HANDBAGGING

noun (Politics) In media slang, a forthright verbal attack or volley of criticism, usually delivered by a female politician (especially Margaret Thatcher, British Prime Minister 1979-90). Etymology: Formed on the noun handbag; the metaphor intended is that of a verbal battering likened to being bashed about the head by Mrs Thatcher's handbag. This picks up the imagery of comic strips, in which cantankerous women are sometimes shown beating another person (usually a young man) about the head with a handbag. There is also possibly an intentional pun on sandbagging, a term used figuratively for political bullying or criticism since the seventies. History and Usage: The word arises from a remark made by a Conservative back-bencher in 1982. This was reported in the Economist as follows: One of her less reverent backbenchers said of Mrs Thatcher recently that 'she can't look at a British institution without hitting it with her handbag'. Treasury figures published last week show how good she has proved at handbagging the civil service. The word became especially popular in the British press in the middle of the eighties--after Mrs Thatcher's often strident protests at EC gatherings and several disagreements with Cabinet ministers had gained her a reputation for such verbal batterings--and is presumably a temporary term in the language, unless it comes to be applied widely to other female politicians. The verb handbag (from which the noun had arisen) and the adjective handbagging (describing this style of persuasion) also enjoyed a brief popularity in the media. No one crosses Margaret Thatcher and gets away with it. And no one is too grand to escape the process of 'handbagging', which has been refined to an art under her premiership. Independent 11 May 1987, p. 17 In the past, Neil Kinnock has been hand-bagged unmercifully, but he is now beginning to bowl her length. Observer 22 Oct. 1989, p. 15 Mrs Thatcher has a 'handbagging attitude to German reunification.' Daily Telegraph 27 Feb. 1990, p. 16