Too late USA, the Brits have done it first!

[Peikko 1,575]

Link

Britain's New American Idol Political Party

By William Lee Adams / London Tuesday, Mar. 17, 2009 Miranda Banks' candidacy profile on the Juryteam website

In the partisan world of British politics, insults and accusations of sleaze frequently make parliamentary debate seem like a soap opera. Now, with the launch of an American Idol-style political party, it may soon resemble reality TV, too.

Well, I screwed the copy paste up a bit, you'll just have to read the article. Fabulous!

[YuAndDan 153]

How about a link to the article?

AHH Here it is: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8...1885729,00.html Needed to follow back image link to find the website.

Edited March 17, 2009 by YuAndDan

[Peikko 1,575]

Top of the page, where it says 'link'.

[fozzie 41]

Wow, go UK!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Makes me proud to know that we are at the forefront of democracy.

[Peikko 1,575]

I can't decide if this is pure brilliant or the ultimate in stupid

[fozzie 41]

I can't decide if this is pure brilliant or the ultimate in stupid

When all we do is sit around and ###### about the quality of candidates that are available to choose from this is the way forward. A larger pool of candidates...with zero political experience...why not? They couldn't be worse than some politicians both in UK and USA!

[Peikko 1,575]

True, but it could end up very anarchistic, which may or may not be a good thing. I am fence sitting on this one for a little bit

[JODO 2]

Miranda didn't seem so bad. Good Luck

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

I can't decide if this is pure brilliant or the ultimate in stupid

It could be a satire, but I think its probably serious.

In the UK its not that hard to set up a political party - you need a minimum number of members (50 I think) and there's a 500 quid registration fee. There's a lot of weird independent parties around election time - mainly stunts for some cause or other - because they have to announce the names and vote counts of everyone who ran in a given district.

There's always a "legalise cannabis" party or three.

[Pooky 3,878]

I can't decide if this is pure brilliant or the ultimate in stupid

There's no such thing as stupid, unless of course, you voted Monster Raving Loony Party

Then again, some of the really dumb parties have great ideas - like duty free alcohol on the Portsmouth to Gosport ferry (For those who wonder, the ferry ride took 5 minutes across Portsmouth Harbour - and the guy who ran with that as his core policy was a not-so-ex football hooligan).

If there a nutty cause out there, someone has run for office about it - only in England.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Does anyone remember the Natural Law Party from the 1992 election? They had TV campaign ads promoting Yogic Flying (sitting cross-legged and hopping around on your #######)

The first Natural Law Party was launched in the UK, with Dr. Geoffrey Clements as Party Leader. The party fielded candidates in approximately 599 out of a total of some 600 constituencies. A significant number of constituencies were contested by nationals of countries outside the UK, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and India, as British electoral law allows any member of a Commonwealth country to stand for Parliament. Former Beatle George Harrison performed in a fund-raising concert during the campaign.

The UK manifesto, like other NLP platforms in the subsequent decade, was founded on two assertions: (1) that the development of consciousness, in particular through the practice of the Transcendental Meditation and TM-Sidhi Program including Yogic Flying, can enhance individual capability to resolve societal problems, and (2) that the practice of these techniques by a critical mass of the population, or else their group practice, in particular the group practice of Yogi Flying, results in overall improvements in society, including reduced crime, accidents and hospital admissions and improvements in prosperity, security and quality of life. The party quoted peer-reviewed published scientific research for many of its assertions. In the first UK campaign, Natural Law candidates gained an average of approximately 0.4% of votes.

A week before the 1992 election, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi tried to convince George Harrison, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr to stand for election as MPs for Liverpool for the NLP.[2] 310 candidates stood for the NLP that year in the UK, garnering 0.19% of the vote; every candidate lost his or her deposit.[3]