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Wonky saying of the week
by loiswakeman @ 12 Mar. 2007 - 15:22:38

"Like Marie Antoinette, they want to have their cake and eat it" - Ed Vaizey MP, commenting on the Lib Dem policy on Trident on The Westminster Hour, BBC Radio 4 yesterday

Makes a change from a mixed metaphor I suppose: a cack-handed conflation of the saying "You can't have your cake and eat it", and the erroneous - but commonly-held - belief that Marie Antoinette said "Let them eat cake" when told that the French poor could not afford bread.

A shame he couldn't have worked in a reference to the famous Cake episode of Brass Eye as well! Still, he seems like a cheery chappy, so perhaps it was a joke.

3 comments | Permalink | Recommend this post
Tags: cake, inaccuracy, marie antoinette, media, politician, proverb, radio, saying,

Comments: Hide subcomments

[Visitor]

12/03/07 @ 15:38

LOL! :) keep em coming!

Vort1gernVort1gern [Member]
10/04/07 @ 09:49

Priceless. Particularly since after October 16th, 1793, Marie had a problem eating anything at all . . .

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loiswakemanloiswakeman [Member]
http://lois.co.uk
10/04/07 @ 10:06

Too true. Instead of the latest fads, perhaps we should start pushing the Marie Antoinette diet: gorge on all the cake you want, then off with your head and lose 5kgs of useless bone and jelly in a trice?

silly ways to calculate the weight of your head or the answer from the morgue

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