Recently, Tory MP David Davis resigned from parliament in protest at the government's detention-without-trial plans, triggering a byelection for his seat. As with all high-profile byelections, various eccentrics, quixotic crusaders and out-and-out (monster raving) loonies have come out of the woodwork to put their names on the ballot; there will be 26 candidates running for the seat, half of these being independents.

The Monster Raving Loony Party (or, actually, the Official Monster Raving Loony Party, which may or may not be the same thing) is fielding one "Mad Cow-Girl", who is being joined by candidates the Church of the Militant Elvis Party, and the Miss Great Britain Party (which suggests a much faster convergence of politics and celebrity than even under Blairism/Cameronism). The cranky right are represented, with the Christian Party and the National Front (though, perplexingly, their more respectable-looking cousins, the BNP and UKIP, are sitting this one out); on the radical left, there is the Socialist Equality Party; the Greens are also fielding a candidate. In an indeterminate place on or off the axis are other causes, such as Make Politicians History and the perplexingly-named "Freedom 4 Choice", while way off in the political equivalent of Cthulhoid non-Euclidean space is David Icke, undoubtedly running on a platform of unmasking the loathsome reptilian conspiracy against humanity.

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