The Official Monster Raving Loony Party

Well there you go then, 20 nnnnnn19 is over. I trust you all had a great Christmas.
I started the year in my usual fashion, disappearing to Lanzarote in January. Was very pleased to be able to Christen our new Lanzo Loony Party HQ, ‘Tiggers Bar’, in Playa Honda, right next door to ‘The Monster Radio’ building, on the main bus route, couldn’t be better. If your ever over there, make a point of calling in.
March, once more out in Malta with our Mediterranean Loonies. April, I was visited by one of our Canadian members, Virgina Hill. She tells me all is fine over there, Loony wise that is. We have another branch just starting in Canada, so will put them in touch.

In May I stood for a seat on my local district council of Hart, Hampshire gaining 112 votes, more than 100% up on last time. Once again to no avail, but I’ll guarantee ‘one day’ it will happen. Still on Fleet Town Council though.

End of May into June, became an exciting time, gearing up for the Peterborough By-election on June 6th. From 15 candidates, we came 10th. A jolly good show was put on, by our party members who attended the count.

July, I was sadly down in Ashburton, our spiritual home, for the funeral of one of our staunchest disbelievers, Alan Phillips. A great friend of mine, but a Conservative through and through. Although he enjoyed our conferences down there.

End of July, I was over in Wales for the Brecon and Radnorshire By-election, on August 1st, supporting our stalwart candidate Lily the Pink. A great show was put on once more by all those that were there. Again, not coming last, we actually beat UKIP, much to their annoyance!!

September, I was up in Liverpool for 10 days, trying to do some research on my autobiography that is ensuing. Leaving straight from there and driving to Belper for our yearly conference. The ‘Belter in Belper’ was even more ‘Belterer’ than the last ‘Belter in Belper’!!!

October 31st, supposed to be a big day, we will definitely leave the EU, supposed to have done that in March too, if I remember. Never mind a General Election was called instead, for December 12th, which played right into our hands, we love ’em. 24 candidates stood for our Loony Party, you can read about individual experiences on our web site. My personal memories of this one are, that we were filmed by Tokyo Broadcasting for Japanese TV. Also RT for Russia. I personally did a radio broadcast across to New Zealand and an hour long pod cast for ‘The Times’ on line and newspaper. Plus it was a great honour to be invited to be guest speaker at Oxford College, Balliol, for the Wilberforce Society. So publicity for the party was phenomenal.

Howling ‘Laud’ Hope making his acceptance speech, accepting the fact that he got 576 votes and thanking all those who voted for him, plus commiserating with all those who didn’t!

I Decided to stand in my own local constituency of North East Hampshire, along with/against the newly elected Conservative party vice chairman Ranil Jayawardena. I didn’t want to be dashing off all over the country in December. It paid off in its own way, no I didn’t win, but I got 576 votes, my highest ever, beating the 553 that I got in both Aldershot and Leicester South.

Once more I’d like to congratulate our three high flyers, The Iconic Arty Pole 1,044, Earl Elvis of Outwell 836, Barmy Lord Brockman 638, jolly good show, thanks to all 24 of our candidates. Especially, last but not least, The Raving Mr P in Peterborough with 113 votes. You’re all pencilled in for the next time around.

If all the messages of congratulations that I’ve had through the media are anything to go by, next General Election we should have 120 candidates

This just about sums me up for another year. I’d like to thank our members, supporters and party sympathisers. Also our team of Loonies behind the scenes that make it all tick.

Conference next year, under scrutiny, likely to be in Louth in Lincolnshire. Will report further when I return from Malta this coming January.
Just leaves me to wish you all the Happiest of New Years, and we’ll meet again my friends. Don’t know where, but I do know when, in 2020 of course!!!

See – loonyparty.com for more info on mentioned articles.
Howling ‘Laud’ Hope
Loony Party Leader.

I’m delighted that we increased the Loony vote in Mid Worcestershire by 638 ( up 1.1% ) on 2017. This maybe because there was not a Loony candidate in 2017.

It’s the first time a Loony has stood and the people took to us -joining in a few of the Loony events such as my Victory Party at the Golden Cross in Harvington on Weds 11th Dec. I asked everyone to wear a hat and they duly obliged, even folk that wandered in off the street were quickly fashioned hats from sheets of newspaper. The great news for me and the OMRLP is the amount of people that joined the party, enabling me to double the membership of the Worcestershire Loony’s from one to two.

I’m pictured here with my protege Sir ‘Offa Ones Rocker’ Senseless, he has very quickly got what its all about and can’t wait to stand himself at the next election.
The Returning Officer and candidates react to my Loony Mudslide announcement – as I wished everyone a happy Easter.
Barmy Lord Brockman

Another hectic Election preparing loads of mock election packs, newspaper, TV & Radio interviews whilst managing to squeeze in a couple of the constituency hustings, which I must say were the most cordial yet that I’ve attended.

As ever the serious stuff eventually began with my Victory Party in my Loony HQ, The Lucky Rover on Wednesday 11th December. The jaw-dropping Frankie Connolly & his Loony All-Stars were amazing and even a couple of the other candidates turned up to ‘celebrate’ with Jamie Briggs winning the best hat prize.

