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Miss Spicer’s lemonade stand

A lemonade stand run by the unnamed five-year-old daughter of André Spicer, with the help of her father, was closed by council enforcement officers from Tower Hamlets, London on July 7, 2017 with a ₤150 ($200) fine issued. After André Spicer, Professor of Organizational Behavior at London’s Cass Business School, complained of the closure in an opinion piece in the Daily Telegraph, the closure became a cause celebre with coverage included in the Irish Independent , the BBC, the and USA Today. The fine was soon cancelled.

Operation and closure
André Spicer encouraged his daughter "to run a stall like they had at the school fete" and they decided upon running a lemonade stand. After making four pitchers of lemonade they set up the stand at the end of their street. A crowd was passing by due to the Lovebox Festival running that day. They charged 50p for a small glass and ₤1 for a large glass of lemonade. In about 30 minutes they had sold out. Soon after four local council enforcement officers approached the stand. One turned on a camera and read a lengthy statement and then issued the citation. Miss Spicer asked her father "have I done a bad thing?" and then cried on the short trip home.

Telegraph article
On July 20, 2017 the Daily Telegraph published an article by André Spicer protesting the closure of the stand and the fine. After outlining the facts of the stand's operation and closure, he outlined the effects upon his daughter. "When ... she had finally calmed down, .... I tried to lay the matter to rest. "We can get a permit and have a stall another day", I said. "No. It’s too scary", she replied."

He related how an American relative said that the event would have been a national scandal if it had happened in the United States. A university colleague said it "was an example of how we are discouraging budding female entrepreneurs." A Italian commented that it's "yet another example of Britain’s addiction to pointless rules and regulations."

Aftermath
Following the publication of the article in the Daily Telegraph, the Tower Hamlet Council quickly apologized and cancelled the fine. "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."

Miss Spicer then received dozens of offers to set up her lemonade stand in other spots.