Who is Uncle Tom Cobbley?

Just got a great e-mail from a pensioner who’s got a big rebate on his council tax after following the Council Tax Reclaiming article. In it he stated that in previous years he’s written to everyone: ‘Gordon Brown, head of the council, ministers, Uncle Tom Cobbley and all” to try and get his council tax reduced, but didn’t get anywhere… thankfully he’s now had a big reduction after getting his band lowered.

However I must admit, I had no clue what Uncle Tom Cobbley meant; the only Uncle Tom reference I know is from the book Uncle Tom’s Cabin, where it refers to a black man who is trying to ingratiate himself with the white community through disowning his heritage (sorry if my description is inaccurate, that’s to the best of my memory).

So onto the venerable Wikipedia where I find it actually means “et al” – in other words he’s tried everyone, plus it includes the lyrics of the original Devon song it derivates from.

Discuss this blog