar says banks unfairly attacked for lending
Lord Sugar has defended the UK's banks saying they should not be attacked for what he says is responsible lending.
He told the Radio Times: "The banks were villains by acting irresponsibly, but now they're trying to act responsibly, they're getting chastised for not lending irresponsibly again...
"It is a total joke, a complete and utter political joke. Why should a bank give you some money?"
Lord Sugar, 64, was the Labour government's enterprise tsar.
He said entrepreneurs should expect to have to convince an organisation to lend to them: "If I've got a great idea you're not going to give it to me, just like that are you?
"If you have a whim of an idea, you have to put your own money in it, or seed it from somewhere, or carry on working where you're working... until you've got enough money to fund it."
Blame the parents
Lord Sugar also had strong words for parents.
He suggested they were over generous to their offspring, something that dampened down the desire to succeed.
"In this day and age the kids have got Nike trainers, an iPod, PlayStations, all handed on a plate to them.
"The parents have got themselves to blame."
Lord Sugar, who founded the Amstrad computing business and is now best known for his Apprentice reality TV programme, is guest editing the Radio Times.
He said some young people had unrealistically high expectations and expected to be like the co-founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg.
Lord Sugar said: "Too many young people think you have to be another Zuckerberg, or whatever his name is... it's either billions or nothing.
"That's not the case. He's a one-in-a-trillion example, and while it's worth aspiring to be him, the reality is that you are not going be able to do that.
"Forget it. Youngsters need to focus on more practical things... starting a business from scratch."