psychoceramics: Electoral lunacy (was: One World Gov't)

[acb @ cs.monash.edu.au (Andrew C. Bulhak)]

[Peter Hipwell]
> 
> > I recall that someone in Britain founded a World Government Party once
> > and ran for Parliament.  Among their policies were (obviously) the 
> > establishment of a one world government and the conversion of 
> > Buckingham Palace to a hostel for the aged.   There may have been more
> > weird policies, but I cannot recall them.
> > 
> > I don't think they got too many votes, though.
> 
> I don't know what the set up is in America, but over here it's fairly
> easy to put up your own party for election: you have to lay down a
> deposit of a couple of hundred(?) quid at each constituency to get on
> the ballot paper - but you don't have to run everywhere. This allows
> for anyone with a bee in their bonnet to start parties along the lines
> of: "The Dental Charges Are Too High In Lower Cheadleham And We Will
> Bring Them Down Party".
> 
> It also allows "wacky" people to display their finely honed senses of
> humour. The best known is Screaming Lord Sutch, head of the "Monster
> Raving Loony Party". Not really a kook, not really very entertaining,
> but sort of nice to have. This is the kind of thing Monty Python was
> taking a crack at with the "Sensible Party" vs. the "Silly Party"
> episode.

We use much the same system here;  we may or may not have a local
Monster Raving Loony Party (I haven't seen concrete evidence of their
presence, but have heard them mentioned), but we do have similar 
candidates.  One is a guy named Murgatroyd, who lists his occupation
as "dole bludger" and apparently was also in a rock band named
The Other Wankers.  He ran quite a few times, once offering policies 
all starting with 'P', such as "Promote Poverty" and "Privatise the
Prime Minister", and once at the height of Keating's Republican mania
campaigning in a British colonial uniform, complete with pith helmet
(I think he listed as his party the "Imperial British Conservative 
Party").  He campaigned once to get 0 votes, but never managed that
(there's always some 40 or so people who will vote for him).
There was another candidate named (I think) David Greagg, who listed
his occupation as "wizard".  He may or may not have been connected with
Murgatroyd.

Another thing one notices is how all the characters and crackpots run
in the Prime Minister's and Opposition Leader's electorates.  Former
PM Bob Hawke's electorate of Wills was at one time host to about 8
candidates, including Murgatroyd and a fellow who changed his name from
Stone to Aussie-Stone (perhaps to be at the top of the ballot paper,
getting the donkey vote*; though they started printing ballot papers
in random order some time ago, foiling this plan), who may or may
not have been a crank or joke candidate.  When Hawke retired, the 
seat (a safe Labor Party seat) went to a radical-left independent.

* Australia has compulsory attendance at elections (you get fined if you
don't show up) and preferential voting, so a proportion of people just 
number the squares in sequence from the top one downward.  This is known 
as a "donkey vote".

> I never heard about the World Government party. Although the Natural
> Law Party, funded by George Harrison's (among others) money, put up a
> candidate in every constituency in the last general election. They are
> a transcendental meditation, levitation, and cosmic harmony sort of a
> group.

Yes, we have them here...  and they cover all electorates here as well.
They plan to solve all problems by having a team of 8,000 "yogic flyers"
meditate every day, forming a psychic shield around Australia and 
eliminating crime and so on.

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