Brexit the musical

If that famous Victorian musical pairing, Gilbert and Sullivan, were alive today, they would probably be tempted to put the Brexit shenanigans to music.

Yesterday’s proceedings in the House of Commons in London had all the high drama of Trial By Jury, the pair’s one-act comic opera, along with the satirical notes found in Patience, the first of the Savoy operas.

There is plenty of material in Brexit for a satirical opera of this nature. The decision of the Supreme Court possessed some of the intrigue of The Mikado, with the judge who deleviered the verdict, Lady Hale, sporting a spider brooch and doing a fine impression of The Lord High Executioner.

What would a 21st century Gilbert and Sullivan call it? Bluster comes to mind, and so does Dreams Of Utopia. The chorus — all 650 members — is fully assembled and who better to play the male lead than the beleagured but spunky attorney general, Geoffrey Cox? His resounding baritone rang louder than Big Ben at Westminster yesterday.

There are plenty of comic moments from which to draw. The only trouble might be in finding a happy ending.