Official Monster Raving Loony Party
Encyclopedia
The Official Monster Raving Loony Party is a registered political party
established in the United Kingdom
in 1983 by musician and politician David Sutch (1940–1999), better known as Screaming Lord Sutch
.
, stood in British parliamentary elections under a range of party names, mainly as the National Teenage Party candidate. At that time the voting age was set at 21. The name "National Teenage Party" was intended to highlight what Sutch and others saw as hypocrisy
, that teenagers were unable to vote on the basis of their supposed immaturity while the adults running the country were involved in events such as the Profumo Affair
.
After being shot at during a mugging attempt while living in the United States
, Sutch returned to Britain and to politics during the 1980s, and it was at this time that the "Raving Loony" tag first appeared at the Bermondsey by-election of 1983 (all retrospective claims for the party existing before this date being fraudulent).
A similar concept had appeared in the "Election Night Special
" sketch by Monty Python's Flying Circus
(in which the "Silly Party" and the "Sensible Party" competed against each other) and a similar skit by The Goodies
(where Graeme Garden
stood as a "Science Loony"). There had also been a "Science Fiction Loony" candidate in the 1976 Cambridge by-election
.
Two other individuals were important in the formation of the future OMRLP. The first was John Desmond Dougrez-Lewis, who stood at the Crosby by-election of 1981
(which was won by the Social Democratic Party
's co-founder Shirley Williams). Dougrez-Lewis stood at the by-election as Tarquin Fin-tim-lin-bin-whin-bim-lim-bus-stop-F'tang-F'tang-Olé-Biscuitbarrel (a name taken from the aforementioned Monty Python sketch), having changed his name by deed poll
from the somewhat plainer John Desmond Lewis, on the behalf of the Cambridge University
Raving Loony Society (CURLS). CURLS were an "anti-political party" and charity fundraising group formed largely to be a fun counter-response to increasingly polarised student politics on campus. They were responsible for a number of fun stunts (their Oxford University equivalents were the “Oxford Raving Lunatics”). Dougrez-Lewis became Sutch's agent at the notorious Bermondsey by-election of 1983
, where the OMRLP banner was first officially unfurled. Reverting to his original name, Dougrez-Lewis stood for the new party in Cambridge in the 1983 general election.
The second person who helped found the party was Commander Bill Boaks
, a retired World War II
hero involved in the sinking of the Bismarck
. He had campaigned and stood for election for over thirty years on limited funds, always on the issue of road safety. Boaks proved influential on Sutch's direction as the leading anti-politician: "it's the ones who don't vote you really want, because they're the ones who think".
Boaks foresaw the problems that increased traffic and more roads would cause the country, and addressed road safety issues with flamboyant campaigning and a variety of tactics, including private prosecution
of public figures who escaped public prosecution for drink-driving. He successfully campaigned together with Sutch and others to pedestrianise London's Carnaby Street. While recovering from being knocked down by a motorcycle, Boaks also acted as one of Sutch's counting agents at Bermondsey
in 1983. Plans for him to be part of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party roster for the 1983 general election
, standing in Sutch's and Boaks's own home constituency of Streatham
, were mooted at Bermondsey and never came to pass, probably due to his increasing infirmity. By the time his predictions of unnecessary child deaths, pollution and congestion
were proved correct, he was dead, having succumbed to head injuries sustained upon alighting from a bus two years before.
, as Alan "Howling Laud" Hope
was elected unopposed. He subsequently became Deputy Mayor and later Mayor of Ashburton in 1998 (mainly opposed by the local Conservatives; they never forgave him for becoming a member of the OMRLP) until he moved to Hampshire
after Sutch's death. For over a decade, his hotel "The Golden Lion" in Ashburton (referred to by some in the party as "The Mucky Mog" for reasons apparent to anyone visiting it for the first time) was the party's headquarters and conference centre.
The first Raving Loony to win as a result of a straight vote rather than an uncontested election was Stuart Hughes
, taking the "safe" Conservative
seat of Sidmouth
Woolbrook on East Devon
District Council in May 1991. He then took a seat on Sidmouth Town Council from the Conservatives the following day. His success was met with hostility from the local Tories. Hughes' reaction was to attempt to make their lives a misery for the next three years by refusing to pay his Community Charge (also known as the Poll Tax
), then dumping scrap metal in the middle of the council chambers to the value of his unpaid tax when threatened with legal action. He also formed an alliance known as "The Coastals" (because of the seats they held) of Independents and the sole Green Party
councillor, giving East Devon's ruling Conservatives the first true opposition they had faced for decades (the local Liberal Democrat and Labour Parties being negligible).
Hughes retained his seats with increased majorities in subsequent elections, and the final humiliation for the Conservatives came when he took the Devon
County Council seat from the local party's Chief Whip
in the council. Hughes remains a member of all three councils to this day although he now does his politicising— ironically—as a Conservative.
The better organisation of the Raving Loony Green Giant Party
(RLGGP), and its success at the polls, proved a wake up call to the OMRLP. At one stage in England during the early 1990s, there were sixteen councillors elected despite having the phrase "Raving Loony" accredited to them. In Scotland
, Mark Boyle won a seat on Johnstone Community Council as a joint Official Monster Raving Loony Party and Raving Loony Green Giant Party candidate because he disagreed with the split. (Hughes and Sutch thought having a joint councillor for two warring factions hilarious, Hope less so.) To date, two councillors have subsequently become mayors: Alan Hope in Ashburton, Devon and Chris "Screwy" Driver
on the Isle of Sheppey
in Kent
.
At the Bootle by-election in May 1990, the Loony candidate (Sutch) received more votes than the candidate for the continuing Social Democrats
. The OMRLP newsletter for June 1990 released by Alan Hope said "What is going on?" and Sutch himself appeared utterly shocked when interviewed by the BBC after the result was announced.
The story was a major headline in many UK newspapers; ironically, the by-election itself had attracted little coverage. The little media attention there was focused on a bizarre row between Labour and the Raving Loonies. Relations between Labour members and Raving Loonies had never been good, but they reached a new low when the Labour agent tried to have Sutch arrested for breaking an old electoral law forbidding the use of a public house
as an election campaign headquarters. This law had been repealed in 1987. The tabloid newspapers then referred to "Kinnock
's Killjoys" for the remainder of the campaign's duration.
The result was the last straw for the continuing Social Democrats (centred around former Labour Foreign Secretary and Social Democratic leader David Owen
) who had refused to accept the merger of the SDP with the Liberals
to form the Liberal Democrats. Rubbing salt in their wounds, Sutch offered in jest to form a coalition with them, but they instead disbanded, though in a repeat of the events of 1988 once again a week later some members voted to carry on. Almost a year after Bootle, the supposedly dead SDP finished fourth at Neath
, beating the OMRLP to 5th place in the process, and survive to this day (for the history of the post-Owen SDP, see the continuing Social Democratic Party
).
Although there have been far more prestigious Loony results before and after (particularly Monmouth), Bootle is still regarded by Raving Loonies as their finest hour, the watershed moment when they had to be treated as a serious political party, albeit one largely lampooning the political world.
Sutch also defeated a joint Plaid Cymru
/Green Party
candidate at the bitter Monmouth
1991 by-election
and almost beat the ruling Conservative Party's candidate at the Islwyn
1995 by-election
later on—but by this time the OMRLP were organised enough to make coming in fourth the norm in by-elections in England and Wales.
The credit for this must lie with John Tempest, a former Liberal/Liberal Democrat press officer and election agent (and co-founder of the award winning Bradford Soup Run charity for the homeless). Together with friend and OMRLP activist Willi Beckett (one of the founders of the anarchist One-In-Twelve Club in Bradford
), they transformed the way the party fought elections. From the outset they were determined to make the OMRLP reap the rewards of being the unofficial "protest vote party" of the UK: now posters, car stickers, and a never-ending series of headline-grabbing stunts not only made it easier for the party to gain publicity, but also ensured they were treated fairly by the media (three by-election TV shows were cancelled when the OMRLP used the law to stop them having candidate debates that barred the Loony candidate). The party even managed to attract some corporate sponsorship from the makers of "Monster Munch" crisps & "Spillers" dogfood, albeit to lampoon the manner in which Labour
under Blair in particular had become big business puppets.
Tempest and Beckett suffered the same problems from the "Fun-da-Mental-ist" faction, but by then new people had entered the party such as future Chairman Peter 'T.C.' Owen, to whom beating the other parties was what it was all about and who saw nothing funny about coming last with a handful of votes. Also Tempest was known – ironically – as one not to suffer fools gladly (there were a number of clashes between him and Hope). It was no coincidence that during the era of Tempest and Beckett, other well known "alternative" parties such as the Greens, National Front
, British National Party
, and the UK Independence Party
often withdrew their candidates from seats after an OMRLP member had announced their candidature because of the damage to party morale from finishing with fewer votes than a "Raving Loony".
Beckett was forced to drop out of Loony activities due to ill health, prompting Tempest to end his association with the OMRLP, thanks to work & Soup Run commitments—along with being fed up with the lack of gratitude and backbiting from the "Fun-da-Mental-ist" faction that were happy enough to ask for his help to get them out of a number of scrapes—including a nasty election feud in Holmfirth between Melodie Staniforth and Mike Madden of the rival RLGGP faction during the mid 1990s (Madden eventually quit standing in elections).
after the death of his mother, Annie, in 1998, committed suicide on 16 June 1999.
