Wonka fans were promised magic and wonder but got an empty warehouse. Remind you of anything?

“Indulge in a fantasy like never before… a surreal journey where the boundaries between reality and fantasy harmoniously merge,” said the advertising. For £35 a ticket, visitors to the Willy’s Chocolate Experience interactive adventure were promised a “a universe where your dreams come true” which would be “filled with wondrous creations and enchanting surprises at every turn”.

What a thrilling prospect seemed in store! But in reality, all that was actually delivered was a warehouse filled with a few Wonka-themed props, a small bouncy castle, a bored-looking Oompa Loompa and no chocolate.

One parent said that instead of “an array of delectable treats scattered throughout the experience, from chocolate fountains to larger-than-life candies”, his three children “got two jelly beans each. And then they got a half a cup of lemonade.” Another said, memorably: “I paid for Willy Wonka but got Billy Bonkers”.

I suspect New European readers may be ahead of me here, but does this tale of over-promise quickly followed by disbelief and bitter disappointment remind you of any major political events that may have happened in Britain over the last few years? The only difference being that while ticketholders in Glasgow were quickly rewarded by police intervention, the shuttering of the fiasco and a grovelling apology from organisers, the rest of us are doomed to shuffle through the empty warehouse of Brexit dreams for an eternity in search of a couple of jelly beans.

Meanwhile the Daily Telegraph admits to its readers that a free-trade Brexit “was always a fantasy”, the Times reports that restrictions on touring in Europe are killing British bands and ready meal magnate Charlie Bingham tells the Guardian that leaving the EU has been “very harmful to British business… I haven’t seen a single benefit from it yet”.

In short, we paid for Willy Wonka but got Brexit bollocks.