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AIBU?

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Original poster

To think people have nothing better to do? (Girl selling lemonade)

46 replies

Meowstro · 21/07/2017 14:18

I am not BU, I cannot be but I'm pretty sure Tower Hamlets and the person who is likely to have complained WBVVVU. Sure the father should have known better, but really charging a 5 year old a fine for selling lemonade? Thank goodness we're clamping down on all of those people who really deserve it! Hmm

Article here: www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jul/21/girl-fined-running-homemade-lemonade-stall

OP posts:
NotLachsAgainMother · 21/07/2017 14:20

What a jobsworth, honestly Hmm

OstentatiousWanking · 21/07/2017 14:25

Utterly ridiculous. I did smile at the watching Brave to calm down bit. Bless her.

HollyHollyHo · 21/07/2017 14:26

Clearly the 5 year old didn't make her way there, carry the equipment and set herself up. She was the cute seller behind her dads operation.

I was at lovebox and the council were stopping anyone selling en route to the festival. There were 10s of thousands of people walking in the same direction as directed by the police and people setting up stalls and unlicensed sellers blocking the paths and causing chaos.

You want them to remove the grown up sellers and leave the little girl? I personally wouldn't take my kid and put her in the path of thousands of battered, pilled and coked up ravers but ya know that's just me!

chilipepper20 · 21/07/2017 14:35

You want them to remove the grown up sellers and leave the little girl? I personally wouldn't take my kid and put her in the path of thousands of battered, pilled and coked up ravers but ya know that's just me!

yet, it seems that it wasn't the "pilled coked up ravers" who made her cry, it was a council worker.

Depending on the crowd, I agree that wouldn't be safe for a child, if only because she might get trampled. But if she was safely out of the way, I imagine she was well out of danger, especially if her dad was there. And, let's be clear. The council is probably not banning unlicensed sellers for safety reasons. it's because they are not getting their due kickbacks.

HeyRoly · 21/07/2017 14:36

Such a weird story! Do you think someone reported her to the council? It's not like enforcement officers routinely patrol the streets searching for people selling food/drink without a licence!

HeyRoly · 21/07/2017 14:38

Where does it say she was selling to people going to Lovebox?

HollyHollyHo · 21/07/2017 14:41

HeyRoly, they do when they are patrolling cordoned off paths being used to direct thousands of people from tube stations to a festival. The path was rammed, you couldn't get to side streets/onto the road etc.

I read the article this morning somewhere else, it said she was selling to people going to lovebox.

MargaretTwatyer · 21/07/2017 14:41

She's clearly just being used by her Dad to avoid a fine. A five year old doesn't run that sort of operation on her own. Her Dad is exploiting her. It's not the council's fault she's crying, it's her Dad's.

HollyHollyHo · 21/07/2017 14:42

here

HollyHollyHo · 21/07/2017 14:43

Margerat, YES exactly. Using his kid to make a quick buck. I wouldn't be putting my kid anywhere near that crowd and I am an old school raver!

MargaretTwatyer · 21/07/2017 14:44

"Due kickbacks" which pay for social care, social services, parks and libraries. What bastards!

HollyHollyHo · 21/07/2017 14:46

Makes a good story though hey?!

If this was some random kid outside her house on a Sunday afternoon then fair enough the council are being dicks but it's not.

HipsterHunter · 21/07/2017 14:49

This is a bit of bullshit.

The 5 year old girl wasn't selling lemonade - her idiotic attention seeking father was, without a trading license.

Should we let all wannabe street traders trade like this if they take a small child with them?

No.

Babbitywabbit · 21/07/2017 14:49

Ridiculous that this is 'news'. Dad clearly helped little girl set it all up (even if it was her idea) and then ensures future embarrassment for her by using her to avoid a fine. It must have been clear as daylight to the father that anyone selling en route to the festival was being shut down, so god only knows why he went along with it

Pengggwn · 21/07/2017 14:50

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

HipsterHunter · 21/07/2017 14:51

Her Dad is exploiting her

Exactly.

Shame on the papers for running such a stupid story.

TSSDNCOP · 21/07/2017 14:55

They've just been on Jeremy vine. Dad obviously knew exactly what he was doing, the stand was at a strategic spot not right outside their house and it seems like it was actually dad that got the ticket.

MargaretTwatyer · 21/07/2017 14:55

She was fined and she wasn't selling it. Her dad was.

She wasn't fined. The fine was issued to her father.

chilipepper20 · 21/07/2017 14:55

Margerat, YES exactly. Using his kid to make a quick buck. I wouldn't be putting my kid anywhere near that crowd and I am an old school raver!

I had a lemonade stand once. Let me tell it takes a lot of lemons to save up for even a pint of beer. There is a reason why adults don't have lemonade stands: they don't make that much money. The dad is a professor who occasionally writes for the guardian. if he can't make a buck faster then a lemonade stand, he needs to go back to school.

"Due kickbacks" which pay for social care, social services, parks and libraries. What bastards!

and the wages of council workers who fine 5 year olds.

SkySmiler · 21/07/2017 14:57

Were u a battered, pilled up, coked up raver then HollyHollyHo??

TSSDNCOP · 21/07/2017 14:57

It's being painted as clever, resourceful 5 year old had entrepreneurial notion as they all do when they stop watching Peppa set up a table by her gate and sold lemonade to the festival goers.

Reality: dad had a brainwave and rightly got dobbed in.

SeamstressfromTreacleMineRoad · 21/07/2017 14:58

Well, the council have cancelled the fine, saying: “We are very sorry that this has happened. We expect our enforcement officers to show common sense and to use their powers sensibly.
“This clearly did not happen.
“The fine will be cancelled immediately and we have contacted Mr Spicer and his daughter to apologise.”

So the hysteria can die down...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-40679075

chilipepper20 · 21/07/2017 15:00

how much money do people think can be made from a lemonade stand? unless the business model has completely changed from when I was a kid, it really isn't going to pay the rent.

now, if she was putting vodka in it, that's something else.

MargaretTwatyer · 21/07/2017 15:04

They were charging £1 a glass. So not an inconsiderable amount of money.

MathsFiend · 21/07/2017 15:05

I saw that girl on the way to lovebox. She had about 2 jugs of homemade lemonade and was really into it, calling out 50p a glass. The sort of thing wee girls are into, my daughter is always badgering me to set up a stall outside our front door. Hardly a scam for her dad to make a fortune. Totally jobsworth of the enforcement officer.

Conversely, there were 2 vans I saw with a professional coffee machine making espresso cocktails at £6 a pop....