Sutch's death drew tributes from right across the political spectrum. There were also however some not-so-complimentary comments, the worst coming from Roseanna Cunningham
, at the time MP for Perth
and a columnist for the Scottish Sunday Mail
. Cunningham claimed newspapers were more interested in the death of someone she felt had contributed nothing to politics nor society whilst 'ignoring' the death that same week of Cardinal Basil Hume (in fact most had given long obituaries to Hume) who she felt had done more (she did not name any specific achievements). Cunningham had previously been upstaged by the OMRLP on the night of her victory at the ill-tempered Perth & Kinross by-election
due to the death of Sir Nicholas Fairbairn. A foul-up between SNP spin doctors inside and outside Perth City Hall and the BBC led to expectant nationalist supporters gathered outside cheering Sutch, Boyle and Beckett for five minutes instead when they stumbled out of Perth City Hall first; leaving Cunningham trapped inside whilst the OMRLP (and one defecting Scottish Liberal Democrat) conducted the crowd in choral renditions of both "Spot the Loony" and "Let's All Laugh At Labour" (Labour had spent a fortune in vain on trying to win the seat for Peter Mandelson
's then aide Douglas Alexander
).
Sutch's funeral, organised by Tempest, was attended by members of the OMRLP and RLGGP, including Hughes, who with Freddie Zapp brought along a huge floral tribute shaped as an OMRLP rosette; they provided a more dignified entourage than Sutch's own relatives and romantic partners, who fought with one another at the graveside. The running of the OMRLP fell to Alan "Howling Laud" Hope
and his late cat, Cat Mandu
(killed 2002), who were the joint winners of the 1999 membership ballot for the replacement for Sutch.
The OMRLP fielded 15 candidates in the 2001 General Election
, where they actually ran up their best General Election results to date.
days before the vote itself).
The manifesto, entitled "The Manicfesto", for the 2005 General Election
featured the major commitment of their long held pledge to abolish income tax, citing as always that it was only meant to be a temporary measure during the Napoleonic Wars. This has been a Loony staple policy since the original manifesto was written by Sutch's agent Pauline Read in 1983. Also included was another old staple, the "Putting Parliament On Wheels" idea of having Parliament sit throughout the country rather than solely in London—with special emphasis this time in its creation negating the need for national/regional assemblies.
Overall the results were a disappointment for the OMRLP after their success in the previous general election showed there was life after Sutch; the only improvement was Alan Hope’s increase of the vote to over 500, but all other candidates saw marked reductions—including Owen, contesting the Wokingham seat for the first time, haemorrhaging over 300 votes to the BNP. "Top Cat" Owen is the only member of the current OMRLP line up ever to poll over 1000 votes (he polled 2,859 votes in the 1994 European elections), and his dip in fortunes despite a previously strong local following appears to have killed the last realistic chance the party ever had of seeing a saved deposit
.
The party also suffered from an ill-needed row over its York branch, which led to there being no "official" City of York candidate and gave more credence to those that denounced the post-Sutch OMRLP as little more than a PR machine for pub-circuit entertainers rather than a political party. Graham Cambridge, otherwise known as Eddie Vee, the Elvis-impersonating previous candidate, wished to stand again, but the branch honorary secretary John E Morris and the branch treasurer, Gareth Sheehan (also known as "Spydaz") elected to have the famous alternative artist Andy "Milladdio" Hinkles as the candidate and asked Vee to stand elsewhere.
Morris and Spydaz were well known enough in York, Morris as a Green Party activist, whilst Spydaz was known as York's "super-squatter", an activist of the York Peace Collective that led a series of highly publicised squats during 2003 and 2004 to highlight neglected "listed" buildings (their antics included the holding of Art exhibitions within such abandoned properties).
The response however from OMRLP headquarters was for Deputy Leader Boney Maroney to promptly expel Morris and Spydaz from the party. In York's "Evening Press" newspaper of 12 April 2005, Maroney claimed it was "for selling loony merchandise against Electoral Commission rules": to be precise the OMRLP's Financial Scheme as registered with the Electoral Commission, which meant any Branch of the OMRLP taking money on the party's behalf would be breaching the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 Part 2. As such, the York Branch's alleged selling of merchandise provided a pretext to expel the entire branch—bar Vee—and declare Vee to be the "approved" York candidate.
Vee then failed to raise the £500 deposit to stand, but the expelled York Branch members had the deposit for Hinkles—now standing as a York Integrity Party (although the ballot paper simply reads "Independent Hinkles") — submitted within days of the Notice of Election being posted.
Morris, Hinkles and Spydaz offered an olive branch to party HQ, but with no response, and with the Socialist Alliance and the Green Party contesting the seat, any hopes the Hinkles candidature may have had of attracting the "alternative" vote from his association with Spydaz were dashed—he barely took 100 votes.
There were however two crumbs of comfort. For the third election in a row, the OMRLP found its candidates being debarred from the Hansard Society
/BBC TV "Newsround
" School Mock Elections running in tandem with the General Election (the same fate befell the BNP), and the party advised pupils to get voters to spoil their ballot papers in protest or simply write "OMRLP" on the ballot papers in schools that refused to back down. In the event, 102 Raving Loony school candidates stood, winning in 21 of these, and taking enough votes in two parliamentary constituencies to be declared to have 'won' the seat—the two being Bristol East (the former seat of Tony Benn
) and the hard-line Tory constituency of Chesham & Amersham, neither of which have any history of active Raving Loonyism before.
The OMRLP's official headquarters was originally the (now gone) "Golden Lion Hotel" in Ashburton
, then the "Dog & Partridge" pub at Yateley
in Hampshire
, but this was lost shortly after the 2005 General Election. Conference venues are now chosen in advance—the 2006 conference was held at Torrington in Devon, and the 2007 conference was held in Jersey.
Although Alan Hope took over as Party Leader after Sutch's death, the real day-to-day running of the party has always been done by other party members. Even on the council election circuit, its vote, funds — and public interest — appear to be in terminal decline, facing a tighter squeeze for the "protest vote" from other minor UK parties with more members, money, and organisation.
The party fell foul over its funding on 26 September 2005 when the Electoral Commission forced them to return a donation of £350 sent by a supporter from the Crown Dependency of the Isle of Man
.
The party's last elected representative was R. U. Seerius (formerly Jon Brewer) on the 11 member Sawley Parish Council in South Derbyshire, first elected (uncontested) in 2005. He was no longer a member as of May 2007, having failed to appear in no less than 11 statutory meetings during his time in office, due to illness.
The party contested both the Bromley and Chislehurst
and the Blaenau Gwent
Parliamentary by-elections on 29 June 2006; and with it a degree of their previous by-election lustre—a matter perhaps the result of the return of Willi Beckett to frontline OMRLP activities; tragically in October 2006 he was diagnosed as terminally ill with cancer, and he died on Friday 2 March 2007, less than a day after setting up his own MySpace website. His ashes were later used to make his farewell vinyl single.
In March 2007, Melodie "Boney Maroney" Staniforth, the Deputy Leader resigned from the party, though she stood in the April 2007 Kirklees council elections as an OMRLP candidate. The party's webmaster, Stuart "Parish Poisoner" Estell did likewise. According to her 29 March 2007 interview with the "Huddersfield Examiner" newspaper, she was doing the party's books, merchandising & electoral law work with little help, and had grown fed up with the lack of leadership accountability. Asking Hope to become Party President whilst she would become official Party Leader, Hope refused, saying he was leader until death.
Ironically, she had been the most vociferous critic of the Raving Loony Green Giant and Rock'n'Roll Loony factions that had left the OMRLP for largely the same reasons, and of John Tempest's more organised approach to elections and funding. She has since stood as a candidate for the Blah! Party
.
Hope retaliated with a press release stating – with little appreciation of the irony – that "although the sudden resignation of a main party member was a shock the Loony party is not just one person and will continue regardless." and that "the party will never again be reliant on one person".
The post-Staniforth OMRLP succeeded in standing in the two by-elections of 19 July 2007 in Sedgefield and Ealing Southall, but again achieving derisory results: Alan Hope acquiring 129 votes (0.46%) and John Cartwright taking 188 (0.51%), beating the English Democrats but coming behind even the so-called Christian Party of the Reverend George Hargreaves
and David Braid.
In recognition that reforms were needed, Peter 'T.C.' Owen was moved from the honorary position of Party Chairman to that of Deputy Leader (& thus effective day-to-day leader) of the OMRLP, whilst Anthony "The Jersey Flyer" Blyth (owner of the Ommaroo and a member of the Jersey Heritage Trust) took over Owen’s role. A self styled pragmatist
, Owen comes from the side of the OMRLP that always took the fighting of elections seriously and is one of four Raving Loonies to have scored over 1000 votes in an election.
Nick "The Flying Brick" Delves was the candidate at the Crewe and Nantwich by-election, 2008
on 22 May 2008. He is the party's current treasurer and has contested several General elections and council elections for the OMRLP. Delves finished 7th out of 10 candidates with 236 votes (0.57%), coming behind the Green Party of England and Wales
, United Kingdom Independence Party
(who stood MEP Mike Nattrass
as their candidate) and even the English Democrats. At the announcement of the result, the candidates were made to stand with the returning officer on the right side of the stage, whilst their agents stood some distance away on the left. However, chairman Alan Hope and Nick Delves swapped places so that Hope would be televised being the first to shake the victorious Conservative candidate's hand.
