List of Candidates
(part) (35K)
[Very sketchy details for the moment - hopefully to be expanded later]
There came a time when CURLS made a bid to spread its brand of lunacy into the very heart of British Society: Parliament itself.
At the Crosby By Election on 26 November 1981, CURLS's Lunaticus Magnus stood as a candidate under the banner of the Cambridge University Raving Loony Society, having first changed his name by Deed Poll to "Tarquin Fintim-Limbim-Whimbim-Lim Bus Stop-F'Tang-F'Tang-Olé-Biscuit-Barrel". (Note for the unenlightened: This name originates from a member of the Silly Party in a Monty Python sketch "Election Night Special".)
He polled 223 votes, just twenty-eight thousand fewer than Shirley Williams of the SDP, who won the seat. Inexplicably, the Cambridge branch of the SDP decided that they no longer wanted Tarquin as a member following this episode.
At the 1983 General Election, Tarquin stood in the Cambridge constituency as the "(Monster) Raving Loony (Against Almost Everything)" candidate, though having reverted to (approximately) his former name. Despite vigourous campaigning and a profusion of purple spotted posters, the Cambridge electorate decided that they preferred the rather more familiar brand of lunacy known as the Conservative party.
List of Candidates
(part) (35K)
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