Fleet, United Kingdom--There's something about a British general election that brings out oddballs, loons and eccentric buffoons who dream of making it to parliament.
In the run-up to polling day on May 7, Britain's stuffy politicians are sharing the hustings with quirky candidates poking fun at the whole election ritual.
And in a campaign derided as flat and stage-managed, the new arrivals are bringing some much-needed merriment to proceedings.
The torchbearers for electoral eccentricity are the Official Monster Raving Loony Party, which has been blowing raspberries at politics for decades.
Their leader, Alan "Howling Laud" Hope, dresses in a white suit and stetson, complete with a ludicrous giant rosette and a leopard-print bow tie.
The Loony "manicfesto" includes pledges to put air conditioning on the outside of buildings to deal with global warming and fit airbags to the stock exchange ready for the next crash.
But some of their policies, once derided as bonkers, have actually been enacted, such as passports for pets, 24-hour pubs and honours for The Beatles.
"Our main policy is: we promise we shall do all the things the other parties say they're going to do when they don't do it," Hope told AFP at his local pub in Fleet, southwest of London.
"We've seen it all before, heard it all before, and still don't believe it."
Hope is standing against bumbling London Mayor Boris Johnson in the west London seat of Uxbridge and South Ruislip, and hopes voters will have trouble picking out the official Loony.
"We're just poking a bit of sensible fun at politics," said the 72-year-old, one of 16 Loonies standing.
"If we just got 2,000 or 3,000 votes, wouldn't it make the other parties sit up and think, where on Earth are we going wrong?
"That not loony, is it? Or is it?"
