Official Monster Raving Loony Party - History

History

Starting in 1963, David Sutch, head of Screaming Lord Sutch & The Savages, stood in British parliamentary elections under a range of party names, mainly as the National Teenage Party candidate. At time the minimum voting age was 21. The party's name was intended to highlight what Sutch and others viewed as hypocrisy, since teenagers were unable to vote because of their supposed immaturity while the adults running the country were involved in scandals such as the Profumo Affair.

After being shot at during a mugging attempt whilst living in the United States, Sutch returned to Britain and to politics during the 1980s. The "Raving Loony" name first appeared at the Bermondsey by-election of 1983.

A similar concept had appeared earlier in the "Election Night Special" sketch on Monty Python's Flying Circus, in which the Silly, Sensible, and Slightly Silly parties competed against each other (with one independent Very Silly spoiler candidate), and a similar skit by The Goodies (wherein Graeme Garden stood as a "Science Loony"). There had also been a "Science Fiction Loony" candidate competing in the 1976 Cambridge by-election.

Two others were important in the formation of the OMRLP. John Desmond Dougrez-Lewis stood at the Crosby by-election of 1981 (won by the Social Democratic Party's co-founder Shirley Williams). Dougrez-Lewis stood at the by-election as Tarquin Fin-tim-lin-bin-whin-bim-lim-bus-stop-F'tang-F'tang-Olé-Biscuitbarrel, taken from the Election Night Special Monty Python sketch. He had changed his name by deed poll from John Desmond Lewis, on the behalf of the Cambridge University Raving Loony Society (CURLS). CURLS were an "anti-political party" and charity fundraising group formed largely to be a fun counter-response to increasingly polarised student politics on campus, and they were responsible for a number of fun stunts. Their Oxford University equivalents were the “Oxford Raving Lunatics”. Dougrez-Lewis became Sutch's agent at the notorious Bermondsey by-election of 1983, where the OMRLP banner was first officially unfurled. Reverting to his original name, Dougrez-Lewis stood for the new party in Cambridge in the 1983 general election.

The second importer pioneer was Commander Bill Boaks, a retired World War II hero who took part in sinking the Bismarck. Boaks had campaigned and stood for election for over thirty years on limited funds, always on the issue of road safety. Boaks proved influential on Sutch's direction as the leading anti-politician: "It's the ones who don't vote you really want, because they're the ones who think".

Boaks realised that increased traffic and more roads would cause problems, and he addressed road safety with flamboyant campaigning and a variety of tactics, including private prosecution of public figures who escaped public prosecution for drink-driving. He successfully campaigned with Sutch and others to pedestrianise London's Carnaby Street. While recovering from being struck by a motorcycle, Boaks acted as one of Sutch's counting agents at Bermondsey in 1983. Plans for him to run on Official Monster Raving Loony Party roster for the 1983 general election, standing in Sutch's and Boaks's own home constituency of Streatham, were mooted at Bermondsey but never came to pass, probably because of his increasing infirmity. By the time his predictions of unnecessary child deaths, pollution and congestion proved correct, Boaks was deceased, having succumbed to head injuries suffered on exiting a bus.