Howling Laud Hope

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Alan "Howling Laud" Hope was born in Mytchett, Surrey and has been leader of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party since 1999. Following the death of Screaming Lord Sutch, Hope was jointly elected with his cat, Cat Mandu, as OMRLP leader in a ballot. However, since June 2002 he has been the sole leader, owing to Cat Mandu's death in a road accident.

Hope was elected to Ashburton Town Council in Devon in 1987, where he eventually rose to be Mayor in the 1990s.

Hope stood as a candidate in the Brent East by-election, 2003, where he gained just 59 votes in a contest eventually won from Labour by Sarah Teather, the Liberal Democrat candidate. This did not discourage him, however, and Hope stood in Aldershot in the general election on May 5, 2005, where he took sixth (and last) place with 553 votes. He stood in the Blaenau Gwent Westminster by-election, 2006, coming last with 318 votes.

Contrary to a number of articles in the Guardian newspaper, Hope is NOT the only OMRLP candidate in history to have won elected office, nor has he ever been elected to Devon County Council.^[1]