Party Names, Party Games

As Jersey is shortly to have a registration of political parties (a draft law is on the legislation website), and it follows the same rules on names, I thought I'd take a peek at the UK.

One difference between the Jersey Law and the UK one is that in the UK, an independent electoral commission looks after party issues, whereas in Jersey, what is acceptable will come under the eagle eye of the Attorney-General.

In the UK there is a list of acceptable and registered parties. Remember - the U.K. has pretty much the same naming rules as Jersey, ruling out obscene ones etc. But it still allows some pretty diverse names.

Will Jersey people have as much freedom under the rule of the Attorney-General? Will he take UK practice as precedent?

Enough of the serious comment...

Here are some interesting and some amusing names of valid registered parties.

For the whole list, just go online to

http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk

Carmarthenshire Ratepayers' Association
Hadley & Leegomery Residents Association

These kind seem rather popular, residents or ratepayers association parties in a district. A "locality" independent party. Similar, but not quite the same are the "locality issue" parties, these include ones such as:

Southampton Save Our Services Party [The]
S O S! Voters Against Overdevelopment of Northampton
Stop! Durrington's Overdevelopment - Save Titnores' Trees
Save Bedford Hospital
Save Huddersfield N.H.S.

Maybe we could have a "Stop Building on Plemont Party"?

Then we come to the regionalist or nationalist parties. Apart from well known ones, like the Scottish National Party, we find smaller and larger regions:

Wessex Regionalists
Suffolk Together
Mebyon Kernow - The Party for Cornwall

Forward Wales
Free England Party [The]
Free Scotland Party [FSP]

"general" issue parties also feature:

Republican Party [The]
Referendum Party [The]

along with some very strange parties:

Red and Green Alliance Party
Virtue Currency Cognitive Appraisal Party
Dragon Party [The]
Dungeons Death And Taxes Party [The]
Fancy Dress Party
Personality AND Rational Thinking? Yes! Party
Idle Toad [The]

The last seems particularly well-fitted for Jersey!

Then there are a few specifically religious parties, although I'm not sure about the Elvis one!:

Islam Zinda Baad Platform
Christian Democratic Party
Christian Peoples Alliance
Christian Party "Proclaiming Christ's Lordship"
Clause 28, Children's Protection Christian Democrats
Church of the Militant Elvis Party

and specific policy issues:

Cut Tax on Petrol and Diesel
Smokers U.K.
UK F.A.G.S.

"Remove GST from food" party - any takers?

By the way F.A.G.S. stands for "fight against goverment suppression" and has a website at http://www.uk-fags.co.uk/. It is an pro-smoking party, to do with cigarettes (just in case you wondered if it was gay rights!)

Then there are the "slogan" parties, one really wonders what their policies are apart from the slogan in their name (which may or may not tell you much)

Get Snouts Out The Trough
Scotland Against Crooked Lawyers
Vote Liberty Vote Freedom
Had Enough Party [The]
People Against Bureaucracy Group
Make Politicians History
Protest Vote Party
Veritas

I wonder what the Attorney General in Jersey would say to "Jersey Against Crooked Lawyers"!

Groups to do with older people:

Pensioners Party [The]
Pensions Action Alliance
Grumpy Old Men Political Party [The]

So we can have our own "Angry Men" party. Step forward Peter Tabb and co!

Then bygone age parties (or perhaps Latinists at school):

Imperial Party
Roman Party. Ave! [The]

Women's movements:

Mums' Army
women4theworld
mums4justice

No "Dad's Army", alas!

and of course, not forgetting, for odd parties, to make the list complete:

Official Monster Raving Loony Party [The]

Maybe we could have Official Crapaud Raving Loony Party?