Sheppey Loony Mad Mike Young in Welsh Assembly elections
00:00, 06 May 2016
updated: 19:04, 06 May 2016
Sheppey Official Monster Raving Loony Party candidate Mad Mike Young swapped his trademark bananas for daffodils and leeks to make election history.
By becoming one of 30 Loony candidates standing in Thursday’s Welsh Assembly elections he helped his party qualify for its first TV election broadcast. The finished production was aired on April 13.
Mike, from Minster, said: “We discovered that if we fielded at least 20 candidates we would be eligible for our own party political broadcast. So we drafted in as many members as we could and stood for all 30 seats. We were very pleased with ourselves.”
However, Mike was not looking forward to winning.
He admitted: “If I got in I would have had to have moved to Wales and I don’t even know where it is. It’s on the other side of Scotland, isn’t it? I really must get a map.”
He said he had been studying Welsh and had reached the letter B.
He explained: “I have mastered the art of addressing everyone as ‘Boyo.’ I think the Welsh will appreciate my attempts at mastering their language.” And he added: “At least the Welsh and Sheppey people have one thing in common – a mutual love of sheep.”
He was one of five Loonies standing for five seats in the South Wales East region alongside Baron von Magpie Bum, Hugo Shovit, Arty Pole and Dr Doodle Do. Although they didn’t win they chalked up a credible 1,115 votes between them.
They were up against candidates from Welsh Conservatives, National Front, Plaid Cymru, Ukip Wales, Wales Green Party, Welsh Communities Party, Welsh Labour, Welsh Liberal Democrats, Welsh Trade Unionists and the Abolish the Welsh Assembly parties.
Other Loonies stood for seats in South Wales West, South Wales Central, Mid and West Wales and North Wales.
The Loonies put forward a 14-point manifesto which included finding the Welsh Dragon a mate, legalising broccoli and banning leeks in the interests of national security.
But Mike, who gives his age as 64-and-three-quarters and regularly stands in borough and general elections in Kent, drew the line at putting his name forward for the police commissioner elections. He explained: “Not even I could out-loony the out-going police commissioner Ann Barnes.”
To see the Loonies election broadcast on BBC i-Player visit http://bbc.in/1W0rqDd
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