the organ grinder, not the monkey

From the common 19th-century practice of organ grinders training monkeys to dance to music played on a barrel organ in order to perform on the street and solicit donations.

• "If my hon. Friend said that the headquarters of the Board was to be situated in one of the regions, that would be some help. We need more than branch offices and subsidiaries. We want the organ grinders, not the monkeys."
• "And really it is the organ-grinder, not the monkey, who should be shot."
• "Every submission stated that the Bill is not needed, yet the Minister has the temerity to come into the House and try to justify it. We wanted to hear from the organ-grinder, not the monkey. We heard today from both of them, and they both had the same message."
• "The more a minister allowed the details of a bill to reflect compromises between the various interests, the more work could be left to officials. But if a bill were controversial, while civil servants could prepare the ground and clarify the issues, the interests opposed, as Aneurin Bevan put it, expected to see the minister, the organ-grinder, not the monkey."
• "I was giving up security and a lucrative salary package to become my own employer and trade financial futures with my own money. […] I wanted to be the organ grinder, not the monkey. For years, I had explained to my clients how I was eventually going to be a trader, and now I was going to prove my point."
• ""I mentioned it to him, but to be honest, he didn't seem that interested. He said something to the effect that he wanted to write about the organ grinders, not the monkeys. He seemed determined to meet them, the organ grinders, as he referred to them." / "What did he mean by that?" / "It's a saying in England, Inspector. I assumed he meant the big bosses behind it, the people shipping it in, and not the small-time pushers like Tony Carpentar.""

• organ grinder

• monkey
• not my circus, not my monkeys