Definition of "parish-pump"

Never avoid bars or smoke-rooms, because in the former case you miss the chance of marrying a flirt, and in the latter of having your mind improved by local parish-pump politics, and your head broken by a fool in his cups.

, Thomas Bardel Brindley, chapter I, in Hints, Humorous and Satirical, to All the World and His Wife. […], 3rd edition, London: Simpkin, Marshall, and Co. […], paragraph 7, page 6

I now turn to the question of political progress. Ten days or so ago I was criticized in a newspaper for saying that I would confine political progress to the parish-pump level. […] I believe it right to ensure that truly responsible local government at the rural community and Municipal Council levels is firmly established and as quickly as possible.From a speech by Templer, the British High Commissioner in Malaya, to the Federal Legislative Council of Malaya.

1952 March 19 (date delivered), Victor Purcell, quoting Gerald Templer, “The Case for the Governments”, in Malaya: Communist or Free?, Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, published 1954, page 189

I don't think I've voted once since the war. The issues nowadays so often seem—well, a bit parish pump.

1978, Graham Greene, chapter I, in The Human Factor, London; Sydney, N.S.W.: The Bodley Head, published 1979, page 14

This study […] pays serious attention to so called parish-pump conflicts in the belief that they performed a fundamental role in shaping opinion in the countryside. The vitality of parish pump alignments had a temporal dimension, too, for it seems that the querulousness of the rural community expressed a developing perception of equilibrium and well-being.

1985, P[eter] M[ichael] Jones, “Introduction”, in Politics and Rural Society: The Southern Massif Central c. 1750–1880, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, page 5

The idea of "parish-pump politics" is well known. Instead of engaging in problem solving at the community level, local politicians often think only of their own, local community, even if it is much more reasonable to cooperate with neighbouring communities and to pursue common regional interests.

2016, Michael Böcher, Max Krott, “Case Studies”, in Eduardo Fargas, editor, Science Makes the World Go Round: Successful Scientific Knowledge Transfer for the Environment, [Cham, Zug, Switzerland]: Springer Nature, page 62