Party, which was met with criticism by some members, with John Cartwright
, Loony candidate in Croydon public stating "I am not and will not be a mercenary, or an advert, for a commercial company during the course of the election campaign"
by-election
there were two Green candidates, a candidate from the Green Party
but also another candidate from an organisation calling themselves "The Greens" and two National Front
candidates from their warring "Third Way
" and "Flag
" factions, whilst at the same time feuding continued between the Social and Liberal Democrats
and Social Democratic Party
candidates, both products of a merger — but the splits were serious, despite Peter "Top Cat" Owen's blithe dismissal to journalists that "the only splits I'm interested in are the ones with bananas in them" (which led to his adoption of an inflatable banana when on the campaign trail. Owen's election leaflets are also noted for stressing his political philosophy as a "pragmatist").
Some members believe that OMRLP activities are purely for fun (and an ego trip or publicity for their entertainment business), while others see the party in the same vein as Private Eye magazine or programmes such as That Was The Week That Was
or Spitting Image
, using satire to make serious points on issues of the day. Tensions have often resulted because the more serious types in the OMRLP have managed to do what most observers considered impossible—actually achieve a creditable number of votes—tending to put the noses of the "Fun-Da-Mental-ists" out of joint.
There were also objections in some quarters to the continued presence of alleged brothel
keeper and minor celebrity Cynthia Payne
—a friend of Sutch—who was at the front of many party photo opportunities but continued to stand instead as a member of the rival Rainbow Alliance party (aka Captain Rainbow's Universal Abolish Parliament Party) of George Weiss
(a friend of Ian Dury
and Peter Cook
). The controversy heightened after Weiss was convicted of heroin possession (the News of the World
settled a damages claim by the OMRLP, for saying Weiss was a member, out of court).
Owing to ill health, Lord Sutch became less involved with the party and his last campaign was in Winchester after a by-election was called when the main election was undecided due to a count difference of just two votes between the Conservative and Liberal Democrat candidates. Assisted by his Campaign Manager and Election Agent, Peter 'Uncle Belly' Byford, the party gained 316 votes.
, along with Danny Bamford (later Danny Blue), Roly Gillard, Melvyn Hartshorne, inventor Mike Madden and tree surgeon Stuart Greenwood formed the breakaway Raving Loony Green Giant Party
(RLGGP), mainly due to personality clashes with OMRLP Chairman Alan Hope and other "Fun-da-Mental-ists"—the final straw being the latter (and Sutch's) behaviour during a sponsored walk to the Scilly Isles for the children's cancer charity, CLIC (now merged into CLIC Sargent
), where they only turned up at the start and finish for the media call whilst Hughes and others did the whole event.
The 2001 election was followed by a series of disastrous by-election results and a further split. Town Councillor Chris Driver
formed the Rock 'n' Roll Loony Party
with Mad Mike Young & others dissatisfied with Alan Hope's leadership, in a sad replay of the events surrounding the OMRLP/RLGGP split a decade earlier (interestingly Roly Gillard, who had rejoined the OMRLP upon the RLGGP's demise, also took part in this split).
This splinter however did not last anywhere near as long as the RLGGP, although in a replay of what happened to Stuart Hughes and the RLGGP, success at the ballot box ensured the failure of the new party. Chris Driver's election as Mayor of Queenborough
Town Council for the municipal year 2002/2003 curtailed on its leader's time enough to ensure party activities effectively ground to a halt. By 2004, the RRLP was effectively dead, with most of its members having rejoined the OMRLP. (Gillard however dropped out of politics altogether in 2002 after his wife's suicide).
Sir Patrick Moore, the famous British TV amateur astronomer, claimed several times to be the party's Minister for Flying Saucers. In fact, Moore was not welcome at all within the party because of his past involvement as joint leader of the right-wing New Britain Party
. Moore has since proclaimed his allegiance to UKIP.
Hugh Reed and the Velvet Underpants
, a band barely known outside of the Scottish University circuit, released the song "Vote Monster Raving Looney" in 1992. They were however nothing to do with the Official Monster Raving Loony Party (witness the different spelling of "Loony") and similarly disowned by a press statement from John Tempest. The band subsequently became involved in fund-raising activities for the ultra-nationalist Siol nan Gaidheal
group (who had been expelled from the Scottish National Party
in 1982).
, which contains things that seem to be impossible or too absurd to implement – usually to highlight what they see as real-life absurdities.
Despite its satirical
nature, some of the things that have featured in Loony manifestos have become law, such as being able to vote at 18, "passports for pets
", and all-day pub openings. Similarly, the outcry following Alan Hope
's appearance on the BBC
's Nationwide current affairs programme after he was elected – during which he mentioned that butter and milk surpluses were being dumped down abandoned mine shafts under European Community rules to maintain prices (something the media of the day had failed to expose) – resulted in the distribution of such surpluses to the needy or charities instead.
The Loonies generally field as many candidates as possible in United Kingdom general elections
, some (but by no means all) standing under ridiculous names they have adopted via deed poll
. Sutch himself stood against all three main party leaders (John Major
, Neil Kinnock
and Paddy Ashdown
) in the 1992 General Election
. Parliamentary candidates have to pay their own deposit (which currently stands at £500) and cover all of their expenses. No OMRLP candidate has managed to get the required 5% of the popular vote needed to retain his deposit, but this does not stop people standing. Sutch came closest with 4.1% and over a thousand votes at the Rotherham by-election
, whilst Stuart Hughes
still holds the record for the largest number of votes for a Loony candidate at a Parliamentary election, with 1,442 at the 1992 General Election
in the Honiton
seat in east Devon
. The all time highest vote achieved was by comedian Danny Bamford aka Danny Blue, who secured 3,339 votes in the 1994 European Elections under the pseudonym of "John Major". Bamford had also acted as an election agent for Lindi St Clair's rival Corrective Party, and was a former close associate of Stuart Hughes.
In the run-up to the 2011 Alternative Vote referendum, the party adopted an equivocal stance, advising its supporters, on 8 April, to "vote as you see fit."
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...
established in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
in 1983 by musician and politician David Sutch (1940–1999), better known as Screaming Lord Sutch
Screaming Lord Sutch
David Edward Sutch , also known as "Screaming Lord Sutch, 3rd Earl of Harrow", or simply "Screaming Lord Sutch", was a musician from the United Kingdom...
.
History
Starting in 1963, David Sutch, of Screaming Lord Sutch & The SavagesScreaming Lord Sutch And The Savages
Screaming Lord Sutch and the Savages were a British rock group from the early Sixties, sporting an ever-changing line-up of musicians and a taste for horror themes and zany humour. Some regard them as forerunners of both The Sex Pistols and Monty Python...
, stood in British parliamentary elections under a range of party names, mainly as the National Teenage Party candidate. At that time the voting age was set at 21. The name "National Teenage Party" was intended to highlight what Sutch and others saw as hypocrisy
Hypocrisy
Hypocrisy is the state of pretending to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that one does not actually have. Hypocrisy involves the deception of others and is thus a kind of lie....
, that teenagers were unable to vote on the basis of their supposed immaturity while the adults running the country were involved in events such as the Profumo Affair
Profumo Affair
The Profumo Affair was a 1963 British political scandal named after John Profumo, Secretary of State for War. His affair with Christine Keeler, the reputed mistress of an alleged Russian spy, followed by lying in the House of Commons when he was questioned about it, forced the resignation of...
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Sutch returned to Britain and to politics during the 1980s, and it was at this time that the "Raving Loony" tag first appeared at the Bermondsey by-election of 1983 (all retrospective claims for the party existing before this date being fraudulent).
A similar concept had appeared in the "Election Night Special
Election Night Special
"Election Night Special" is a Monty Python sketch parodying the coverage of United Kingdom general elections, specifically the 1970 general election, on the BBC by including hectic actions by the media and a range of ridiculous candidates....
" sketch by Monty Python's Flying Circus
Monty Python's Flying Circus
Monty Python’s Flying Circus is a BBC TV sketch comedy series. The shows were composed of surreality, risqué or innuendo-laden humour, sight gags and observational sketches without punchlines...
(in which the "Silly Party" and the "Sensible Party" competed against each other) and a similar skit by The Goodies
The Goodies (TV series)
The Goodies is a British television comedy series of the 1970s and early 1980s. The series, which combines surreal sketches and situation comedy, was broadcast by BBC 2 from 1970 until 1980 — and was then broadcast by the ITV company LWT for a year, between 1981 to 1982.The show was...
(where Graeme Garden
Graeme Garden
David Graeme Garden OBE is a Scottish author, actor, comedian, artist and television presenter, who first became known as a member of The Goodies.-Early life and beginnings in comedy:...
stood as a "Science Loony"). There had also been a "Science Fiction Loony" candidate in the 1976 Cambridge by-election
Cambridge by-election, 1976
The Cambridge by-election of 2 December 1976 was held after Conservative Member of Parliament David Lane resigned his seat to take up the position of Chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality.: The seat was retained by the Tories in a result that cut the government majority to one...
.
Two other individuals were important in the formation of the future OMRLP. The first was John Desmond Dougrez-Lewis, who stood at the Crosby by-election of 1981
Crosby by-election, 1981
The Crosby by-election, 1981 was a by-election held in England on 26 November 1981 to elect a new Member of Parliament for the House of Commons constituency of Crosby on Merseyside...
(which was won by the Social Democratic Party
Social Democratic Party (UK)
The Social Democratic Party was a political party in the United Kingdom that was created on 26 March 1981 and existed until 1988. It was founded by four senior Labour Party 'moderates', dubbed the 'Gang of Four': Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams...
