The Monster Raving Loony Party

The MRLP is only there for a bit of a laugh in the UK. It was started up by "Screaming" Lord Sutch as a bit of light relief in the midst of boringly serious elections. He also wanted to demonstrate how silly all those pontificating Politicians were (and still are).
Their 2005 Manifesto (only about a third of it, just to give you the gist of what they are about), is as follows:-

"Our team of experts has decided that Income Tax has not proved popular with the public and will therefore be abolished. It was started in order to finance the Napoleonic war in 1799 and we now believe that the time is right to announce the cessation of hostilities with Napoleon. Some of the money left in the coffers will be used to fill in our part of the Channel Tunnel in case no one has mentioned it to the French. Any remaining money will be strategically placed on a horse at the 3-30 at Haydock Park at odds of at least 12/1 in order to see us through until the next election. Income Tax will be officially replaced by people lending the government a bob or two at the end of the week when we're a bit skint.

Other policies:

We will issue a 99p coin to save on change.

The Official Monster Raving Loony Party will not join the single European currency. We will invite all Europeans countries to JOIN THE POUND.

Rich people should be taxed to pay for the printing of money, as they use most of it.

Tax credits will be paid to nice people. There will be a "total bastard" tax for everyone else.

We feel that a £57,000 a year salary is quite ample for the average person to survive on and that the £118,000 expenses that MP's also manage to wangle is far too much. The expenses money will in future be distributed to the poor and needy so that they can waste it instead.

Other policies:

Any Home Secretary claiming to have more children than necessary will be made to run the House Of Commons Crèche.

Any cabinet minister found telling lies will be shot across the English Channel in a high velocity circus cannon to save time and first class travel expenses. Top British engineers will be employed to plot the correct trajectory. A European funded net will be set up strategically in front of the European parliament so that when the errant MP hits it, he or she will bounce through the second floor window where they will be handed champagne and canapé at a reception hosted by Leon Brittan and Peter Mandelson.

To help finance the above mentioned net, when it is not required it will be hired out to the London production of ?'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang!' for the child catcher.

In reaction to the old adage, "Children are so honest" we intend to reduce the age of standing for parliament from 21 to 5.

We pledge to reduce class sizes by making the pupils sit closer to one another and issuing them with smaller desks. Any MP whose constituency sells off a school playing field for development will be required to relinquish their own back garden as a replacement sports facility for the school. All future Deputy Prime Ministers will be required to be fluent in at least one language to encourage the education system.

Other policies:

In the interests of fair education policy, under a loony government all children will automatically be given full marks in their exams.

Bright pupils will be provided with dimmer switches to prevent them distracting the rest of the class.

SAT's tests will be abolished and replaced by Gordon Ramsey style cookery lessons and Rolf Harris art classes.

All children will be given two birthdays like the Queen.

Any child who is cleverer than their teacher will be allowed to take over the class and the teacher will stand at the back with a dunce's hat on. He or she will then be on half pay until he or she has learnt enough to regain the upper ground. This is our policy for child empowerment.

The number 13 will be abolished due to its longstanding unpopularity. The bus to Acton North will now not have a number on it but not much else will be affected. Therefore if you see a bus with no number on it, it will be going to Acton North. Please remember this for future reference.

Eton and Oxford will be relocated to Blackpool and Bognor Regis leaving the other Universities with a chance of a bigger intake.

All students will be awarded The Louis Pasteur degree for the scientific research into the growth of mould.

We intend to make free university tuition available to all students named Grant.

Any student who says the word "Like" when not grammatically called for, as in, "Hey, I'm .. Like, going down the… like, pub", or, "I was, like, don't do that" will be made to go and stay with George Bush for a week in order to discourage them from other stupid ?'Americanisms'. "

omfg! he's still around ???

No, he died a couple of years ago. You sound surprised to hear of him.
Pray tell?

he's never been well known in america. i only know about him because of his musical indeavors. used to have one his records back in the day, "jack the ripper" or something with page and bonham. just noticed in my old pete frame book that he also had nicky hopkins and smiling richie blackmore in his early groups.

oh, great.. now i'll be hearing "union jack car" in my head all day. :wink:

Good grief, that's going back a bit!! Late 60's? Early 70's at the latest.

Yes, he went into politics (ha ha) which meant having Party meetings in the Pub, no doubt, while they drafted their loony proposals for when they got into office.

It was a good laugh while it was in its hey day though....to see a serious politician debating with a guy wearing a fluorescent green velvet jacket and a top hat.

Very Monty Python.

"can't do that, nowadays. and more's the pity".

from mrs, miniver...

do they get a lot of votes? their mani(c)festo is rather amusing, im surprised they're not in power to be honest...

In some constituencies they got a couple of votes (like in 'Derbyshire West 405 = 0.8%)

Is this him? I recall hearing about him back in the day (as we say in the modern US); judging from this photo, he was way ahead of his time...

i like their dedication to schools (as seen on the website), if id have been better informed i would have represented them at my school mock election a few weeks ago