the organ-grinder, not the monkey

See also: the organ grinder, not the monkey

English

Noun

the organ-grinder, not the monkey

1. Alternative form of the organ grinder, not the monkey
   • 1981, New Society: The Social Science Weekly, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 240, column 3:

     And really it is the organ-grinder, not the monkey, who should be shot.

   • 1986 June 5, John Banks, “Local Government Amendment Bill (No. 2): Report of Internal Affairs and Local Government Committee”, in Parliamentary Debates (Hansard): Second Session, Forty-first Parliament (House of Representatives), volume 471, Wellington: V. R. Ward, government printer, →OCLC, page 1968:

     Every submission stated that the Bill is not needed, yet the Minister has the temerity to come into the House and try to justify it. We wanted to hear from the organ-grinder, not the monkey. We heard today from both of them, and they both had the same message.

   • 2005, Christopher Foster, “Laws that Work”, in British Government in Crisis: or The Third English Revolution, Oxford, Oxfordshire; Portland, Or.: Hart Publishing, →ISBN, part 1 (The Old Regime), page 48:

     The more a minister allowed the details of a bill to reflect compromises between the various interests, the more work could be left to officials. But if a bill were controversial, while civil servants could prepare the ground and clarify the issues, the interests opposed, as Aneurin Bevan put it, expected to see the minister, the organ-grinder, not the monkey.