's co-founder Shirley Williams). Dougrez-Lewis stood at the by-election as Tarquin Fin-tim-lin-bin-whin-bim-lim-bus-stop-F'tang-F'tang-Olé-Biscuitbarrel (a name taken from the aforementioned Monty Python sketch), having changed his name by deed poll
Deed of Change of Name
A deed of change of name is a legal document in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, which enables a single person or a family to officially change his or her name...
from the somewhat plainer John Desmond Lewis, on the behalf of the Cambridge University
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
Raving Loony Society (CURLS). CURLS were an "anti-political party" and charity fundraising group formed largely to be a fun counter-response to increasingly polarised student politics on campus. They were responsible for a number of fun stunts (their Oxford University equivalents were the “Oxford Raving Lunatics”). Dougrez-Lewis became Sutch's agent at the notorious Bermondsey by-election of 1983
Bermondsey by-election, 1983
A by-election was held in the Bermondsey constituency in South London, on 24 February 1983, following the resignation of Labour MP Robert Mellish, who had represented the constituency and its predecessors in the House of Commons since 1946...
, where the OMRLP banner was first officially unfurled. Reverting to his original name, Dougrez-Lewis stood for the new party in Cambridge in the 1983 general election.
The second person who helped found the party was Commander Bill Boaks
Bill Boaks
Lieutenant Commander William George Boaks DSC was a British Royal Navy officer who became an eccentric political campaigner for road safety. He died at the age of 81 as a result of a road traffic accident...
, a retired World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
hero involved in the sinking of the Bismarck
German battleship Bismarck
Bismarck was the first of two s built for the German Kriegsmarine during World War II. Named after Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, the primary force behind the German unification in 1871, the ship was laid down at the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg in July 1936 and launched nearly three years later...
. He had campaigned and stood for election for over thirty years on limited funds, always on the issue of road safety. Boaks proved influential on Sutch's direction as the leading anti-politician: "it's the ones who don't vote you really want, because they're the ones who think".
Boaks foresaw the problems that increased traffic and more roads would cause the country, and addressed road safety issues with flamboyant campaigning and a variety of tactics, including private prosecution
Private prosecution
A private prosecution is a criminal proceeding initiated by an individual or private organisation instead of by a public prosecutor who represents the state...
of public figures who escaped public prosecution for drink-driving. He successfully campaigned together with Sutch and others to pedestrianise London's Carnaby Street. While recovering from being knocked down by a motorcycle, Boaks also acted as one of Sutch's counting agents at Bermondsey
Bermondsey
Bermondsey is an area in London on the south bank of the river Thames, and is part of the London Borough of Southwark. To the west lies Southwark, to the east Rotherhithe, and to the south, Walworth and Peckham.-Toponomy:...
in 1983. Plans for him to be part of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party roster for the 1983 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1983
The 1983 United Kingdom general election was held on 9 June 1983. It gave the Conservative Party under Margaret Thatcher the most decisive election victory since that of Labour in 1945...
, standing in Sutch's and Boaks's own home constituency of Streatham
Streatham (UK Parliament constituency)
Streatham is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.-Boundaries:...
, were mooted at Bermondsey and never came to pass, probably due to his increasing infirmity. By the time his predictions of unnecessary child deaths, pollution and congestion
Traffic congestion
Traffic congestion is a condition on road networks that occurs as use increases, and is characterized by slower speeds, longer trip times, and increased vehicular queueing. The most common example is the physical use of roads by vehicles. When traffic demand is great enough that the interaction...
were proved correct, he was dead, having succumbed to head injuries sustained upon alighting from a bus two years before.
Electoral performance
In 1987, the OMRLP won its first seat on Ashburton Town Council in DevonDevon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
, as Alan "Howling Laud" Hope
Howling Laud Hope
Alan "Howling Laud" Hope is the Leader of the United Kingdom's Official Monster Raving Loony Party . In 1999, following the death of the party's founder, Screaming Lord Sutch, Hope and his pet cat, Cat Mandu, were jointly elected as leaders of the OMRLP...
was elected unopposed. He subsequently became Deputy Mayor and later Mayor of Ashburton in 1998 (mainly opposed by the local Conservatives; they never forgave him for becoming a member of the OMRLP) until he moved to Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
after Sutch's death. For over a decade, his hotel "The Golden Lion" in Ashburton (referred to by some in the party as "The Mucky Mog" for reasons apparent to anyone visiting it for the first time) was the party's headquarters and conference centre.
The first Raving Loony to win as a result of a straight vote rather than an uncontested election was Stuart Hughes
Stuart Hughes (politician)
Stuart Hughes is an English politician representing voters at all three levels of local government in Devon, in the West of England. He represents Sidford as a councillor on East Devon District Council and on Devon County Council, where he is currently Cabinet member for Highways and Transportation...
, taking the "safe" Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
seat of Sidmouth
Sidmouth
Sidmouth is a small town on the English Channel coast in Devon, South West England. The town lies at the mouth of the River Sid in the East Devon district, south east of Exeter. It has a population of about 15,000, of whom 40% are over 65....
Woolbrook on East Devon
East Devon
East Devon is a local government district in Devon, England. Its council is based in Sidmouth, and the largest town is Exmouth.The district was formed on 1 April 1974 by the merger of the borough of Honiton with the urban districts of Budleigh Salterton, Exmouth, Ottery St. Mary, Seaton, Sidmouth...
District Council in May 1991. He then took a seat on Sidmouth Town Council from the Conservatives the following day. His success was met with hostility from the local Tories. Hughes' reaction was to attempt to make their lives a misery for the next three years by refusing to pay his Community Charge (also known as the Poll Tax
Poll tax
A poll tax is a tax of a portioned, fixed amount per individual in accordance with the census . When a corvée is commuted for cash payment, in effect it becomes a poll tax...
), then dumping scrap metal in the middle of the council chambers to the value of his unpaid tax when threatened with legal action. He also formed an alliance known as "The Coastals" (because of the seats they held) of Independents and the sole Green Party
Green Party of England and Wales
The Green Party of England and Wales is a political party in England and Wales which follows the traditions of Green politics and maintains a strong commitment to social progressivism. It is the largest Green party in the United Kingdom, containing within it various regional divisions including...
councillor, giving East Devon's ruling Conservatives the first true opposition they had faced for decades (the local Liberal Democrat and Labour Parties being negligible).
Hughes retained his seats with increased majorities in subsequent elections, and the final humiliation for the Conservatives came when he took the Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
County Council seat from the local party's Chief Whip
Chief Whip
The Chief Whip is a political office in some legislatures assigned to an elected member whose task is to administer the whipping system that ensures that members of the party attend and vote as the party leadership desires.-The Whips Office:...
in the council. Hughes remains a member of all three councils to this day although he now does his politicising— ironically—as a Conservative.
The better organisation of the Raving Loony Green Giant Party
Raving Loony Green Giant Party
The Raving Loony Green Giant Party was a political party in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1989 by former members of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party after clashes between them and other members of the party over direction and party activities - in particular with regard to how the...
(RLGGP), and its success at the polls, proved a wake up call to the OMRLP. At one stage in England during the early 1990s, there were sixteen councillors elected despite having the phrase "Raving Loony" accredited to them. In Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, Mark Boyle won a seat on Johnstone Community Council as a joint Official Monster Raving Loony Party and Raving Loony Green Giant Party candidate because he disagreed with the split. (Hughes and Sutch thought having a joint councillor for two warring factions hilarious, Hope less so.) To date, two councillors have subsequently become mayors: Alan Hope in Ashburton, Devon and Chris "Screwy" Driver
Chris Driver
Christopher Driver is a town councillor and member of the Rock 'n' Roll Loony Party. He held the position of Mayor of Queenborough on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent during the municipal year 2002/03. When not campaigning, he is a musician, entertainer and vocalist with the rock/blues band called...
on the Isle of Sheppey
Isle of Sheppey
The Isle of Sheppey is an island off the northern coast of Kent, England in the Thames Estuary, some to the east of London. It has an area of . The island forms part of the local government district of Swale...
in Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
.
At the Bootle by-election in May 1990, the Loony candidate (Sutch) received more votes than the candidate for the continuing Social Democrats
Social Democratic Party (UK, 1988)
A Social Democratic Party was formed in the United Kingdom in 1981 by a group of dissident Labour Party Members of Parliament : Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams, who became known as the "Gang of Four"....
. The OMRLP newsletter for June 1990 released by Alan Hope said "What is going on?" and Sutch himself appeared utterly shocked when interviewed by the BBC after the result was announced.
The story was a major headline in many UK newspapers; ironically, the by-election itself had attracted little coverage. The little media attention there was focused on a bizarre row between Labour and the Raving Loonies. Relations between Labour members and Raving Loonies had never been good, but they reached a new low when the Labour agent tried to have Sutch arrested for breaking an old electoral law forbidding the use of a public house
Public house
A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...
as an election campaign headquarters. This law had been repealed in 1987. The tabloid newspapers then referred to "Kinnock
Neil Kinnock
Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock is a Welsh politician belonging to the Labour Party. He served as a Member of Parliament from 1970 until 1995 and as Labour Leader and Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition from 1983 until 1992 - his leadership of the party during nearly nine years making him...
's Killjoys" for the remainder of the campaign's duration.
