It’s not often that a candidate from the Monster Raving Loony Party beats any of the other candidates, but then usually they are, by their own admission, the nuttiest candidate on the ballot sheet. However, last night’s by-election saw that all change as they garnered more votes than the UKIP candidate.
Monster Raving Loony Party candidate Lady Lily The Pink – taking her name from a comic song of the 1960s – won 92 more votes than UKIP’s Liz Phillips, thus proving that the Monster Raving Loony Party are not the most insane party in the country.
MRLP spokesman Raymond Vincent Louis Knee, or Ray Vin Lou Knee for short, had this to say:
“The Monster Raving Loony Party was founded on the principle of knowing it’s a joke. It stands to reason that any party whose candidate gets fewer votes than ours has to be a joke also. And the joke’s on them if they don’t realise it.”
Hard to argue with that. UKIP have been a political joke for years. Of course the trouble with political jokes, as Will Rogers famously said, is that too many of them get elected. That is certainly true in the current political climate, but happily not last night.
This is not the first time the Monster Raving Loony Party has scored more votes than another candidate – they famously won more seats than the SDP candidate in a 1990 by-election – a move which lead to the demise of the SDP as they subsequently disbanded and joined the Liberal Democrats.
Whether this heralds a similar nail in UKIP’s coffin is unclear – certainly a lot of their voters have deserted them, like rats leaving a sinking ship, for Nigel Farage’s latest ego trip, the equally loony Brexit Party. Whether their remaining candidates and actual MPs will eventually do the same is anyone’s guess.
However, the self-styled loonies can take pride in their result this week. And who knows, the way the current political landscape is shaping up, the next general election could even sweep them into power. After all, let’s not forget, there are worse alternatives.