"Whatever one's politics, it's a lovely phrase, and I'm sure could be applied to several types of people (management) - not necessarily politicians. Whilst stitching up the hand of a 75 years old Devon farmer, who cut it on a gate while working cattle, the rural doctor struck up a conversation with the old man. Eventually the topic got around to Gordon Brown and his appointment as Prime Minister. "Well, you know," drawled the old farmer, "this Brown fellow is what they call a fencepost tortoise." Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked his what a fencepost tortoise was. The old farmer said, "When you are driving along a country road and you come across a fence post with a tortoise balanced on top, that's called a fencepost tortoise." The old farmer seeing the puzzled look on the doctor's face so he continued to explain. "You know he didn't get up there by himself, he definitely doesn't belong up there, he doesn't know what to do while he is up there, and you wonder what kind of idiot put him up there in the first place."
There are loads of tortoises in Devon. It's a common phrase down there. You can't go a mile without finding one balanced on a fencepost, providing they haven't been knocked off by stampeding rhino, which are also indigenous.
