ambulance at the bottom of a cliff

English

Etymology

A variation on the Joseph Malins' 1895 poem "The ambulance down in the valley," where the need for an ambulance would be removed by a fence on the cliff.

Noun

ambulance at the bottom of a cliff

1. (figurative, derogatory) A futile or post factum answer to a problem.
   • 1994, “Yes”, in The Holy Bible, performed by Manic Street Preachers:

     Funny place for the social, for the insects to start caring / Just an ambulance at the bottom of a cliff

   • 1999 September 14, Nick Davies, “Crisis, crisis, crisis: the state of our schools”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     A school with a poor intake is like an ambulance at the bottom of a cliff: sometimes, it can pick up the children and patch up the damage; most of the time, it's too late.

   • 2002 April 29, Julie Middleton, “Degree cheats graduate to big time”, in The New Zealand Herald‎^[2]:

     But such a service could be seen as an ambulance at the bottom of a cliff.

See also

• too little, too late