The result was the last straw for the continuing Social Democrats (centred around former Labour Foreign Secretary and Social Democratic leader David Owen
David Owen
David Anthony Llewellyn Owen, Baron Owen CH PC FRCP is a British politician.Owen served as British Foreign Secretary from 1977 to 1979, the youngest person in over forty years to hold the post; he co-authored the failed Vance-Owen and Owen-Stoltenberg peace plans offered during the Bosnian War...
) who had refused to accept the merger of the SDP with the Liberals
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
to form the Liberal Democrats. Rubbing salt in their wounds, Sutch offered in jest to form a coalition with them, but they instead disbanded, though in a repeat of the events of 1988 once again a week later some members voted to carry on. Almost a year after Bootle, the supposedly dead SDP finished fourth at Neath
Neath
Neath is a town and community situated in the principal area of Neath Port Talbot, Wales, UK with a population of approximately 45,898 in 2001...
, beating the OMRLP to 5th place in the process, and survive to this day (for the history of the post-Owen SDP, see the continuing Social Democratic Party
Social Democratic Party (UK, 1990)
The Social Democratic Party is a small political party in the United Kingdom. It traces its origin to the Social Democratic Party that was formed in 1981 by a group of dissident Labour Party politicians, all Members of Parliament or former MPs: Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Bill Rodgers and Shirley...
).
Although there have been far more prestigious Loony results before and after (particularly Monmouth), Bootle is still regarded by Raving Loonies as their finest hour, the watershed moment when they had to be treated as a serious political party, albeit one largely lampooning the political world.
Sutch also defeated a joint Plaid Cymru
Plaid Cymru
' is a political party in Wales. It advocates the establishment of an independent Welsh state within the European Union. was formed in 1925 and won its first seat in 1966...
/Green Party
Green Party of England and Wales
The Green Party of England and Wales is a political party in England and Wales which follows the traditions of Green politics and maintains a strong commitment to social progressivism. It is the largest Green party in the United Kingdom, containing within it various regional divisions including...
candidate at the bitter Monmouth
Monmouth (UK Parliament constituency)
Monmouth is a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom . It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post of election...
1991 by-election
Monmouth by-election, 1991
The Monmouth by-election, 1991 was a by-election held for the British House of Commons constituency of Monmouth in Wales on 16 May 1991. It was won by the Labour Party candidate Huw Edwards.- Vacancy :...
and almost beat the ruling Conservative Party's candidate at the Islwyn
Islwyn (UK Parliament constituency)
Islwyn is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.This area, historically known for coal-mining, is a safe Labour Party seat latterly held by the former Leader of the Opposition Neil Kinnock...
1995 by-election
Islwyn by-election, 1995
A by-election was held in the Welsh parliamentary constituency of Islwyn on 16 February 1995 following the resignation of Neil Kinnock who was appointed as a European Commissioner....
later on—but by this time the OMRLP were organised enough to make coming in fourth the norm in by-elections in England and Wales.
The credit for this must lie with John Tempest, a former Liberal/Liberal Democrat press officer and election agent (and co-founder of the award winning Bradford Soup Run charity for the homeless). Together with friend and OMRLP activist Willi Beckett (one of the founders of the anarchist One-In-Twelve Club in Bradford
Bradford
Bradford lies at the heart of the City of Bradford, a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, in Northern England. It is situated in the foothills of the Pennines, west of Leeds, and northwest of Wakefield. Bradford became a municipal borough in 1847, and received its charter as a city in 1897...
), they transformed the way the party fought elections. From the outset they were determined to make the OMRLP reap the rewards of being the unofficial "protest vote party" of the UK: now posters, car stickers, and a never-ending series of headline-grabbing stunts not only made it easier for the party to gain publicity, but also ensured they were treated fairly by the media (three by-election TV shows were cancelled when the OMRLP used the law to stop them having candidate debates that barred the Loony candidate). The party even managed to attract some corporate sponsorship from the makers of "Monster Munch" crisps & "Spillers" dogfood, albeit to lampoon the manner in which Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
under Blair in particular had become big business puppets.
Tempest and Beckett suffered the same problems from the "Fun-da-Mental-ist" faction, but by then new people had entered the party such as future Chairman Peter 'T.C.' Owen, to whom beating the other parties was what it was all about and who saw nothing funny about coming last with a handful of votes. Also Tempest was known – ironically – as one not to suffer fools gladly (there were a number of clashes between him and Hope). It was no coincidence that during the era of Tempest and Beckett, other well known "alternative" parties such as the Greens, National Front
British National Front
The National Front is a far right, white-only political party whose major political activities took place during the 1970s and 1980s. Its popularity peaked in the 1979 general election, when it received 191,719 votes ....
, British National Party
British National Party
The British National Party is a British far-right political party formed as a splinter group from the National Front by John Tyndall in 1982...
, and the UK Independence Party
United Kingdom Independence Party
The United Kingdom Independence Party is a eurosceptic and right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. Whilst its primary goal is the UK's withdrawal from the European Union, the party has expanded beyond its single-issue image to develop a more comprehensive party platform.UKIP...
often withdrew their candidates from seats after an OMRLP member had announced their candidature because of the damage to party morale from finishing with fewer votes than a "Raving Loony".
Beckett was forced to drop out of Loony activities due to ill health, prompting Tempest to end his association with the OMRLP, thanks to work & Soup Run commitments—along with being fed up with the lack of gratitude and backbiting from the "Fun-da-Mental-ist" faction that were happy enough to ask for his help to get them out of a number of scrapes—including a nasty election feud in Holmfirth between Melodie Staniforth and Mike Madden of the rival RLGGP faction during the mid 1990s (Madden eventually quit standing in elections).
Sutch's death, and its aftermath
Screaming Lord Sutch, suffering from clinical depressionClinical depression
Major depressive disorder is a mental disorder characterized by an all-encompassing low mood accompanied by low self-esteem, and by loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities...
after the death of his mother, Annie, in 1998, committed suicide on 16 June 1999.
Sutch's death drew tributes from right across the political spectrum. There were also however some not-so-complimentary comments, the worst coming from Roseanna Cunningham
Roseanna Cunningham
Roseanna Cunningham is the Scottish Government's Minister for Community Safety and Legal Affairs and Scottish National Party Member of the Scottish Parliament for Perthshire South and Kinross-shire, having previously represented Perth.-Early life:Raised in Australia, she returned to Scotland and...
, at the time MP for Perth
Perth, Scotland
Perth is a town and former city and royal burgh in central Scotland. Located on the banks of the River Tay, it is the administrative centre of Perth and Kinross council area and the historic county town of Perthshire...
and a columnist for the Scottish Sunday Mail
Sunday Mail (Scotland)
The Sunday Mail is a Scottish tabloid newspaper published every Sunday. It is the sister paper of the Daily Record and is owned by Trinity Mirror and as such has a left-wing outlook which in turn tends to guide Scottish political debate in that direction.The Sunday Mail is read by over one million...
. Cunningham claimed newspapers were more interested in the death of someone she felt had contributed nothing to politics nor society whilst 'ignoring' the death that same week of Cardinal Basil Hume (in fact most had given long obituaries to Hume) who she felt had done more (she did not name any specific achievements). Cunningham had previously been upstaged by the OMRLP on the night of her victory at the ill-tempered Perth & Kinross by-election
Perth and Kinross by-election, 1995
A by-election for the UK Parliament constituency of Perth and Kinross in Scotland was held on 25 May 1995, following the death of Conservative MP Sir Nicholas Fairbairn on 19 February of that year....
due to the death of Sir Nicholas Fairbairn. A foul-up between SNP spin doctors inside and outside Perth City Hall and the BBC led to expectant nationalist supporters gathered outside cheering Sutch, Boyle and Beckett for five minutes instead when they stumbled out of Perth City Hall first; leaving Cunningham trapped inside whilst the OMRLP (and one defecting Scottish Liberal Democrat) conducted the crowd in choral renditions of both "Spot the Loony" and "Let's All Laugh At Labour" (Labour had spent a fortune in vain on trying to win the seat for Peter Mandelson
Peter Mandelson
Peter Benjamin Mandelson, Baron Mandelson, PC is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Hartlepool from 1992 to 2004, served in a number of Cabinet positions under both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, and was a European Commissioner...
's then aide Douglas Alexander
Douglas Alexander
Douglas Garven Alexander is a British Labour Party politician, who is currently the Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs in the shadow cabinet of Ed Miliband. He has held cabinet posts under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, including Secretary of State for Scotland and...
).
Sutch's funeral, organised by Tempest, was attended by members of the OMRLP and RLGGP, including Hughes, who with Freddie Zapp brought along a huge floral tribute shaped as an OMRLP rosette; they provided a more dignified entourage than Sutch's own relatives and romantic partners, who fought with one another at the graveside. The running of the OMRLP fell to Alan "Howling Laud" Hope
Howling Laud Hope
Alan "Howling Laud" Hope is the Leader of the United Kingdom's Official Monster Raving Loony Party . In 1999, following the death of the party's founder, Screaming Lord Sutch, Hope and his pet cat, Cat Mandu, were jointly elected as leaders of the OMRLP...
and his late cat, Cat Mandu
Cat Mandu
Cat Mandu was a ginger tabby cat who served as the joint-leader of Britain's Official Monster Raving Loony Party from 1999–2002, along with his owner, Howling Laud Hope.-Political career:...
(killed 2002), who were the joint winners of the 1999 membership ballot for the replacement for Sutch.
The OMRLP fielded 15 candidates in the 2001 General Election
United Kingdom general election, 2001
The United Kingdom general election, 2001 was held on Thursday 7 June 2001 to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. It was dubbed "the quiet landslide" by the media, as the Labour Party was re-elected with another landslide result and only suffered a net loss of 6 seats...
