Doing a Gladys

Refusing to do what’s needed in a serious situation with disastrous consequences, due to baseless overconfidence and wanting to avoid proving your critics right.

Refers to New South Wales Liberal premier Gladys Berejiklian’s refusal to lock down Sydney, to avoid giving political points to the Victorian Labor premier Daniel Andrews. Her failure to lock down in response to the highly contagious and deadly Delta strain of coronavirus has instead lead to a months-long protracted lockdown and lives lost, which could have been avoided by locking down fora short time in the first place.

We told him to get a proper mechanic instead of doing a DIY job, but he insisted on doing a Gladys and now the dipstick needs to buy a whole new engine.