When this election was announced so soon after the recent Clacton-on-Sea election we talked about doing this one as well, I was prepared to stand but then thought, why not ask our local Kent members if they wanted to? I asked Mad Mike Young on the Isle of Sheppey, and he suggested Hairy Knorn from Sittingbourne and that Mike would gladly be his agent. So quick phone call to Hairy Knorm, “Yes OK, I’ll do that” so off we went, all up and running and what a fine show we put together!

Knorm and his entourage plagued the streets of Rochester the weekend of the 8^th, all to their advantage because when I arrived on Sun 16^th I was told in no uncertain terms how well they had done! Knorm had also been on various radio shows and his TV coverage was good. Monday saw me covering the Strood area with leaflets :- “DON’T BE RECKLESS VOTE LOONY”, went down very well even with UKIP, they loved it! On Tuesday Hairy Knorm Mad Mike and me went to a hustings meeting in the Corn Exchange. Knorm got up said his piece and was very well received. We then met up with our members from Gravesend, The Werewolf, Big Dave Presley, Verge Walton and other members of the Walton family, alas they couldn’t vote for us, although Chris Walton could, he lived in Strood. Wednesday was a great day in Rochester, cameras all over the place, unfortunately Knorm and Mad Mike couldn’t make the day time, but I was joined by Steve and Joy Lawson, Loony Party supporters from Fleet in Hampshire and Baron Fullstop from Worcestershire and boy did we milk those cameras, they loved us, “it makes it all worth our while coming” was one of the comments. The Hotel we were staying in The Royal Victoria and Bull, was on the High Street four doors away from the UKIP office, what more could we ask for. Of course Nigel Farrage made his appearance as we were being filmed and joined in with us, I’m sure that many photo’s will appear in magazines and newspapers as time goes by.

Election night, we all met up in the Crown public house, the count was in Gillingham quite away away, we got there much to early but fortunately there was a pub opposite called the ‘Marquis of Lorne’ and would you believe the landlord Jay Sandmann was a Loony Party member some time ago so we renewed our acquaintance, in we went and made ourselves comfortable for an hour or so or two. Of course word soon got around and we were promptly joined by Charlotte Rose and her TV crew and good old Lembit Opik. At the Count the cameras were clicking like wildfire. We gave Hairy Knorm a rousing introduction at the door, he was the star and what a star he was, he and Baron Fullstop promptly opened a big sack of bananas, and were handing them out to everybody which caused a lot of amusement! The whole evening was very enjoyable but went on much to long, but worth waiting for because Hairy Knorm didn’t come last in fact 6^th out of 13 was a very good out come when you consider that the Lib Dems only got 198 votes more than us, less than 200 for a party that half in power raised a few eyebrows, and Knorm got the biggest cheer of the night!

That’s not all, its not the end yet, we and only we, no other party were invited back to the UKIP victory party at a night club afterwards a free bar as much Champagne as you wanted, Sky TV were there and its been shown a lot of times I believe, people keep telling me, although I have not seen it myself yet! I suppose the biggest accolade to the Party was when Mark Reckless made his victory speech, thanking everybody in the usual way but picking out Hairy Knorm for a special mention!

Well done Hairy Knorm it was a pleasure, thanks also to his Royal Madness Mike Young, Baron Fullstop, Steve and Joy, the people of Rochdale who joined in with us, don’t know all your names, but you know who you are, The Waltons and the staff of the Royal Vic and Bull.

We had a great time!
Howling Laud.