, where they actually ran up their best General Election results to date.
Recent history
A biography of Sutch, "The Man Who Was Screaming Lord Sutch" (by Graham Sharpe, the Media Relations Manager for bookmakers William Hill) was released in April 2005, but its description of what remains of the party as "wannabes, never-would-bes and some bloody-well-shouldn't bes" was hardly what the party needed in the middle of a General Election campaign, though it is debatable just how much an effect this had on the party’s fortunes at the General Election. (They did gain an impressive article in the financial section of The TimesThe Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
days before the vote itself).
The manifesto, entitled "The Manicfesto", for the 2005 General Election
United Kingdom general election, 2005
The United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect 646 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but with a majority of 66, reduced from 160....
featured the major commitment of their long held pledge to abolish income tax, citing as always that it was only meant to be a temporary measure during the Napoleonic Wars. This has been a Loony staple policy since the original manifesto was written by Sutch's agent Pauline Read in 1983. Also included was another old staple, the "Putting Parliament On Wheels" idea of having Parliament sit throughout the country rather than solely in London—with special emphasis this time in its creation negating the need for national/regional assemblies.
Overall the results were a disappointment for the OMRLP after their success in the previous general election showed there was life after Sutch; the only improvement was Alan Hope’s increase of the vote to over 500, but all other candidates saw marked reductions—including Owen, contesting the Wokingham seat for the first time, haemorrhaging over 300 votes to the BNP. "Top Cat" Owen is the only member of the current OMRLP line up ever to poll over 1000 votes (he polled 2,859 votes in the 1994 European elections), and his dip in fortunes despite a previously strong local following appears to have killed the last realistic chance the party ever had of seeing a saved deposit
Deposit (politics)
A deposit is a sum of money that a candidate must pay in return for the right to stand for election to certain political offices, particularly seats in legislatures.-United Kingdom:...
.
The party also suffered from an ill-needed row over its York branch, which led to there being no "official" City of York candidate and gave more credence to those that denounced the post-Sutch OMRLP as little more than a PR machine for pub-circuit entertainers rather than a political party. Graham Cambridge, otherwise known as Eddie Vee, the Elvis-impersonating previous candidate, wished to stand again, but the branch honorary secretary John E Morris and the branch treasurer, Gareth Sheehan (also known as "Spydaz") elected to have the famous alternative artist Andy "Milladdio" Hinkles as the candidate and asked Vee to stand elsewhere.
Morris and Spydaz were well known enough in York, Morris as a Green Party activist, whilst Spydaz was known as York's "super-squatter", an activist of the York Peace Collective that led a series of highly publicised squats during 2003 and 2004 to highlight neglected "listed" buildings (their antics included the holding of Art exhibitions within such abandoned properties).
The response however from OMRLP headquarters was for Deputy Leader Boney Maroney to promptly expel Morris and Spydaz from the party. In York's "Evening Press" newspaper of 12 April 2005, Maroney claimed it was "for selling loony merchandise against Electoral Commission rules": to be precise the OMRLP's Financial Scheme as registered with the Electoral Commission, which meant any Branch of the OMRLP taking money on the party's behalf would be breaching the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 Part 2. As such, the York Branch's alleged selling of merchandise provided a pretext to expel the entire branch—bar Vee—and declare Vee to be the "approved" York candidate.
Vee then failed to raise the £500 deposit to stand, but the expelled York Branch members had the deposit for Hinkles—now standing as a York Integrity Party (although the ballot paper simply reads "Independent Hinkles") — submitted within days of the Notice of Election being posted.
Morris, Hinkles and Spydaz offered an olive branch to party HQ, but with no response, and with the Socialist Alliance and the Green Party contesting the seat, any hopes the Hinkles candidature may have had of attracting the "alternative" vote from his association with Spydaz were dashed—he barely took 100 votes.
There were however two crumbs of comfort. For the third election in a row, the OMRLP found its candidates being debarred from the Hansard Society
Hansard Society
The Hansard Society was formed in 1944 to promote parliamentary democracy. Founded and chaired by Commander Stephen King-Hall, the first subscribers were Winston Churchill and Clement Attlee...
/BBC TV "Newsround
Newsround
Newsround is a BBC children's news programme, which has run continuously since 4 April 1972, and was one of the world's first television news magazines aimed specifically at children...
" School Mock Elections running in tandem with the General Election (the same fate befell the BNP), and the party advised pupils to get voters to spoil their ballot papers in protest or simply write "OMRLP" on the ballot papers in schools that refused to back down. In the event, 102 Raving Loony school candidates stood, winning in 21 of these, and taking enough votes in two parliamentary constituencies to be declared to have 'won' the seat—the two being Bristol East (the former seat of Tony Benn
Tony Benn
Anthony Neil Wedgwood "Tony" Benn, PC is a British Labour Party politician and a former MP and Cabinet Minister.His successful campaign to renounce his hereditary peerage was instrumental in the creation of the Peerage Act 1963...
) and the hard-line Tory constituency of Chesham & Amersham, neither of which have any history of active Raving Loonyism before.
The OMRLP's official headquarters was originally the (now gone) "Golden Lion Hotel" in Ashburton
Ashburton, Devon
Ashburton is a small town on the edge of Dartmoor in Devon, adjacent to the A38 Devon Expressway.It was formerly important as a stannary town , and remains the largest town within the National Park, with a population of around 3,500...
, then the "Dog & Partridge" pub at Yateley
Yateley
Yateley is a suburban town and civil parish in the English county of Hampshire. It lies in the north-eastern corner of Hart District Council. It includes the settlements of Frogmore and Darby Green. It had a population of 21,011 according to the 2001 census...
in Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
, but this was lost shortly after the 2005 General Election. Conference venues are now chosen in advance—the 2006 conference was held at Torrington in Devon, and the 2007 conference was held in Jersey.
Although Alan Hope took over as Party Leader after Sutch's death, the real day-to-day running of the party has always been done by other party members. Even on the council election circuit, its vote, funds — and public interest — appear to be in terminal decline, facing a tighter squeeze for the "protest vote" from other minor UK parties with more members, money, and organisation.
The party fell foul over its funding on 26 September 2005 when the Electoral Commission forced them to return a donation of £350 sent by a supporter from the Crown Dependency of the Isle of Man
Isle of Man
The Isle of Man , otherwise known simply as Mann , is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is...
.
The party's last elected representative was R. U. Seerius (formerly Jon Brewer) on the 11 member Sawley Parish Council in South Derbyshire, first elected (uncontested) in 2005. He was no longer a member as of May 2007, having failed to appear in no less than 11 statutory meetings during his time in office, due to illness.
The party contested both the Bromley and Chislehurst
Bromley and Chislehurst by-election, 2006
A by-election was held in the UK parliament constituency of Bromley and Chislehurst in London, following the death of Conservative Member of Parliament Eric Forth on 17 May 2006. The writ for the electing of a new member was issued on 6 June for a polling day of 29 June 2006, the same day as the...
and the Blaenau Gwent
Blaenau Gwent by-elections, 2006
Two by-elections were held for the constituency of Blaenau Gwent in Wales following the death of Member of Parliament and Assembly Member Peter Law on 25 April 2006. As Law was the MP and Assembly Member , his death required by-elections in both the parliamentary seat and the equivalent Welsh...
Parliamentary by-elections on 29 June 2006; and with it a degree of their previous by-election lustre—a matter perhaps the result of the return of Willi Beckett to frontline OMRLP activities; tragically in October 2006 he was diagnosed as terminally ill with cancer, and he died on Friday 2 March 2007, less than a day after setting up his own MySpace website. His ashes were later used to make his farewell vinyl single.
In March 2007, Melodie "Boney Maroney" Staniforth, the Deputy Leader resigned from the party, though she stood in the April 2007 Kirklees council elections as an OMRLP candidate. The party's webmaster, Stuart "Parish Poisoner" Estell did likewise. According to her 29 March 2007 interview with the "Huddersfield Examiner" newspaper, she was doing the party's books, merchandising & electoral law work with little help, and had grown fed up with the lack of leadership accountability. Asking Hope to become Party President whilst she would become official Party Leader, Hope refused, saying he was leader until death.
Ironically, she had been the most vociferous critic of the Raving Loony Green Giant and Rock'n'Roll Loony factions that had left the OMRLP for largely the same reasons, and of John Tempest's more organised approach to elections and funding. She has since stood as a candidate for the Blah! Party
The Blah! Party
The Blah! Party is a British protest group, formerly a minor political party aimed at attracting protest votes. It was founded in September 2006 by punk rocker Raymond 'Captain Sensible' Burns....
.
Hope retaliated with a press release stating – with little appreciation of the irony – that "although the sudden resignation of a main party member was a shock the Loony party is not just one person and will continue regardless." and that "the party will never again be reliant on one person".
The post-Staniforth OMRLP succeeded in standing in the two by-elections of 19 July 2007 in Sedgefield and Ealing Southall, but again achieving derisory results: Alan Hope acquiring 129 votes (0.46%) and John Cartwright taking 188 (0.51%), beating the English Democrats but coming behind even the so-called Christian Party of the Reverend George Hargreaves
George Hargreaves (politician)
James George Hargreaves , known as George Hargreaves or J. G. Hargreaves, is a religious minister, political campaigner, leader of the Christian Party , and former music producer and songwriter.-Early life:...
and David Braid.
