rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic

The Titanic was an ocean liner that sank on the morning of April 15, 1912 after striking an iceberg. The phrase rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic implies trying to move the chairs on the deck around while the ship is sinking, a pointless activity.

• "All the new people want an office close to the President's. You should see them scramble. It's like fighting for a deck chair on the Titanic."
• "Administrators are running around straightening out deck chairs while the Titanic goes down."
• "I'm not going to rearrange the furniture on the deck of the Titanic."
• "Gordon Brown's decision to redefine Britain's economic cycle has been damned by one of the City's most influential economic forecasters, which accuses the Chancellor of the Exchequer of doing little more than "moving the deckchairs on the Titanic"."
• ""And then you write, ‘Oh, they're just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.’ First of all, that is a terrible metaphor. This administration is not sinking. This administration is soaring. If anything, they are rearranging the deck chairs on the Hindenburg!""
• "Inevitably, people have suggested that pulling a move to restore Cameron to the frontline is like rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic, but arguably that doesn’t really cover it."

• move the deckchairs on the Titanic
• shift the deckchairs on the Titanic
• shuffle the chairs on the deck of the Titanic
• shuffle the deckchairs on the Titanic

• count angels on pinheads
• fiddle while Rome burns