nightmare homework nimby

n

an opponent of controversial legislation (typically on environmental issues), only so long as he or she is directly affected. The word is an acronym for the slogan or catchphrase 'not in my back yard', coined in the United States (where a 'yard' is a garden) in the 1980s to describe a syndrome whereby a person supports a potentially harmful move or policy in principle but opposes it for self-ish reasons. The American expression entered common currency in Britain around 1986. (An unqualified opponent to the same issues is a namby.)

► 'He thinks working motherhood is a jolly good thing, but he's also a nimby ("by all means let mothers work, so long as it's not in my office").' (Sarah Jane Evans, Sunday Times, 18 March 1989)