"Blue rinse brigade" is a somewhat pejorative term used, particularly in the United Kingdom, to describe elderly middle-class ladies usually of a conservative socio-political persuasion. This group is usually characterised as forming the backbone of local branches of the Conservative Party.
The term arises from the blue rinse dye applied by hairdressers to disguise the often yellow tones of greying hair, together with the pejorative sense of "brigade". There is also an allusion to the political symbolism of blue in the United Kingdom.
Famous quotes containing the words brigade and/or blue:
“Rational free spirits are the light brigade who go on ahead and reconnoitre the ground which the heavy brigade of the orthodox will eventually occupy.”
—G.C. (Georg Christoph)
“How prone poor Humanity is to dam up the minutest remnants of its freedom, and build an artificial roof to prevent it looking up to the clear blue sky.”
—E.T.A.W. (Ernst Theodor Amadeus Wilhelm)