The Vote Leave crowd were thrown into turmoil last night after it was revealed to them that their adopted term “Brexiteers” is not British in its origins.
This sect of the public have styled themselves thus in the hope of sounding like swashbuckling heroes The Three Musketeers, in complete ignorance of the fact that the book and characters are all French.
Literary historian Ivor Redditt told the assembled press:
“The facts are indisputable and easy to verify. The Three Musketeers was first written by a Frenchman, Alexandre Dumas, in French, in 1844 and serialised in a French newspaper, Le Siecle. It wasn’t until 1846 that the English translation first appeared.”
Passionate EU hater Ray Cyst had this to say when the bombshell hit:
“It’s just not right. We can’t be named after some Frogs! It’s just not on, we’ve got to have a proper British name!”
As indeed they do, as there are several choice words of basic, and equally British, Anglo-Saxon that are very accurate in describing him and his allies.
In any event, the entire crowd agreed with Mr Cyst’s statement, and then spent the next hour trying to come up with a new name. Nothing was forthcoming – not one of the hundreds of people gathered could think of anything.
However, help may be at hand, as Professor Will Nameham, an expert in nomenclature and etymology, has made the following suggestion for their new moniker:
“Perhaps in the future they could call themselves Brexitarian. The name is reminiscent of two other terms, both of which represent groups of people who, like themselves believe that they are doing what they are doing out of a strong sense of principles, the logic of which does not stand up to closer inspection.” I say Brexiteers, you say Brexitarians…
Brexitarians will presumably eat Brexit, or maybe they will just eat their words. Always assuming they have the stomach for it.