Monster Raving Loony Party

There is a zany element in British humour, which has, naturally, crept into the supposedly serious world of politics. The Official Monster Raving Loony Party (“we’re loonies, not nutters”), seeks to shake up established views and long-held beliefs.

Its founder was Screaming Lord Sutch (1940-99) ~ not actually a lord but a singer with a rock band. He first formed a political party in 1963 and it went through a few name changes until, in 1983, it became the Monster Raving Loony Party. They could be described as anti-politics and at one time they had a rule that if any of their candidates won a seat, they would be expelled.

As of January 2019, one of their policies is to have a referendum on whether to have a referendum. Another is to mark the nation’s potholes by floating a yellow plastic duck in each one when it fills with rain. Several of their policies have come to pass, in fact. Passports for pets, 24-hour licensing laws and the lowering of the voting age from 21 to 18 were considered absurd at the time. The Party’s current policies can be seen on their website. Here they are having a ‘cabinet re-shuffle’, literally:-

(Top image: James Davies at Flickr.com / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)