Lucy Vickery

The Brexiteers

issue 24 August 2019

In Competition No. 3112 you were invited to submit an extract from Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Brexiteers.
 
The title of this new addition to the G&S canon was, of course, a nod to The Gondoliers. But in an entry both serious and silly, full of wit and whimsy, you also plundered The Mikado (‘Four little maids in politics, we,/ Boris-resistant as can be…’), Iolanthe (Lord Chancellor’s ‘Nightmare Song’) and H.M.S. Pinafore (‘Ring the merry bells for Brexit!’), among others. There were stellar performances from Max Gutmann, Sylvia Fairley, David Shields and D.A. Prince. They were only narrowly outstripped by the winners below, who earn £30 each.
 


Mine is the tousled noddle at the head of Brexit government,
Let getting Out, no deal or doubt, become our sacred covenant.
May tried negotiation but the Eurocrats all bested her,
Conservatives lost confidence — hey presto, my investiture!
It’s going to be a doddle, now we’re leaving unilaterally,
The EU gets more bijou while Great Britain blossoms naturally
Through trade deals with America and India, Australia
And sundry other nations who don’t think free trade a failure.






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