save the furniture

An allusion to rapidly removing as much furniture as possible from a building threatened by fire, flood, or a similar disaster.

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

save the furniture

1. (idiomatic, Britain, Canada, Australia) To salvage something positive from a calamitous situation, especially one involving the reputation or fate of a political party.
   • 2013 Oct. 4, Christopher Drew, "Why the Greens were the real election losers," ABC News (Australia) (retrieved 4 Dec 2016):

     [S]winging progressives were keen to consolidate the diving Labor vote and save the furniture so that a reasonably-sized progressive opposition party could live to fight another day.

   • 2015 Oct. 4, Gloria Galloway, "Mulcair touts NDP as only way for western Canadians to oust Tories," Globe and Mail (Canada) (retrieved 4 Dec 2016):

     A week after a headline in a Montreal newspaper suggested the NDP Leader’s numbers are so low it is time to “save the furniture,” he is still battling aggressively.

   • 2016 March 9, John McTernan, "Jeremy Corbyn's days are numbered if MPs stand firm," Telegraph (UK) (retrieved 4 Dec 2016):

     In other words, the PLP could unite behind an experienced figure who would take them to a dignified defeat but would save the furniture.

• make the best of a bad situation