Here is what you need to know about the Original Monster Raving Loony Party – Surrey Comet

The Original Monster Raving Loony Party is a strange staple of British politics.

Its been around since 1983 and members bring a light-hearted touch to debates and questioning, bouncing in on space hoppers and calling for ingenious and ridiculous proposals such as a 99p coin.

But are they just a big joke?

Despite the partys satirical nature, highlighting the real-life absurdities of British politics, some of the things featured in the Loony manicfesto have actually become law.

These include passports for pets, the abolition of dog licenses and all-day pub opening hours.

So whats next?

Jason Chinners Chinnery is the Joint Deputy Leader of the party and is standing for election in Kingston and Surbiton.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service caught up with him to learn more about the party, and why it is standing candidates in such an important election when the party hasnt won a single parliamentary seat since its foundation.

He may be clad in a leopard print suit and top-hat, but Chinners wasnt always the kooky character he is now known as.

Back in the day he was a civil servant, working in the payroll department at the treasury. A very serious job indeed.

He describes his role as the person responsible for putting the money in the Prime Ministers bank account, and says he enjoyed working in the Civil Service, but that it also opened his eyes to the world of politics seeing how things did or did not happen.

He said the Loony Party grabbed his attention when the partys founder, Lord Sutch, worked towards giving 18-year-olds the vote.

But now the party wants to go even further:

Were setting our sights a bit lower this time, were campaigning to give five-year-olds the vote. They all act like five-year-olds in the Houses of Parliament so you might as well let five-year-olds have the vote.

It can often be difficult to work out when Chinners is joking.

When asked about his role asMinister for Spinning, Bouncing and Points, Chinners explains that everyone in the Loony party is automatically a minister of whatever department they want.

Mine was borne out of Alastair Campbells thing where he wasnt an MP or anything but had so much power spinning all these lines, so I thought right, Im going to be in charge of spinning, said Chinners.

And the bouncing things refers to space hoppers. I am currently the partys space-hopper champion.

Kingston has obviously had loads of cycle lanes put everywhere, but every time I see them theyre hardly being used so I am thinking of converting them to space hopper lanes.

Other candidates include a member who wants to save the dodo, and another who wants to abolish gravity.

Its absurd, but when you pry deeper, it seems that Chinners sees himself as more than just a joke candidate.

He genuinely seems to care about the importance of each and every vote.

Speaking about his interactions with incumbent MP, Ed Davey, Chinners says they get on like a house on fire, and that he was even invited to Eds victory party in 2017.

Hes alright actually. I get on with all the candidates. Thats our role. Not to offend or get into slanging matches we leave that to them lot.

Chinners goes on to talk about his practice polling booth, set up in a local pub.

Im always after people that dont normally vote, because so many people dont, and you know, people died for the right to vote, he said.

I say to people, even if you dont want to vote for me, or want to vote to stop me getting in, go down and use your vote. The polling booth, the idea was to show people just how easy it is. Its two minutes of your time. All youve got to do is tick a box, its not painful.

Its quite frightening how many people I bump into who say, I didnt know I could vote, or I dont want to vote.

Most of it is apathy. People are just fed up with politicians, and Brexit as well, people are sick and tired of that. People think their vote wont make a difference, but the only wasted vote is one that isnt used.

After a brief serious moment Chinners goes back to his usual jokey self:

At a General Election about 60 per cent of people vote, if youre lucky. Thats about 40 per cent potential voters that if they all went out and voted for us, thered be a Loony Mudslide.

It is a ridiculous thing to imagine, but that is the point, as Chinners explains:

The good thing is if we got one person in, or close to getting someone in, it might make the other parties look at themselves and think look this cant go on if this lot are getting in. It might make them pull their socks up, he said.

While a lot of the partys policies come from people in the pub, Chinners claims that fielding candidates and managing a campaign can also be educational for those who dont usually get involved in politics.

Speaking about one occasionwhen he fielded nine Loony candidates against each other, he said:They actually got quite an interest in it all seeing how the process worked and then actually attending the count, they all said This is real proper stuff. It was good.

Names, signatures, it shows them the amount of work you have to do in a campaign.

Its often with ten locals in the pub Im there explaining why we have to do this or that, he said.

Ive just had my form through to get my counting agents in order. I always try and get five people whove never been involved before, so they get the chance to experience what its like.

He is very very unlikely to win, but Chinners is keen to get as many people involved in the election in Kingston and Surbtion as possible.

With a whopping eight candidates to choose from, it will be an important choice for residents to make.

The other candidates standing in Kingston and Surbtion are Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat), Aphra Brandreth (Conservative), Leanne Werner (Labour), Sharron Sumner (Green), Scott Holman (The Brexit Party), James Giles (Independent) and Roger Glencross (UKIP).

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Here is what you need to know about the Original Monster Raving Loony Party - Surrey Comet