tub-thumping

tub-thumping

Forceful or aggressive promotion of one's agenda through public speech or other means. Primarily heard in UK. I wish they would quit their tub-thumping and get on with the show. We don't care about their politics.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

tub-thumping

BRITISH, JOURNALISM
Tub-thumping is used as an adjective and a noun to describe people's behaviour when they are supporting an idea or course of action in a loud and forceful way. Economic recovery does not depend on tub-thumping speeches from politicians, but on the Government creating jobs. The players neither need, nor will respond to, tub-thumping. Note: You can call someone who behaves in this way a tub-thumper. Marsh was far from being a tub-thumper. Note: This expression is used to show disapproval. Note: People sometimes used to refer to pulpits (= the place in a church where the priest stands to speak) as `tubs', especially when talking humorously about nonconformist preachers. The image is of a preacher banging the pulpit with his fist to emphasize his message.
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed.
See also:
  • get (one's) kit off
  • get your kit off
  • kit
  • a kick up the backside
  • ram (something) home
  • ram something home
  • thump out
  • fade up
References in periodicals archive
CRAIG Bellamy has delivered a tub-thumping pre-Christmas message by declaring Cardiff City have nothing to fear in the Championship.
WE CAN STILL WIN LEAGUE... ...but I'd like to see us pass the ball more, admits Bellamy
But the other day he accepted a part-time tub-thumping role where he might really achieve something.
Clarke's voice for small firms
A fair analysis of AWM's achievements so far lies midway between Mr Edwards' tub-thumping optimism and the rather sour cynicism of the agency's sternest critics.
Leading article: Jobless figure is where real battleground lies for AWM
That's what makes Gordon Brown's constant tub-thumping for "Britishness" such ill-conceived clap-trap .
HOW ABOUT US IN A POSITIVE LIGHT, BEEB?
After 90 minutes Scolari was on the field in the centre of the Portuguese huddle tub-thumping his message.
Pass the Port to Big Phil
Now he has written a tub-thumping track called Bluebird Till I Die which the club and stadium announcer Ali Yassine has agreed to play at the Cardiff City stadium before matches.
New Bluebird song for City; Musical fan writes football anthem
Old fashioned Nationalist tub-thumping, the Braveheart-style cries of freedom, will not win them over.
Why the SNP have replaced tub-thumping with quiet taps; RecordView NICOLA Sturgeon opened a new front in the independence battle yesterday when she said Scotland must go it alone to save the NHS
Jones sends his players out against Forest today with a tub-thumping "let's go for it" message.
STAYING ON? Bluebirds to open talks with Arsenal over Rambo loan
Paul Abbandonato Head of Sport paul.abbandonato@walesonline.co.uk AARON RAMSEY has delivered a tub-thumping Euro message to the Welsh public by declaring John Toshack's young guns can beat England.
Rambo gunning for the English
It may not have been a "tub-thumping" occasion or even the speech of his life, but delegates at Labour's conference in Manchester thought Gordon Brown ticked all the right boxes yesterday ( and had finally put to bed any idea that anyone else could challenge him for the leadership.
Gordon the man and not the tub-thumper
Charlie, Mattie and James proved themselves the old-stagers of the night, even though they'rebarely out of their teens, with a tub-thumping performance of all their big hits.
SUMMER POPS Busted, Kings Dock
Perhaps in a bid to encourage more people to go and see him,IDS reveals: ``I am not going there to make a tub-thumping speech to the Party faithful, or to convert people.
The Quiet Man centre stage
After days of impassioned debate over the Iraq war and the Government's future direction, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott was to rally delegates' spirits with his traditional tub-thumping, closing speech.
Blunkett hails Bobbies on the beat
At their best they welded E's manic Moog welly with L's pastoral lyricism and P's tub-thumping. They peaked with the Geiger-covered Brain Salad Surgery and were swept aside by punk.
Video review: BOOTLEGS OF THE WEEK
It's not difficult to hear why with the likes of cod reggae genre exercise Island In The Sun, the desperate Beatles reference on Rory And The Hurricanes, and the tub-thumping Confirmation.
Album releases