The Official Monster Raving Loony Party

After a lot of inactivity due to this ‘Covid thingy’, we were glad to get back on the campaign trail again. We’ve had three by-elections in a short space of time. The ‘Incredible Flying Brick’ stood for Hartlepool. Chesham and Amersham was next but we missed out on that one. The ‘Writ’ was announced on the Monday, requiring the papers in by Thursday. Although close to me I didn’t have time to initiate the paper work. Never mind, next came Batley and Spen in Yorshire, just south of Leeds. I was certainly up for this. We had fantastic help from Sir Archibald Stanton, who stood for us in Dewsbury in the General election, the constituency next door. He obtained the ten nominations, and arranged accommodation for me. Great work! I would also like to thank Dave and Teresa Diskin of the Beer Street public house in Dewsbury for making me welcome, and their customers for treating me as a local, we had a good few laughs. Nick the Brick was my official agent, his job was made much easier by Sir Archie’s efficacy.
Batley has a Wetherspoon, ‘The Union Rooms’ and with the kind permission of Tim Martin, I was able to use the premises as my meet and greet room. Becci and her staff were very amiable, We had an official photo taken outside featuring myself, Sir Archie, MP Thompson-Squire of Sheep Hill, and St Stephen ‘Ivar Biggun’ Boden. The picture and story will appear in the next ‘Spoons’ magazine.
News soon got around that I was there, just about all of the fifteen othe partys put in an appearance to say hello. It got very busy with interviews, pod casts, video’s and general media interest. I shared a stage with George Galloway on the hustings and other candidates, all very friendly towards me, but apparently not towards each other, so I heard.

The count night was very well organised, but because of social distancing, face masks, and only being allowed six count tickets, it didn’t have quite the same ambience as pre-covid elections. The Howling ‘Laud’, The Flying Brick, Sir Archibald Stanton, Mr R.U Seerius, Lady Helen Back, and Farming F’tang Dave attended the count. Ladbrokes had odds of 20/1 that we would come in the top 6, I know quite a few people who had a flutter on that including me. Alas we came 8th, in the top half mind you. Another 100 votes we would have all been in the money!

Never mind, we were there, we were seen, we have not gone away. We beat the SDP for the 3rd time running, their Party leader William Clouston and I had a £5 bet on who would get the most votes, ha ha. UKIP only beat us by 44 votes. They must all be running scared of being beaten by us by now.

Watch out next time, is the battle cry.
Howling ‘Laud’ Hope – Loony Party Leader.

As you probably know our leader stood for election at the Batley and Spen by-election, (which was caused by the previous M.P getting a better Job)  yesterday 1/7/2021. having spent a week campaigning in the area he managed to increase his vote by 100% and achieved 107 Votes, coming in 8th place.. Well done Howling.

It was a long night with contention about the election and the way it was handled, mainly by George Galloway..who only got 8000+ votes (ONLY) and was beaten into third place by Conservatives and Labour.

The Labour candidate was very excited to meet our leader (see pic) and she won by a few hundred votes, which only added to her excitement.

We are always aware that at an election someone got up, went down to the polling station and put an X next to the Loony Candidate, and we are humbled, and never take this for granted, especially when some of the candidates from the larger parties seem to expect the votes, as their right.. so George..please be a little more humble about the voters.

As usual several of Howlin’s supporters came along to help with the count to give some support..

A Long but good night for the Loony Party, and a big thankyou to the people of Batley and Spen for your hospitality
RU Seerius

To set the record straight because rumours are already rife as to what has happened to me. I could not tell anyone because a) I was in hospital and b) I did not know all the facts myself!
On Friday 11th June at approximately 07.50 hrs I was shopping in St. Helier. I stopped to talk to a friend and suddenly a crushing pain enveloped my chest. I actually thought it was a bout of bad indigestion so drove home to relax. The pain persisted and later, at some time, the thought “heart trouble?” entered my mind so I drove to the pharmacy and shoved some aspirin down my throat. (This action, according to the doctors, saved my life). I did, eventually, go to the doctor who gave me a barrage of tests and I was admitted to the General Hospital Jersey. When a bed became available I was flown by our Air Ambulance to England and transferred to the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, in an ambulance with the blue lights flashing and the sirens etc wailing. Great experience!
There I was slapped onto the operating table and they fiddled about inside me with wires, dye and heaven knows what else. The result of all this is that I now have a heart which is pumping strongly and my arteries are again without the need of a chimney sweep. I am at home in Jersey recovering.
So, If I could give anyone any advice it would be this. Buy some aspirin and keep it where you can access it easily. If you experience a pain in your chest don’t panic panic and keep as calm as you can and see a doctor right away. If you are unable to get there quickly take the aspirin. Try to remember what happened and when and write it down. Afterwards you are probably going to have to take pills every day for the rest of your life. Do what the doctors advise and above all keep a sense of loony humour as this will be your strength to overcome adversity.
I hope all of you are in fine fettle. The other method – though possibly inadvisable is to and get a load of alcohol down you as this will thin the blood and make it easier to pass through the blocked artery!
The Jersey Flyer

