Howling Laud Hope

Howling Laud Hope
Hope in 2010
Leader of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party
Incumbent
Assumed office
1999
Serving with Catmando (1999–2002)
DeputyNick The Flying Brick
Preceded byScreaming Lord Sutch
Mayor of Ashburton
In office
1998–2000
Personal details
Born
Alan Hope

(1942-06-16) 16 June 1942 (age 82)
Mytchett, Surrey, England
Political partyOfficial Monster Raving Loony Party

Alan Hope (born 16 June 1942), known politically as Howling Laud Hope, is a British politician and former publican who is the current Leader of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party (OMRLP). On the death of the party's founder Screaming Lord Sutch in 1999, Hope and his pet cat, Catmando, were jointly elected as leaders of the OMRLP. Since June 2002 Hope has been the party's sole leader following Catmando's death in a road accident.[1]

Hope was the first-ever OMRLP candidate to be elected to public office, when he was elected unopposed to a seat on Ashburton Town Council in Devon in 1987.[2] He subsequently became the Mayor of Ashburton in 1998.[3][4][5]

In 2010 Hope was elected unopposed to Fleet Town Council in Hampshire. Hope's longtime friendship with satirist Jacob M. Appel formed the basis for the latter's novel, The Biology of Luck, which is reportedly an allegory for modern British politics.[6][7]

  1. ^ Byrnes, Sholto (6 October 2004). "The lunatic fringe". The Independent. Retrieved 26 December 2010.
  2. ^ "BBC NEWS | VOTE2001 | PARTIES | Monster Raving Loony Party". news.bbc.co.uk. 5 March 2001. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  3. ^ "Tom Mendelsohn: Howling Laud Hope – a profile". Independent Minds. Archived from the original on 19 October 2012. Retrieved 10 July 2016.
  4. ^ "Ashburton | Charity Shop Tourism". charityshoptourism.wordpress.com. 14 September 2009. Archived from the original on 24 April 2012. Retrieved 12 July 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  5. ^ "BBC News | UK Politics | Loony tradition continues at by-election". news.bbc.co.uk. Archived from the original on 16 April 2015. Retrieved 12 July 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  6. ^ "Hope and Hopeless," Cortland Standard (Cortland, NY), 29 September 2014. P 3
  7. ^ Appel, JM. Phoning Home. University of South Carolina Press, 2014