Tiger, I think you are right about the 'dog in a manger' thing, Mum used to read Aesop's Fables to us and you just triggered a memory with that.... I obviously wasn't paying attention... as usual.
The politicians wern't short of using fashionable words... remember 'cloud cuckoo land' and 'gerrymandering'!
In the 70s the expression 'Far out man' was pretty prevailant too... usually uttered by hippie types wearing loons and long hair.
I think today, whole sentances of tripe are generally uttered, epecially on programmes like Jeremy Kyle and I really hate it, when asked a question the moronic respondants usually come away with the following...
"Well, basically, at the end of the day, like, man, nuttamean innit. that is basically a no-brainer and you need to cool man , nuttamean!!
(remember, each of these words is interspersed with expletives otherwise the meaning of the sentance would be lost on the other morons)!
I swear blind the expression 'nuttamean' will find it's way into the dictionary as a word in its own right one of these days.