cakeism
English edit
Etymology edit
From cake + -ism, referring to have one's cake and eat it too.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
cakeism (uncountable)
- (UK politics) The doctrine of having one's cake and eating it too, particularly regarding the UK’s approach to Brexit negotiations and subsequent deliberations.
- 2017, The New European, "The delusions of Cakeism", Bonnie Greer, 15 September 2017
- What is now known as “cakeism” – the idea that the UK can have everything it wants merely because it wants it – is becoming, like climate-change denial, the subject of rational discussion.
- 2018, The Guardian, "David Davis's petulant leaked letter is the latest slice of Brexit cakeism", Jonathan Lis, 10 January 2018
- The letter is the latest blatant example of British cakeism.
- 2021, The Guardian, "The dishonesty of Boris Johnson has finally infected the entire government", Jonathan Freedland, 19 November 2021
- The government has adopted Johnson's notorious attitude to cake – wanting to have it and to eat it – and made cakeism its defining creed.
- 2021, The Guardian, "The Tories said we could have our cake and eat it – now they are stuffed and voters are hungry", Rafael Behr, 22 December 2021
- Cakeism is not a formula that works in government because, in reality, the cake has to be rationed and people notice.
- 2022, The Guardian, "Brexit legacy is just the start of incoming PM's problems as cost of living crisis spirals", Will Hutton, 10 July 2022
- "Cakeism" has run riot — vast, incoherent ambitions detached from political, economic and business realities.
- 2017, The New European, "The delusions of Cakeism", Bonnie Greer, 15 September 2017