Oh joy! Oh rapture!
At last the prospect of some fun during the election campaign!
All hail to the ale!
The Guardian reports:
Comedian Al Murray has announced he plans to stand against Nigel Farage in the seat of South Thanet in May’s general election.
He will stand as his comedy alter ego “the Pub Landlord” for the Free United Kingdom Party, or FUKP. In a video posted to YouTube launching his bid for parliament, he says: “It seems to me that the UK is ready for a bloke waving a pint around offering common sense solutions.”
Amongst the Pub Landlord election pledges are:
- Beer to cost 1p a pint
- Channel tunnel to be bricked up
- The pound to be revalued to £1.10
- National service only for those who don’t want to do it
- Alex Salmond to be first minister for Norwich (“so he can get to understand what being ignored by the rest of the country is really like”)
- Street raffle to be held to determine which schools children go to (‘to replace the current postcode lottery’)
- A one line foreign policy: “Germany has been too quiet for too long. Just saying”.
- South Thanet to be the new capital of the UK
- A de-militarised zone to be set up between North and South Thanet
- The United Kingdom will leave the EU by 2025 and the solar system by 2050
We managed to contact Nigel Farage, and his reaction to the news was:
* Paul Walter is a Liberal Democrat activist and member of the Liberal Democrat Voice team. He blogs at Liberal Burblings.
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22 Comments
Hopefully he won’t be working for the appalling Marston’s (linked to the Tories), who are busy killing pubs by converting a load of generally good ones to Tesco, then.
See http://www.peakfm.co.uk/news/local/resident-appeal-to-save-their-pub-in-new-whittington/
I really hope Russ Timpson for the Lib Dems in South Thanet has a good plan to prevent vote squeeze, because I now count 8 candidates in South Thanet for May. I dread seeing the Party come 5th or 6th, behind FUKP. No, no, that wouldn’t happen though….
David, according to recent and current polls the Lib Dems are already running fifth in quite a lot of seats.
Opinion: Could we have a better leader?
Something not nice about the way luvvies and oxbridge comedians (so-called) scorn the concerns of ordinary British people.
“Street raffle to be held to determine which schools children go to (‘to replace the current postcode lottery’)”
I actually like this policy. It would be vastly more effective than the pupil premium.
theakes
In around 200 seats no Liberal Democrat is yet standing let alone running.
At last! A leader!
Personally I think this can only be a good thing!
Years back, before politicians from the major parties got upset by ‘fringe’ candidates and so made it more difficult for independents to stand, we had lots of local and colourful candidates that in the main served to make the election more interesting.
Whilst the candidates may not of received many votes, having these candidates out knocking on doors, increased the
number of doors knocked and hence helped people’s general awareness of the election and their role in it.
I saw him speak at The “Lets stay Together” Rally in London & he was an impressive speaker. He could do Farage a lot of damage & take some of the Traditional “Loony “vote.
Roland 15th Jan ’15 – 11:49am
“…….,..,Years back, … … we had lots of local and colourful candidates that in the main served to make the election more interesting.”
Not sure that this recollection is born out by the facts. There were certainly far fewer independent or fringe candidates in the 1950s when the Liberal Party was incapable of finding enough candidates and some constituencies only had a choice between Tory and Labour. My impression (I have not checked) is that there are far more fringe candidates nowadays and by fringe I mean not members of the Big Six parties Con, Lab, UKIP, SNP, Green, Liberal Democrat.
It’s an interesting one alright. I wonder whose votes Al Murray is likely to ‘take’? Satirical candidates are a fascinating oddity. I tweeted Russ Timpson and he says he’s looking forward to it, expecting Farage to be dealt some damage. Will Al Murray even do debates with the other candidates? I wonder what this whole thing is going to look like?
I really hope South Thanet declares before 4am on the night, otherwise I might have to resort to Red Bull….
He’s a parody candidate. One or two people will vote for him as a bit of a laugh. The voters who will go for Farage are not voting for him because he goes to the pub and talks “common sense”. They.re voting to withdraw from the EU and limit immigration. It’s like saying you can beat the SNP by having a comedian dress up in a kilt and talk about the benefits of staying in the UK.
This is genius satire. From the tagline “It seems to me that the UK is ready for a bloke waving a pint around offering common sense solutions” through to the upside down UKIP sign and the name FUKP.
How it plays out in votes I’ve no idea – but I think it shines a bit of a light on N Farage and doesn’t help him.
Personally I’m fully expecting the Lib Dems to get squeezed in this constituency and with every respect to our candidate I’m less worried about where we come than I am about N Farage winning. I’d love it if he didn’t.
What character will he be entering the election as? Will it be as AJH Murray, Oxford history graduate, descended from Scottish aristos, diplomats and soldiers (and with an Austrian grandmother) who presented an interesting TV series on Germany?
Or will it be as the xenophobic and high-handed Pub Landlord which is a satirical comedy character?
(Just to complete the loop, when I was in a steak-house/pub in Bavaria last summer, I found on the wall “The Landlord’s ten rules” which I’m sure the Pub Landlord would agree with.)
I wish him luck with forming his party, appointing a DNO and all the other bureaucracy that we engage in.
To follow up on John Tilley’s comment. From 1918 to 1985, the deposit was £150 and the threshold to retain it was 12.5% of the votes cast. Since 1985 it has been £500 and the threshold is 5%. Thus, in terms of spending power the deposit is much less than it was in the 1950s.
The Liberals in 1950 hedged against lost deposits by betting. In 1951, the bookies were not so helpful!
He may manage to make some UKIP posturing seem ridiculous.
Surely no-one is saying that comedians who’ve been to Oxford or Cambridge should not be allowed to poke fun at politicians while those who’ve been to Keele or Liverpool John Moores may do so?
And David, one of the concerns of many “ordinary people” is UKIP – a party much loved and much loathed.
@david: This is rather about the easy “solutions” than about the legitimate concerns.
@SIMON BANKS “Surely no-one is saying that comedians who’ve been to Oxford or Cambridge should not be allowed to poke fun at politicians while those who’ve been to Keele or Liverpool John Moores may do so?”
Everybody is entitled to poke fun at politicians.
But comedian or not, a privately educated Oxbridge graduate from a posh background is hardly like a breath of fresh air in British politics.
‘ The United Kingdom will leave the EU by 2025 and the solar system by 2050’
Genius.
Helen Tedcastle 16th Jan ’15 – 4:14pm
‘ The United Kingdom will leave the EU by 2025 and the solar system by 2050′
“Genius.” … well it’s certainly one of several in there likely to split the UKIP vote!
“But comedian or not, a privately educated Oxbridge graduate from a posh background is hardly like a breath of fresh air in British politics.”
You mean besides Michael Foot, Jo Grimmond, Jeremy Thorpe, Tam Dalyell and David Rendel?