Uncle Tom Cobleigh and all

And a large number of other people; et al. Used to indicate that a list of people is frustratingly long. An allusion to a folk song called "Widecombe Fair," the chorus of which lists a large number of people ending with "Old Uncle Tom Cobleigh and all." Sometimes spelled "Cobley." Primarily heard in UK. Everyone from the Prime Minister, to the Governor of the Bank of England, to the Mayor of London, to the Director of the IMF, to Uncle Tom Cobleigh and all convinced us that we needed these austerity measures to survive the recession. And yet, here we are nearly a decade later, and information comes to surface that this was all an elaborate con job.