In recognition that reforms were needed, Peter 'T.C.' Owen was moved from the honorary position of Party Chairman to that of Deputy Leader (& thus effective day-to-day leader) of the OMRLP, whilst Anthony "The Jersey Flyer" Blyth (owner of the Ommaroo and a member of the Jersey Heritage Trust) took over Owen’s role. A self styled pragmatist
Pragmatism
Pragmatism is a philosophical tradition centered on the linking of practice and theory. It describes a process where theory is extracted from practice, and applied back to practice to form what is called intelligent practice...
, Owen comes from the side of the OMRLP that always took the fighting of elections seriously and is one of four Raving Loonies to have scored over 1000 votes in an election.
Nick "The Flying Brick" Delves was the candidate at the Crewe and Nantwich by-election, 2008
Crewe and Nantwich by-election, 2008
The Crewe and Nantwich by-election, 2008 was a parliamentary by-election held on 22 May 2008, for the British House of Commons constituency of Crewe and Nantwich, in Cheshire, England...
on 22 May 2008. He is the party's current treasurer and has contested several General elections and council elections for the OMRLP. Delves finished 7th out of 10 candidates with 236 votes (0.57%), coming behind the Green Party of England and Wales
Green Party of England and Wales
The Green Party of England and Wales is a political party in England and Wales which follows the traditions of Green politics and maintains a strong commitment to social progressivism. It is the largest Green party in the United Kingdom, containing within it various regional divisions including...
, United Kingdom Independence Party
United Kingdom Independence Party
The United Kingdom Independence Party is a eurosceptic and right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. Whilst its primary goal is the UK's withdrawal from the European Union, the party has expanded beyond its single-issue image to develop a more comprehensive party platform.UKIP...
(who stood MEP Mike Nattrass
Mike Nattrass
Mike Nattrass is an English politician and Member of the European Parliament, representing the West Midlands constituency for the UK Independence Party , elected for the first time in June 2004 and re-elected in June 2009....
as their candidate) and even the English Democrats. At the announcement of the result, the candidates were made to stand with the returning officer on the right side of the stage, whilst their agents stood some distance away on the left. However, chairman Alan Hope and Nick Delves swapped places so that Hope would be televised being the first to shake the victorious Conservative candidate's hand.
2010 William Hill branding
For the 2010 General Election, the OMRLP used the description Monster Raving Loony William HillWilliam Hill (bookmaker)
William Hill plc is one of the largest bookmakers in the United Kingdom. Its headquarters is in the north London suburb of Wood Green and in Leeds, West Yorkshire. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.-History:...
Party, which was met with criticism by some members, with John Cartwright
John Cartwright
John Cartwright may refer to:* Major John Cartwright , supporter of American independence and British political reform* John Robert Cartwright , Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada...
, Loony candidate in Croydon public stating "I am not and will not be a mercenary, or an advert, for a commercial company during the course of the election campaign"
Divisions
Just like any other party, the OMRLP has long suffered from splits over policy; here, the policy differences are regarding just how silly it should be. Many believed that the splits were flimsy attempts at poking fun at the series of splits going on in British politics during the late 1980s—at the VauxhallVauxhall (UK Parliament constituency)
-Elections in the 1980s:-Elections in the 1970s:-Elections in the 1960s:-Notes and references:...
by-election
Vauxhall by-election, 1989
A by-election for the United Kingdom House of Commons was held in the constituency of Vauxhall on the 15th June 1989, following the resignation of sitting Member of Parliament Stuart Holland....
there were two Green candidates, a candidate from the Green Party
Green Party of England and Wales
The Green Party of England and Wales is a political party in England and Wales which follows the traditions of Green politics and maintains a strong commitment to social progressivism. It is the largest Green party in the United Kingdom, containing within it various regional divisions including...
but also another candidate from an organisation calling themselves "The Greens" and two National Front
British National Front
The National Front is a far right, white-only political party whose major political activities took place during the 1970s and 1980s. Its popularity peaked in the 1979 general election, when it received 191,719 votes ....
candidates from their warring "Third Way
Official National Front
The Official National Front was one of two far-right groups to emerge in the United Kingdom in 1986 following a split within the National Front...
" and "Flag
Flag Group
The Flag Group was a British political party, formed from one of the two wings of the National Front in the 1980s. Formed in opposition to the Political Soldier wing of the Official National Front it took its name from The Flag, a newspaper the followers of this faction formed after leaving and...
" factions, whilst at the same time feuding continued between the Social and Liberal Democrats
Liberal Democrats
The Liberal Democrats are a social liberal political party in the United Kingdom which supports constitutional and electoral reform, progressive taxation, wealth taxation, human rights laws, cultural liberalism, banking reform and civil liberties .The party was formed in 1988 by a merger of the...
and Social Democratic Party
Social Democratic Party (UK, 1988)
A Social Democratic Party was formed in the United Kingdom in 1981 by a group of dissident Labour Party Members of Parliament : Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams, who became known as the "Gang of Four"....
candidates, both products of a merger — but the splits were serious, despite Peter "Top Cat" Owen's blithe dismissal to journalists that "the only splits I'm interested in are the ones with bananas in them" (which led to his adoption of an inflatable banana when on the campaign trail. Owen's election leaflets are also noted for stressing his political philosophy as a "pragmatist").
Some members believe that OMRLP activities are purely for fun (and an ego trip or publicity for their entertainment business), while others see the party in the same vein as Private Eye magazine or programmes such as That Was The Week That Was
That Was The Week That Was
That Was The Week That Was, also known as TW3, is a satirical television comedy programme that was shown on BBC Television in 1962 and 1963. It was devised, produced and directed by Ned Sherrin and presented by David Frost...
or Spitting Image
Spitting Image
Spitting Image is a British satirical puppet show that aired on the ITV network from 1984 to 1996. It was produced by Spitting Image Productions for Central Television. The series was nominated for 10 BAFTA Awards, winning one for editing in 1989....
, using satire to make serious points on issues of the day. Tensions have often resulted because the more serious types in the OMRLP have managed to do what most observers considered impossible—actually achieve a creditable number of votes—tending to put the noses of the "Fun-Da-Mental-ists" out of joint.
There were also objections in some quarters to the continued presence of alleged brothel
Brothel
Brothels are business establishments where patrons can engage in sexual activities with prostitutes. Brothels are known under a variety of names, including bordello, cathouse, knocking shop, whorehouse, strumpet house, sporting house, house of ill repute, house of prostitution, and bawdy house...
keeper and minor celebrity Cynthia Payne
Cynthia Payne
Cynthia Payne is a retired English party hostess who made the headlines in the 1970s and 1980s when she was accused of being a madam and of running her brothel at 32 Ambleside Avenue, in Streatham, in the south-west of London, England.Payne first came to national attention in 1978 when police...
—a friend of Sutch—who was at the front of many party photo opportunities but continued to stand instead as a member of the rival Rainbow Alliance party (aka Captain Rainbow's Universal Abolish Parliament Party) of George Weiss
Rainbow George Weiss
Rainbow George Weiss son of a diamond merchant, is a fringe UK politician who stood in 13 constituencies at the 2005 General Election....
(a friend of Ian Dury
Ian Dury
Ian Robins Dury was an English rock and roll singer, lyricist, bandleader and actor who initially rose to fame during the late 1970s, during the punk and New Wave era of rock music...
and Peter Cook
Peter Cook
Peter Edward Cook was an English satirist, writer and comedian. An extremely influential figure in modern British comedy, he is regarded as the leading light of the British satire boom of the 1960s. He has been described by Stephen Fry as "the funniest man who ever drew breath," although Cook's...
). The controversy heightened after Weiss was convicted of heroin possession (the News of the World
News of the World
The News of the World was a national red top newspaper published in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the biggest selling English language newspaper in the world, and at closure still had one of the highest English language circulations...
settled a damages claim by the OMRLP, for saying Weiss was a member, out of court).
Owing to ill health, Lord Sutch became less involved with the party and his last campaign was in Winchester after a by-election was called when the main election was undecided due to a count difference of just two votes between the Conservative and Liberal Democrat candidates. Assisted by his Campaign Manager and Election Agent, Peter 'Uncle Belly' Byford, the party gained 316 votes.
Splits
In 1989, Stuart HughesStuart Hughes (politician)
Stuart Hughes is an English politician representing voters at all three levels of local government in Devon, in the West of England. He represents Sidford as a councillor on East Devon District Council and on Devon County Council, where he is currently Cabinet member for Highways and Transportation...
, along with Danny Bamford (later Danny Blue), Roly Gillard, Melvyn Hartshorne, inventor Mike Madden and tree surgeon Stuart Greenwood formed the breakaway Raving Loony Green Giant Party
Raving Loony Green Giant Party
The Raving Loony Green Giant Party was a political party in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1989 by former members of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party after clashes between them and other members of the party over direction and party activities - in particular with regard to how the...
(RLGGP), mainly due to personality clashes with OMRLP Chairman Alan Hope and other "Fun-da-Mental-ists"—the final straw being the latter (and Sutch's) behaviour during a sponsored walk to the Scilly Isles for the children's cancer charity, CLIC (now merged into CLIC Sargent
CLIC Sargent
CLIC Sargent is charity in the United Kingdom that was formed by the merger of Sargent Cancer Care for Children and Cancer and Leukaemia in Childhood in 2005. The charity specializes in providing support for children with cancer....
), where they only turned up at the start and finish for the media call whilst Hughes and others did the whole event.
