The Official Silly Party of Georgeland
The Official Silly Party of Georgeland is a Georgeland political party with a frivilous or whimsical base. The party was founded in 1988 and took its name from the Monty Python's Flying Circus sketch in which the Silly Party and Sensible Party fought an election. The party's founder, comedian Simon Sinclair, legally changed his name to Simon Elephant to contest the 1991 election, and in 1997 he contested the Senate under the name Simon Peanut.
The official emblem of the Silly Party is a chicken. The party's official logo (right), features such a bird. On the official logo, the name is rendered both in Dutch and in Wingdings font. The Dutch translation reads "Officiële Dwaze Partij van Georgeland".
In 1999, Sinclair stepped down from the leadership. In a press statement he announced he was planning a manned trip to the sun (leaving at night to avoid the heat) but, in an interview with TV host Jim Cryer, admitted he was merely sick of the joke. The party is now led by fellow comedians Tim Gainsler and Peter Khan.
At the 2002 election, the Silly Party gained almost 2% of the vote in Capitalia but their candidate, Gainsler (running as Tim "Who's He?" Gainsler) failed to win a Senate seat. Peter Khan also contested the Senate in Long Island, as Peter "KKK" Khan Khan Khan. During the campaign, Khan's posters showed his head on burning cross with the slogan "White in all but Colour". Khan, an ethnic Indian, claimed he was lampooning the far right, however, some of the black community took offense.
At the election of 2005, both Gainsler and Khan ran for House of Commons seats. Neither won, but Gainsler raised eyebrows by polling ahead of the Greens in the seat of New Kikipolis.
Every Silly Party candidate runs under a humourous or ridiculous name. At the election of 2005, some of these names were:
Tim Gainsler-Chicken
Peter Ghengis Khan
Jack Inthebox
Norman Conquest
Darth Vader
Thomas Cow III
Bilbo the Clown (Bilbo the Clown has run in every election since 1988, and makes a point of wearing a clown suit at all public appearances. The Clown's identity has, in fact, changed several times, with different party members wearing the suit)
Amy Washbasin
Barbara Sheep-Baiter
Policy
In an interview, Peter Khan said that while the official party policy may be silly and the entire organisation "a piss-take", the party has a serious message, which is that politics is too serious and too adversarial. Khan said most politicians don't so much debate as "bitch-slap one another". Khan and Gainsler, as well as Sinclair, all claim to support direct democracy and the principles of social equality.
According to the party's website, the Silly Party's core beliefs are:
- Making abortion free to all men
- A national Fashion Police
- Free condoms for the over-eighties
- Knocking down the Houses of Parliament to build highrise apartments.
- Legalising murder of "people we don't like".
- Euthenising Bob Selleck (Bob Selleck is the host of Georgeland Idol)
- Government subsidies to daytime soaps
- Giving every citizen a chance to compete on Who Wants to be a Millionaire?
- Annexation of Belgium
- The overthrow by violent revolution of the General Post Office
- Re-introduction of flogging for people who pee with the door open.
- Establishment of a Georgeland monarchy. In 2002, the party nominated Aragorn, Son of Arathorn to be King; in 2005 this was changed and the party suggested Prince Harry be made King of Georgeland. Several candidates ran with the slogan A Nazi on the Throne by 2010.
- Introduction of a 99c coin to save on change.
The party is the country's most successful frivilous party. At the 2002 election, the party disendorsed candidate Maurice Poke for allegedly "not being silly enough". Poke then ran as a candidate of the "Very Silly Party" but was disbarred from running because the alleged 'party' was not officially registered.
The Official Silly Party has over 2,000 members as of 2005.
The term "Silly Party" is sometimes used by Liberal Democrat supporters to describe the Conservatives. These people often refer to the LDP as the "Sensible Party".