Howling Laud Hope our party leader is standing for the Batley & Spen by-election on the 1st July. This achievement is entirely due to our Gilly Nicholls, ably helped by Sir Archibald Stanton, collecting the ten nominations.
Howling’s election agent Nick the Incredible Flying Brick is seen here learning a thing or two from Harold Wilson just after submitting the papers. Photo taken by Sir Archibald Stanton.
Voters of Batley & Spen vote for Howling ‘Laud’ Hope – you know it makes sense!
Nick the Incredible Flying Brick

The ‘Social Democrat Party’ was formed in 1981, a year before ‘The Loony Party’ in 1982. SDP consisted of breakaway Labour members
Dr David Owen, Roy Jenkins, Shirley Williams and Bill Rogers. Some Conservatives joined in as time went by. They were going great guns until May1990. A by election was called in Bootle Liverpool, SDP expecting to do well, well, they didn’t do at all. Michael Carr- Labour won, but Monster Raving Loony 418, SDP 155 brought gasps of amazement from the whole political world. Dr David Owen was on TV next day saying that “the MRLP played no small part in his mind to wind the SDP party up”.
The story doesn’t end there, Michael Carr unfortunately passed away, so another Bootle by-election in Nov 1990. This time Labour held the seat, SDP didn’t stand, but our Monster Raving Loony Party got 310 – Lib Dems 291, once again smiles and smirks all around.
SDP didn’t really raise their heads again until 2019 in Peterborough, bets were flying would the loony beat them again. No not this time, SDP 135 – Loony112, not much in it. William Clouston the now leader of SDP was so pleased, it can’t happen again he said.
Well It has happened again in the recent By-election in Hartlepool May 2021 Monster Raving Loony Party108 – SDP 104.
Two more By-elections Looming shortly, Amersham and Chesham, Bucks. Batley and Spen Yorks. Myself, The Howling ‘Laud’, and William Clouston as party leaders, will have the same bet. Its all good fun !
Keep an eye on us.
Howling ‘Laud’ Hope – Loony Party Leader.

All 48 councillor seats in Kingston Upon Thames are up for election in 2022, until one of the Lib Dems decided they had had enough and stepped down meaning a by-election on May 6th 2021 was declared for the ward in Chessington South. The Lib Dems choose a former Labour MP as their candidate and bizarrely Labour choose to field the son of the Lib Dem councillor that had just resigned! With Covid allowances coming into play, meaning only 2 signatures were required, the opportunity was too good to miss so The OFFICIAL Monster Raving Loony Party decided to put up 13 candidates, all regulars in the Lucky Rover Pub . . . the Lucky 13
A uniform in the form of a Santa outfit was chosen to reflect our policy of moving the Christmas Day people had missed out celebrating to May 6th! A Christmas Eve victory party was duly organised with an outdoor acoustic performance by local legend Robin Bibi and a posse from the Green party joined in the celebrations.
Christmas and Boxing Day came and went with the count being held on Sat 8th May at Kensington Olympia along with the London Mayor election count. After a nervous 20 minutes wait to get in (none of us had any ID with our commonly known names!) we were in and surveyed the growing pile of OFFICIAL Loony votes in the trays. We then realised that due to space restrictions, all our votes were in the same tray so they had to do a second count just for us!!

A heart-warming total of 92 votes were secured (see the breakdown elsewhere on this website) with our two brothers ‘winning’ with 1 vote apiece, whilst 6 of our 13 secured more votes each that the 7 obtained by the Trade Union & Socialist candidate!
Our congratulations go to the Returning Officer for his deadpan delivery of our party name . . . 13 times!

Arms were raised, cheers were made and backs were duly slapped for an election full of Loony records.
Needless to say I thank the stars of the show (the candidates) and the support of LandLADY LUCKY & LandLORD ROVER during the whole of this campaign.

The 2022 elections will see the more conventional approach with just 48 candidates . . . . with just one in each ward!