Word To Use Today: cakeism.

Should this word be a Friday Word To Use Today or a Sunday Word Not To Use Today? I'm not sure.

Cakeism is a new word, coined during that tortured fiasco of a proceeding called Brexit.

Cakeism refers to the old saying you can't have your cake and eat it. (Actually, of course, you can have your cake and eat it, but the implication is that if you eat your cake you'll no longer have it.)



a cake to celebrate the birthday of Armenian wiki. Photo by Beko

The French have a phrase that expresses the same idea, though in French they can't have their butter and the money for selling it.

The idea of cakeism has come to the fore because the British are said to want all the advantages of EU membership with none of the costs or duties. 

Well, of course we do. Who wouldn't?

This cake motif assumed particular prominence after a Member of Parliament, Mark Field, managed to allow a page of his notes to be photographed by the press. 'What's the model?' he asked. 'Have your cake and eat it?' 

Entertainingly, this incident led to a formal denial that having your cake and eating it was official government policy.

My chief worry in all this is that the negotiators in Brussels aren't being given nearly enough to eat. Why else are they so fixated on cakeism and cherry picking?

And why, for that matter, is what most of what they produce pure fudge?

Word To Use Today: cakeism. The word cake comes from the Old Norse kaka. 

(A kaka, as a matter of interest, is an extinct parrot.)