The 2001 election was followed by a series of disastrous by-election results and a further split. Town Councillor Chris Driver
Chris Driver
Christopher Driver is a town councillor and member of the Rock 'n' Roll Loony Party. He held the position of Mayor of Queenborough on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent during the municipal year 2002/03. When not campaigning, he is a musician, entertainer and vocalist with the rock/blues band called...
formed the Rock 'n' Roll Loony Party
Rock 'n' Roll Loony Party
The Rock 'n' Roll Loony Party was a minor political party in the United Kingdom. It split from the Official Monster Raving Loony Party after the death of Screaming Lord Sutch. In elections to Swale Borough Council in 2003, one of its candidates polled more than a member of the Liberal Democrats...
with Mad Mike Young & others dissatisfied with Alan Hope's leadership, in a sad replay of the events surrounding the OMRLP/RLGGP split a decade earlier (interestingly Roly Gillard, who had rejoined the OMRLP upon the RLGGP's demise, also took part in this split).
This splinter however did not last anywhere near as long as the RLGGP, although in a replay of what happened to Stuart Hughes and the RLGGP, success at the ballot box ensured the failure of the new party. Chris Driver's election as Mayor of Queenborough
Queenborough
Queenborough is a small town on the Isle of Sheppey in the Swale borough of Kent in South East England.Queenborough is two miles south of Sheerness. It grew as a port near the Thames Estuary at the westward entrance to The Swale where it joins the River Medway...
Town Council for the municipal year 2002/2003 curtailed on its leader's time enough to ensure party activities effectively ground to a halt. By 2004, the RRLP was effectively dead, with most of its members having rejoined the OMRLP. (Gillard however dropped out of politics altogether in 2002 after his wife's suicide).
Membership
The statement of accounts for the period 1 January to 31 December 2008 outlines membership at 1,354, made of 173 paying members and 1,181 "lifetime but non-paying". It currently costs £9.99 per year for membership, although a £19.99 membership with included T-shirt is also offered.Non-Loonies who claimed to be
The party suffered from a number of individuals that claimed to be members—usually for their own reasons—down the years (leading in several instances to recourse to the Law), e.g. one Peter “The Mad Monk” Dixon in Cheshire stood as an "Official Monster Raving Loony Christian Party" candidate to promote his own religious views—he was promptly disowned by John Tempest in the press. Two cases in particular deserve mention.Sir Patrick Moore, the famous British TV amateur astronomer, claimed several times to be the party's Minister for Flying Saucers. In fact, Moore was not welcome at all within the party because of his past involvement as joint leader of the right-wing New Britain Party
New Britain Party
New Britain was a minor British right wing political party founded by Dennis Delderfield in 1976. The party was de-registered in November 2008.-Founding:...
. Moore has since proclaimed his allegiance to UKIP.
Hugh Reed and the Velvet Underpants
Hugh Reed and the Velvet Underpants
Hugh Reed and the Velvet Underpants were a cult Glasgow based band, who have supported Debbie Harry, Simple Minds, The Fall and John Otway.-Biography:...
, a band barely known outside of the Scottish University circuit, released the song "Vote Monster Raving Looney" in 1992. They were however nothing to do with the Official Monster Raving Loony Party (witness the different spelling of "Loony") and similarly disowned by a press statement from John Tempest. The band subsequently became involved in fund-raising activities for the ultra-nationalist Siol nan Gaidheal
Siol nan Gaidheal
-Name:The name, properly spelled Sìol nan Gàidheal is Scottish Gaelic for Seed of the Gaels. The term sìol has numerous meanings, most commonly translated as "breed, brood, lineage, progeny, seed"....
group (who had been expelled from the Scottish National Party
Scottish National Party
The Scottish National Party is a social-democratic political party in Scotland which campaigns for Scottish independence from the United Kingdom....
in 1982).
Policies and electoral strategy
The OMRLP are distinguished by having a deliberately bizarre manifestoManifesto
A manifesto is a public declaration of principles and intentions, often political in nature. Manifestos relating to religious belief are generally referred to as creeds. Manifestos may also be life stance-related.-Etymology:...
, which contains things that seem to be impossible or too absurd to implement – usually to highlight what they see as real-life absurdities.
Despite its satirical
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
nature, some of the things that have featured in Loony manifestos have become law, such as being able to vote at 18, "passports for pets
Pet passport
The Pet Travel Scheme is a system which allows animals to travel easily between member countries without undergoing quarantine. A Pet Passport is a document that officially records information related to a specific animal, as part of that procedure...
", and all-day pub openings. Similarly, the outcry following Alan Hope
Howling Laud Hope
Alan "Howling Laud" Hope is the Leader of the United Kingdom's Official Monster Raving Loony Party . In 1999, following the death of the party's founder, Screaming Lord Sutch, Hope and his pet cat, Cat Mandu, were jointly elected as leaders of the OMRLP...
's appearance on the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
's Nationwide current affairs programme after he was elected – during which he mentioned that butter and milk surpluses were being dumped down abandoned mine shafts under European Community rules to maintain prices (something the media of the day had failed to expose) – resulted in the distribution of such surpluses to the needy or charities instead.
The Loonies generally field as many candidates as possible in United Kingdom general elections
United Kingdom general elections
This is a list of United Kingdom general elections since the first in 1802. The members of the 1801–1802 Parliament had been elected to the former Parliament of Great Britain and Parliament of Ireland, before being co-opted to serve in the first Parliament of the United Kingdom, so that Parliament...
, some (but by no means all) standing under ridiculous names they have adopted via deed poll
Deed poll
A deed poll is a legal document binding only to a single person or several persons acting jointly to express an active intention...
. Sutch himself stood against all three main party leaders (John Major
John Major
Sir John Major, is a British Conservative politician, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990–1997...
, Neil Kinnock
Neil Kinnock
Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock is a Welsh politician belonging to the Labour Party. He served as a Member of Parliament from 1970 until 1995 and as Labour Leader and Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition from 1983 until 1992 - his leadership of the party during nearly nine years making him...
and Paddy Ashdown
Paddy Ashdown
Jeremy John Durham Ashdown, Baron Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon, GCMG, KBE, PC , usually known as Paddy Ashdown, is a British politician and diplomat....
) in the 1992 General Election
United Kingdom general election, 1992
The United Kingdom general election of 1992 was held on 9 April 1992, and was the fourth consecutive victory for the Conservative Party. This election result was one of the biggest surprises in 20th Century politics, as polling leading up to the day of the election showed Labour under leader Neil...
. Parliamentary candidates have to pay their own deposit (which currently stands at £500) and cover all of their expenses. No OMRLP candidate has managed to get the required 5% of the popular vote needed to retain his deposit, but this does not stop people standing. Sutch came closest with 4.1% and over a thousand votes at the Rotherham by-election
Rotherham by-election, 1994
The Rotherham by-election was held on 5 May 1994, following the death of Labour Party Member of Parliament for Rotherham Jimmy Boyce.Boyce had won the seat only at the 1992 general election, but it had been continuously held by Labour since 1933, usually with a large majority...
, whilst Stuart Hughes
Stuart Hughes (politician)
Stuart Hughes is an English politician representing voters at all three levels of local government in Devon, in the West of England. He represents Sidford as a councillor on East Devon District Council and on Devon County Council, where he is currently Cabinet member for Highways and Transportation...
still holds the record for the largest number of votes for a Loony candidate at a Parliamentary election, with 1,442 at the 1992 General Election
United Kingdom general election, 1992
The United Kingdom general election of 1992 was held on 9 April 1992, and was the fourth consecutive victory for the Conservative Party. This election result was one of the biggest surprises in 20th Century politics, as polling leading up to the day of the election showed Labour under leader Neil...
in the Honiton
Honiton (UK Parliament constituency)
Honiton was a parliamentary constituency centred on the town of Honiton in east Devon, formerly represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It sent members intermittently from 1300, consistently from 1640. It elected two Members of Parliament until it was...
seat in east Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
. The all time highest vote achieved was by comedian Danny Bamford aka Danny Blue, who secured 3,339 votes in the 1994 European Elections under the pseudonym of "John Major". Bamford had also acted as an election agent for Lindi St Clair's rival Corrective Party, and was a former close associate of Stuart Hughes.
In the run-up to the 2011 Alternative Vote referendum, the party adopted an equivocal stance, advising its supporters, on 8 April, to "vote as you see fit."
Cultural references
- The 2009 adventure gameAdventure gameAn adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving instead of physical challenge. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media such as literature and film,...
Time Gentlemen, Please!Time Gentlemen, Please! (video game)Time Gentlemen, Please! is a point-and-click adventure game developed by Zombie Cow Studios. It is the sequel to the freeware game Ben There, Dan That! and was commercially released on June 22, 2009. As with the first game, Time Gentlemen, Please! was created using the Adventure Game Studio...
displays an alternative reality where the OMRLP were voted in and handed Britain over to the United StatesUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, allowing it to become the 51st state51st stateThe 51st state, in United States political discourse, is a phrase that refers to areas either seriously or derisively considered candidates for addition to the 50 states already part of the United States. Before 1959, when Alaska and Hawaii joined the U.S., the term "the 49th state" was used...
.
External links
- Official website of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party
- OMRLP listing on Electoral Commission register of parties
- The Hinkles/Vee Row (continued) This is York
- Baron Von Thunderclap's 2005 election result
- Cambridge University Raving Loony Society
- R.U.Seerius
- John Cartwright – Croydon Branch OMRLP