Pork barrel

The term pork barrel means politicians using government money to spend on the place they represent, giving it to their supporters and their local area. The word comes from American English. Slave owners in America used to give salted pork in a barrel to their slaves. In election campaigns, the term 'pork barrel' is used to attack political rivals, because it is a selfish kind of politics that is thinking about only one region and not the whole country. However, it is also a technical term describing how politicians get and use government money for local projects.