Been to Poole recently? I have, because I kind of live there. But have you been to the Dolphin Centre in Poole in the past two weeks? If you have, you’ve probably seen that it’s been lovingly decorated for Christmas with the usual tinsel, garlands and a… huge bloody cone on the high street.
Today there was a bit of media activity going on around Poole town centre. There was this guy being filmed and another person going around with a microphone. I thought nothing of it. Probably talking about rising Council Tax or something that I wouldn’t know much about.
I got back and went to do my usual 5 Other Things… post and went to the usual place to find my number 5 and saw it was on the news. Hot diggidy damn. I knew it was ugly, but I’ve gotten used to them after seeing similar ones in Northampton last Christmas.
Locals are outraged – or as much as Poole citizens can be outraged – about the tree design, saying it lacks character and looks incredibly ugly. Hey, I remember these debates around Northampton’s *ahem* trees last year, although we did have the added "bonus" of four illegal immigrants with ours.
My opinion? Yeah, I hate it. Just as I hated the 3 or 4 we had in Northampton last year. They’re not exactly full of Christmas cheer, are they? (Well, I hear the one in Poole has singing immigrants speakers inside it which sing carols at night. Nice touch, Mr Tackman) There’s a little bit of lighting strung up along the high-street but that’s pretty much it. It’s just a giant sod-off cone placed in the square. Nice one, council. God knows what you’re going to do for Easter…
Now now, let’s not get too bogged down in its overabundant hideousness. Last year the tree was bordered up and held up by ropes all over the place because of health and safety fears. This cone was designed to eliminate that problem. You need to decide, Poole. Live with a couple of ropes (which, lets face it, could have pretty lights on to divert your attention…) or go with the fake plastic trees ("in a town full of rubber plans…").
Well, make of that as you will. In typical British ways, we’ll complain about it, but not actively do anything about it – unlike the person who kicked the hole through the one outside All Saint’s Church last year. Well done you.
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