The count itself were greeted to a loud ‘Good Afternoon’ around 1am in the morning. Sir Ed Davey arrived and made a beeline to chat to me and my agent Lucky landlord George before the results were announced.

A steady increase of 15 votes on 2017 with a total of 193 and pushing UKIP into the final place by 69 votes to polish off a most enjoyable campaign.

Finally, respect to Sir Ed Davey for inviting me to his own ‘Victory Party’ after the count!
Chinners

My first foray into battle and what an experience. From local radio station interviews and local newspapers. I was tongue tied at times, but it all worked out. Election night itself was surreal, four of us attended and received the biggest cheer of the night. No Loony has ever stood in the seat before and it made the press’s night.  The result was a foregone conclusion but I had the Green Party worried at one point. I was walking around with the candidate and she noticed my votes piling higher than hers, but it was not to be. Oh well, bring on the next one, I’ve got the bug now!
Earl Elvis of Outwell

The election started of with my victory party on Wednesday night at the George Inn in Walton. Starting with Mr Badaxe who went down very well. I went to the count at Sandown Park with my loony wife the mad cow and an ex green candidate Olivia who stood against me in 2017. Before we had chance to grab a coffee we got mugged by reporters for interviews. We had great fun meeting the other candidates and brought some colour to the night. There was a lot of press there because they thought the Lib-Dems would win the Tory safe seat. I came 5th out of 6 with 326 votes up 8 on last time.
Badger

Lord Sandy’s of Bunhill and Nick the Incredible Flying Brick stood respectively in Islington South and North.

Lord Sandy’s spent the election campaign listening to voters, pundits and to other candidates and heard a great deal of utter rubbish. Opinions on everything from Brexit to bins, mostly ill informed and rarely grounded in fact. The Flying Brick spent most of his campaign talking to sheep in Derbyshire.

Both candidates finally met for the first time the Round Square Chinese Restaurant on Thursday night where they walked to their jointly held count taking place at The Sobell Leisure Centre. The walk, although short, took some time due to the impracticable nature of the candidates’ footwear. Lord Sandy’s wore a pair of pink thigh high boots while the Flying Brick sported his pair of yellow Moroccan slippers.

Also present were RU Seerius, Lady Helen’bak, Lord and Lady Tourettes (aka Sir Tax-a-Lot), Lady Table Manners, The Fragrant Mary, and an assortment of ne’er do wells and misfits from the southern constituency.

There was a somber atmosphere at the count as Labour senior management adjusted to the loss of their heartlands. The Loony’s briefly cheered up Emily Thornberry when she noticed Lord Sandy’s heels and burst into laughter. A final spoiled ballot paper which required verification was rude, it described the candidates as ‘all shite’ so it was ignored and quickly forgotten.

The Acting Returning Officer and her staff maintained clear heads and a professional demeanor throughout, while the Loony’s reveled in a thoroughly good night.
Lord Sandy’s & Nick The Flying Brick

The Iconic Arty Pole in Louth & Horncastle – 1,044
Earl Elvis of Outwell in South West Norfolk –  836
Barmy Lord Brockman in Mid Worcestershire – 638
Citizen Mark Lawrence in Chelmsford – 580
Howling ‘Laud’ Hope in North East Hampshire – 576
Baron Von Thunderclap in Mid Sussex – 550
The Mid Bed Minx in Mid Bedfordshire – 536
Reverend Martin Hogbin in East Surrey – 521
Nick Blunderbuss Green in Kenilworth & Southam – 457
Rambling George Ridgeon in Cheltenham – 445
Mad Mike Young in Sittingbourne & Sheppey – 404
Lily the Pink in Brecon & Radnorshire – 345
Sir Mark Beech in Aldridge & Brownhills – 336
Badger in Esher & Walton – 326
Farming Lord F’tang Dave in Denton & Reddish – 324
Citizen Squiff in Brighton Pavilion – 301
Sir Archibald Stanton in Dewsbury – 252
The Incredible Flying Brick in Islington North – 236
Just John in Clacton-on-Sea – 224
Dame Dixon in Hove & Portslade – 195
Chinners in Kingston & Surbiton – 193
Lord Sandys of Bunhill in Islington South – 182
Lord Buckethead in Uxbridge & South Ruislip – 125
The Raving Mr P in Peterborough – 113

Congratulations to you all, a great turnout, we done ourselves proud. A very special “Well Done” to the Iconic Arty Pole for his 1,044 votes.
9,739 votes in all, yes that many people in Great Britain wanted us to represent them in Parliament.
The Road is Rocky, but it won’t be Rocky long. Look out, Look out, we are about. Hope you all enjoyed the trip, here’s to the next time. Start saving now!

Howling ‘Laud’ Hope
Loony Party Leader

There was only three loonies at the Kenilworth & Southam count, my Election Agent Gary “Bratwurst’ Sweetman, Pete ‘Bunny’ Warren and myself. We were of course the highlight of the show and incumbent Jeremy Wright the former Attorney General and Culture Secretary joined in with all the fun. I polled 457 and he only just beat me by 29,894 votes!
Blunderbuss