Devon: the loony hotspot

And the cat that competed to lead a political party!

The Dartmoor town of Ashburton is famous for many things.

Pivotal in the tin mining industry in the nineteenth century, it is the largest town in the Dartmoor National Park and was recently named one of England’s coolest places to live by a trendy London magazine.

But political history was made in Ashburton, thanks to the Official Monster Raving Loony Party, which was established in 1982 undistinguished rock musician and former DJ David Sutch, known as Screaming Lord Sutch, 3rd Earl of Harrow.

Sutch had been active in politics for decades, standing for election numerous times. As a younger man he had founded the National Teenage Party, with outrageous demands for the time, such as lowering the voting age from 21 to 18, and an end to the state’s monopoly on broadcasting, and passports for dogs.

A later Loony demand was for 16-year-olds to get the vote, which is now policy for Labour, Lib Dems and Greens and in all of their respective election manifestos.

A Monster Raving Loony first stood for parliament at a by-election in Bermondsey, South London, in 1983, at which Sutch finished fifth out of 15 candidates, although he only attracted 97 votes.

In 1987 the party was at its most active in Devon. Totnes pub landlord Tim Langsford stood against Tory grandee Anthony Steen in the South Hams at the general election and polled 277 votes. Mr Steen won with 34,218.

Alan Hope, who ran the Golden Lion in Ashburton, then became the first member of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party to hold public office when he was elected unopposed to Ashburton Town Council.

He served for more than a decade and became mayor in 1998. The Golden Lion had become the official party headquarters, and was the venue for its lively annual conferences.

Screaming Lord Sutch took his own life in 1999, and Mr Hope later moved to Hampshire, where he became a member of Fleet council – once again uncontested.

In the sixties he had sung with Screaming Lord Sutch, who made him deputy chairman of his new party in 1982. His election to Ashburton Town Council in 1987 caused a dilemma in the party as they had previously been decided that any member who was elected to a public office should be expelled.

That rule was changed at the 1987 party conference.

Mr Hope, who is also known as Howling Laud Hope, is the current leader of the Official Monster Raving Loonies. He and his pet cat, Catmando, were jointly elected as leaders but since June 2002 Mr Hope has been sole leader following Catmando’s death in a road accident.

He competed with a previous feline friend, Mandu, pictured, to be leader when he lived in Ashburton.

To date he has stood for election to parliament more than 30 times without success. The 576 votes he polled while finishing sixth out of six candidates in North East Hampshire in 2019 is his best result to date, along with getting 1.6 per cent of the votes in Leicester South, where he finished fifth and last in 2011.

Other party members have enjoyed success elsewhere, including in Devon.

Cllr Stuart Hughes has been a county councillor since 1993, serving Sidmouth. He is a prominent member of the Conservative group, and a cabinet member for highway management.

But before all that he was a Loony.

A former disc jockey and hotelier, Cllr Hughes stood for the loonies in the Devon seat at the European Parliament elections in 1989, although the 2,241 votes he gained left him some way short of success. He is said to have been a member of the European Parliament for 30 seconds after a mistake in annoucning the true winner.

In the same year he and others formed the breakaway Raving Loony Green Giant Party, and then stood for parliament without success in Mid Staffordshire and the Ribble Valley under the banners Raving Loony Green Giant Supercalafragalistic Party and then Raving Loony Green Giant Clitheroe Kid.

But in May 1991 he was was elected under the Raving Loony Green Giant Party banner to East Devon District Council and Sidmouth Town Council after changing his name to Stuart Basil Fawlty Hughes.

The victory made him the first Raving Loony candidate to win a contested election.

In 1993 he was elected as an independent to Devon County Council and joined the Conservatives in March 1997.

Another prominent local Loony was Torquay hotelier John Rowe. His Hotel Sydore in Torquay was frequently the scene of party-related high jinks.

Mr Rowe was the ‘shadow minister for gumption’ and was promoted to party chairman shortly before he died in November 2000.

Fifties pop star Ruby Murray, who once had five songs in the top twenty at the same time, was also a good friend of the loonies, taking part in a number of events and appearing as guest of honour at the party conference in 1994.

The party is fielding 22 candidates in the 2024 general election, including Howling Laud Hope himself, trying again for election in North East Hampshire. 

Away from the loonies, Devon has enjoyed other notable candidates. In 1979, Auberon Waugh, son of the creator of Brideshead Revisited Evelyn Waugh, stood in North Devon for the ‘Dog Lovers’ Party.’

Being the seat of Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe, who had recently been acquitted of conspiring to murder his lover, Norman Scott, this attracted national attention. In the Thorpe case, the bumbling assassin had misfired and shot Mr Scott’s great dane, leading Mr Waugh to make his point – and grab headlines – for canine companions countrywide.

Elsewhere this year, party candidates around the country include Baron von Thunderclap, Nick The Incredible Flying Brick and Lord Psychobilly Tractor.

Count Binface is standing in Richmond, North Yorkshire, so will be able to share the stage with Rishi Sunak as the result is announced in the early hours of Friday morning.

Mr Binface’s policies include nationalising Adele and price-capping croissants at £1.10 (previously £1, before inflation intervened).

In the unlikely event he forms a government, the count in the cardboard suit with a bin on his head promises to make it law for water company bosses to swim in British rivers “to see how they like it”, and to introduce national service for all former prime ministers.

As with previous loony policies such as votes for 18-year-olds and passports for pets, history shows some ideas do come to pass.