Screaming Lord Sutch made his living as a musician (lead singer of the Raving Savages), but it was his efforts to get himself elected to political office in Britain that made him famous. He campaigned in over 40 elections and lost them all. The most votes he ever received was 1,114 in the 1994 Rotherham by-election. However, he did earn a place in the Guinness Book of Records as the parliamentary candidate who had stood more times than anyone else.

He first ran for a seat in parliament in 1963, at the age of 22, as the candidate of the "National Teenage Party" with the slogan "Vote for Sutch and gain much." In 1970 he switched his allegiance to the "Go To Blazes Party" before finally, in 1983, founding the Official Monster Raving Loony Party. He chose the Loch Ness Monster as its mascot.

As the candidate of the OMRLP party, his slogan was "Vote for insanity — you know it makes sense." He campaigned in a top hat and leopard-skin tail coat. His proposals included bringing back the village idiot, putting joggers on treadmills to make them generate electricity, breeding fish in wine so they could be harvested ready-pickled, converting coal mines into bungee-jumping centers (and making local politicians be the first to test them), and making all dogs eat phosphorescent food so that their poop could be seen at night.

Eventually British election officials started to raise the entry fee in the hope of preventing people such as Sutch from registering as candidates. However, Sutch simply used the money he earned as a musician to pay the higher fees.

Incidentally, his name really was Lord Sutch. He had legally changed his first name from David to Lord in 1968.

After the death of Lord Sutch in 1999, the OMRLP continued on, electing a ginger tomcat named Mandu and its owner as its joint leaders.

Links: The Official Monster Raving Loony Party, Screaming Lord Sutch History