This week's collection of whimsical and curious stories will continue last week's story about the Cambridge University Raving Loony Society (CURLS) and the silly anarchy it helped bring to British politics.
The Beginnings - In 1981, the newly funded CURLS started dipping its proverbial toes into politics. Its president, John Desmond Lewis, first changed his name into "Tarquin Fintim-Limbim-Whimbim-Lim Bus Stop-F'Tang-F'Tang-Olé-Biscuit-Barrel" (based on a Monty Python sketch) and then ran for a seat in parliament. Despite capturing a whopping 0.4% of the vote, he did not receive the satisfaction of having his full name read out when the results were called (the election official shortened it to „Mr Tarquin Biscuit-Barrel“).
Not discouraged by this episode, Mr. Biscuit-Barrel teamed up with David Sutch (also known as Screaming Lord Sutch, 3rd Earl of Harrow) and his Official Monster Raving Loony Party to contest the 1983 parliamentary election in Bermondsey/London. Despite additional support by the Hyppo Party and the All Night Party, they were again defeated by the supposedly less lunatic Conservatives. However, rather than discouraging copycats, independent joke candidates have been contesting elections on the rainy island until this day.
In 2021, 13 lunatics even ran for the same seat in the Kingston's Chessington South by-election (despite acknowledging that it is "it's going to be a squeeze getting all 13 of them into one seat!"). Amongst the candidates were the alliterative: Captain Coily, Casual Count of Corinthian, Colonel Cramps, Duke Diddy Dodd, Kingstonian Newt, and the Rev. Robbie the Radical Recyclist (Link).
Screaming Lord Sutch from the Official Monster Raving Loony Party
Not just jokes - Since the first days of the raving lunatics in politics, some have gone on to combine the silly and the serious highlighting real issues. For example, the 2017 manifesto of the Monster Raving Loony Party included (amongst others):
Public Transportation: Renaming London's Oyster travel cards into "Sardine Cards" to better reflect the experience when riding the subway
Defense: Replacing the trident nuclear missiles with a three-pronged fork
Austerity: Cutting the letters N, H, and S (short for Britain's National Health Service) from the Alphabet to reflect recent cuts to healthcare spending
On stage with Prime Ministers - British comedian John Harvey once noted that each election served as a truly humbling experience for the country's most powerful politicians. Not only do they have to face the opinions of their constituents at the ballot box but are also subsequently reduced to standing on a small stage in a sports center or town hall next to whoever else was bothered to run against them. And so it was in 2019, when Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (ostensibly not a joke candidate but Britain's current Prime Minister) following his election win had to take the stage next to Bobby Elmo Smith (a man dressed in a furry red Elmo costume), Count Binface (a man wearing a silver garbage can over his head and an improvised suit of armor), and the inter-galactic space Lord Buckethead (donning a tall bucket-shaped helmet and matching cape)**.
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*Headline from the Guardian, 1983 (Link)
** Running on a platform of “strong, not entirely stable, leadership”