Meaning:
People acting in a way that is harmful to their own interests.
Background:
`Like a turkey voting for Christmas' is a phrase that is archetypically
British and isn't widely used elsewhere. There are several reasons for this:
1. The custom in the UK is to serve turkey as the centrepiece of the
Christmas meal.
Around 10 million turkeys are eaten at Christmas in the UK and very few at
any other time of the year. Any turkey with a vote would be wise to vote
against Christmas.
2. The phrase originated in the UK.
The expression was used, in a slightly different form, by the British
Prime Minister James Callaghan in a House of Commons debate in March 1979:
"The minority parties have walked into a trap. If they win, there will
be a general election. I am told that the current joke going around the
House is that it is the first time in recorded history that turkeys have
been known to vote for an early Christmas."
...
3. Brexit
The expression `turkeys voting for Christmas' has seen a resurgence in
recent years following the vote for the UK to leave the European Union.
Many of those who voted to stay in the EU view the `leavers' as `turkeys
voting for Christmas'. They see the winning of the `Brexit' vote to leave
as a disaster for the very people who voted for it.
- www.phrases.org.uk [edited]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In America, the turkey is only smug until Thanksgiving. Now I've learned that in
Britain, it votes for Christmas. Yet Franklin thought it should be the national
bird of the U.S.A.
Maybe that was his way of reminding the infant nation: know who you are, don't
step out of line, and don't give yourself airs. And maybe educate yourself, be
enlightened, be humble, etc., as the bird would aspire to when it knows itself
as a turkey.
Meaning:
People acting in a way that is harmful to their own interests.
Background:
`Like a turkey voting for Christmas' is a phrase that is archetypically
British and isn't widely used elsewhere. There are several reasons for this:
1. The custom in the UK is to serve turkey as the centrepiece of the
Christmas meal.
Around 10 million turkeys are eaten at Christmas in the UK and very few at
any other time of the year. Any turkey with a vote would be wise to vote
against Christmas.
2. The phrase originated in the UK.
The expression was used, in a slightly different form, by the British
Prime Minister James Callaghan in a House of Commons debate in March 1979:
"The minority parties have walked into a trap. If they win, there will
be a general election. I am told that the current joke going around the
House is that it is the first time in recorded history that turkeys have
been known to vote for an early Christmas."
...
3. Brexit
The expression `turkeys voting for Christmas' has seen a resurgence in
recent years following the vote for the UK to leave the European Union.
Many of those who voted to stay in the EU view the `leavers' as `turkeys
voting for Christmas'. They see the winning of the `Brexit' vote to leave
as a disaster for the very people who voted for it.
- www.phrases.org.uk [edited]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In America, the turkey is only smug until Thanksgiving. Now I've learned that in
Britain, it votes for Christmas. Yet Franklin thought it should be the national
bird of the U.S.A.
Maybe that was his way of reminding the infant nation: know who you are, don't
step out of line, and don't give yourself airs. And maybe educate yourself, be
enlightened, be humble, etc., as the bird would aspire to when it knows itself
as a turkey.