"Then Jack turned to Jim and said how the
Gnomes of Zurich had to be given what for."
But then what do the
gnomes of Zurich know about finance?
As in the phrase '
gnomes of Zurich,' which refers to bankers, gnomes are often associated with the world of finance.
All that wonderful technology and the footballing
gnomes of Zurich are still sitting around in the stone age resisting anything more technologically advanced than a whistle.
The Swiss, whom the British deride as "the
gnomes of Zurich", were now pointing an accusing finger at the British?
He wants the land of the cuckoo clock, the
gnomes of Zurich and Alpine mountains abolished -- and the land shared between its neighbours France, Italy and Germany.
Mind you, this is Switzerland, that neutral nation of cuckoo clocks, money and
gnomes of Zurich.
The
Gnomes of Zurich, a phrase coined by a disparaging Harold Wilson in 1956, are not immune from the credit fall-out.
The day he played an idiot the
Gnomes of Zurich decided to cough up on money stolen by the Nazis from their victims.