British Lapland

[Jadzia]

Seeing this article on google news today, this is the second time this month of 'lapland parks' being made headline news. I think it's disgraceful.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/staffordshire/7768957.stm

At £30 ($50) per head, in theory, this is a once in a lifetime thing, for parents to enjoy one special afternoon with their pre-school children, in eager anticipation of christmas time, in a virtual reconstruction of the mythical lapland.

But to arrive and be faced with a couple of plastic garden tents, and men stood around in fluorescent jackets, how the hell is that supposed to be christmassy?

I think it's a damned fine example of modern Britain; of what this nation is becoming.

 

[Admiral Bear]

I can quite imagine the image of Britain that these disgusting con artists (replace with the word thieves if you feel the need) are giving those people in other countries.

We've never had this before in the UK, at least not that it's been reported. So I've put it down to a small band of unemployed shysters trying to rip people off during the recession in order to make a quick buck.

 

[jamestyler]

Shamefully I opened this thinking it was about a strip club

I haven't seen this type of event before, but I'm not surprised. I know a lot of Brits don't know there is a wrestling industry here, but it has been severely damaged by this sot of thing happening there with 'tribute' acts and small time or one-off promoters giving a shockingly bad product to cut corners and rip people off. Add to that skipping insurance and licenses putting the wrestlers in danger, and you have the reason the British wrestling revival a few years ago fell on it's arse.

By the looks of it they put a half assed production in swing and didn't do their research on licensing. Which, although it was in wrestling, I've seen too much off to show sympathy.

 

[Jadzia]

I can quite imagine the image of Britain that these disgusting con artists (replace with the word thieves if you feel the need) are giving those people in other countries.

We've never had this before in the UK, at least not that it's been reported. So I've put it down to a small band of unemployed shysters trying to rip people off during the recession in order to make a quick buck.

In my experience, a lot of services and products available to buy in the past few years are similar experiences.

So on one typical day, I go into a shop and see a nice set of kitchen knives priced at £25. They look good quality, looking like the ones the professional chefs use. The packaging and advertising also suggests quality. Also the fact that of the options available, this is the second most expensive set of kitchen knives on the shelf. So it all looks kosher. I buy it.

But within a week one of the handles snaps. then the next week another handle snaps.

Now I could have gone to the flea market and bought a really cheap and nasty set for 60p all in. They'd last just as long.

So really, what have I bought? It's the same crap, but one is overpriced, and overdressed, to give an allusion of quality. It's an insult to one who has made a considered purchase, thinking 'this is a good quality option'. It's also a con by the manufacturers/advertisers to convince me that quality is present where it isn't.

This in my opinion is totally what modern Britain is becoming.

I want to emigrate.

 

[Holdfast]

I haven't seen this type of event before, but I'm not surprised.

Yeah. I have to say the whole thing sounded exceedingly dodgy in the first place. I mean, from nowhere, they were going to build a Lapland theme park? The infrastructure costs alone would be huge to do it properly. And since it would only do business for one month a year, it clearly wouldn't be worth it in terms of revenue.

So yeah, I'm not surprised it turned out to be a scam. A knackered snow machine and a few dilapidated tents is about all they could afford.

BTW, a quote I read from one of the BBC articles about one of these events:

He also said staff were subjected to violent outbursts by irate customers, including Santa being attacked and one of the elves being "smacked in the face and pushed into a pram".

Well, isn't that what Christmas in the UK is all about?

 

[Colonel Green]

This in my opinion is totally what modern Britain is becoming.

I want to emigrate.

Please be assured that overpriced low quality consumer goods are not unique to the UK.

 

[Hermiod]

The over-commercialisation of Christmas is prevalent throughout the Western world. I wish we could go back to it being three days and that's it.

 

[Ethros]

Sorry to say this story has just made me laugh.

To all those people who got scammed by this- Tough shit!
I have no sympathy for these idiots. If you're willing to pay £30 for a ticket then you're a buffoon and deserve to get robbed. Come on, its England, its Dorset (trust me I've lived there) so you know it's gonna be shit. "Oooh I was expecting Hollywood special effects." Haha, give me a break love, what did you want, some CGI T-Rex battling a Transformer?

Look at this bint, spent over 3 grand. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/dorset/7760237.stm
Three fucking grand!
Plus this story has been around for well over a week; it's only the 7th December now! Why on earth are you taking your kids to see Santa in November???

 

[Zulu Romeo]

At first glance I thought this thread was about that other long-running British farce, British Leyland...


But yeah, it didn't really surprise me how things turned out. Although one wonders why such culturally-savvy people didn't suspect this would happen in the first place. I mean, don't people watch "The Simpsons" or suchlike anymore? [No - everyone]