Talk:1976 Cambridge by-election

Philip Sargent

The text about this candidate is unreferenced. I know it to be partly true and partly false, because I was one of his nominators - so I have a COI. The text currently says:

Philip Sargent stood under the title "Science Fiction Looney" in what was probably the first use of the word 'looney' by a prospective Parliamentary candidate, in a move which in part inspired the naming of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party. There was a serious motive behind this apparently frivolous candidature, since it enabled the circulation of election literature opposing the National Front candidate. However, the principal ambition, for which the Party’s supporters were willing to finance a parliamentary deposit, was to enter the Guinness Book of Records by polling the lowest number of votes recorded in a parliamentary election. This was such an entertaining idea that over 300 students, confused during the pre-Vacation festivities into thinking they were being supportive, voted in favour of the Party, thus thwarting the ambition, but at a level where the deposit was simultaneously lost.

What I know is that Philip Sargent stood under the affiliation "The Lorimer Brizbeep Science Fiction Looney". The only source I have found that reports more than "Science Fiction Looney" is the Monster Raving Loony Party, and it (I think erroneously) spells it as "Loony" and adds the word "Party".

What I also know is that it was never our intention to poll the record low vote, because we knew we could not achieve it. Unfortunately, The Cambridge Evening News did indeed report that that was our aim - misquoting themselves, as I remember.

So, Ideally, I would like to correct the above to what I know, but I doubt that sources exist for all of it. I am sure that the last sentence above is original research and should be removed. And unless somebody can find a source, I would like to remove the whole description after the first nine words. What remains is not completely accurate, but I suspect it is the best we can do with the sources we have. --ColinFine (talk) 19:58, 3 April 2019 (UTC)

I've added what references I could find. They don't confirm your claims regarding the nomenclature, but they do confirm the first half of the paragraph as it states the purpose of this party as opposing the candidate from the mainstream party. The second half of the paragraph is exactly as you've described it, coming from who-knows-where?. I agree that this part ought to be removed. Regards,  Spintendo  22:00, 3 April 2019 (UTC)

I don't have a cite either, but Colin's account foots exactly with what I recollect. I recall asking my Dad who on earth would vote for the "Lorimer Brizpeep Science Fiction Loony Party" and he said that it was Cambridge so probably a lot of the undergraduates would vote for him.

I met Dougrez-Lewis, then known as just John Lewis, at Cambridge a few years later and the 'loony' connection there was that he was a member of the CU Raving Loony Society. IIRC they merged politically with the Monster Party to form the OMRLP.89.207.1.20 (talk) 09:19, 17 December 2019 (UTC)

Yes, it was "Lorimer Brizbeep Science Fiction Loon[e]y [Party]". The story floating around Cambridge students was that the first objective was to return a record low number of votes, but that the campaign realised that this couldn't be achieved as all the contributors to the deposit were going to insist on voting for him, so the objective switched to "getting more votes than the National Front / BNP / #brexshit party / wha'ever it was called in 1976" (sorry, don't recall, but they're all the same racists anyway). This sounded to me like a worthy objective, so I voted for him. (Tim Ward)