long screwdriver

English

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Noun

long screwdriver (plural long screwdrivers)

1. (idiomatic) Interference (usually in military matters) by politicians.
   • 2009, Richard Holmes, Churchill's Bunker: The Cabinet War Rooms and the Culture of Secrecy in Wartime London, Yale University Press:

     The telegraph, telephone, and then radio made it easier for governments to intervene in the conduct of military operations, inserting that 'long screwdriver' so resented by modern commanders.