What is it with politicians and metaphors?

[shewhomust]

We hear so much about how modern politicians are groomed to deal with the media, and alert to the risks of becoming a sound bite: it oughtn't be possible for a government minister to entertain the nation by claiming that "the badgers moved the goalposts." But he did - on camera. The lure of the metaphor was stronger than any media training.

It's a long tradition. The classic example is: "Mr. Speaker, I smell a rat; I see him forming in the air and darkening the sky; but I will nip him in the bud," perpetrated by Sir Boyle Roche, who specialised in this kind of thing, some time in the eighteenth century. I know a longer version (" ... and if he is not nipped in the bud, he will burst forth in a conflagration which will deluge us all...") of which the internet knows nothing. I didn't make it up, but someone else must have.

My own files also yield up British Fisheries spokesman Nigel Atkins, admitting that "Our worst fear is that the Common Fisheries policy, which is, warts and all, a very delicate flower, can easily be torpedoed." (I found it in the Listener, apparently, and that's the best I can do for provenance).

Comments

[sovay]

"Our worst fear is that the Common Fisheries policy, which is, warts and all, a very delicate flower, can easily be torpedoed."

That's beautiful.

(derspatchel, chiming in: "A horticulturalist in the making!")

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

I have treasured it for years.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

Apparently my unfavourite politician of the year, Michael Gove (and thank the lord I'm no longer in teaching) is a past master of the noble art of the mixed metaphor.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

I'm not surprised.

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

Of course there is some sort of game on facebook now where you have to kick a ball into the net while the badgers are running round with the goalposts.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Of course there is...