blame game

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bleɪm ɡeɪm/

• Audio (AU)

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Noun

blame game (plural blame games)

1. (informal, idiomatic) A situation in which people attempt to blame others rather than trying to resolve a problem.
   • 1998 January, David Foster Wallace, “The Depressed Person”, in Harpers Magazine, page 58:

     She was, in addition, always extremely careful to share with the friends in her Support System her belief that it would be whiny and pathetic to play what she derisively called the "Blame Game" and blame her constant and indescribable adult pain on their parents' traumatic divorce or their cynical use of her.

   • 2021 November 28, Peter Walker, “UK and France playing ‘blame game’ after Channel deaths, say Labour”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     The UK and France are “engaging in a blame game” over people making perilous Channel crossings in small boats, Labour has said, rather than sitting down together to try to work out a way to prevent more deaths.

   • 2022 April 6, Industry Insider, “Fixture clashes”, in RAIL, number 954, page 68:

     A blame game is taking place between Network Rail and the Football Association regarding the closure of the West Coast Main Line over the Easter Bank Holiday, which coincides with an FA Cup semi-final taking place at Wembley Stadium on April 16.

   • 2022 November 12, Toby Helm, Phillip Inman, “Revealed: the £30bn cost of Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-budget”, in The Guardian‎^[2]:

     The estimates of the cost of “Trussonomics” will intensify a bitter blame game now being played out at the top of the Tory party.

   • 2023 August 9, Raphael Rashid, “‘Worst nightmare’: South Korea mulls disastrous Scout jamboree”, in The Guardian‎^[3], →ISSN:

     Political parties are ensnared in a blame game, with the ruling and opposition parties blaming each other. An audit will no doubt follow.

See also

• finger-pointing
• he said, she said
• who shot John