This photo perfectly sums up the state of British politics in 2017
It's not everywhere in the world that the country's leader shares a stage with a person wearing a bucket on their head and Elmo.
But this is Britain, where the politics is unpredictable and the humour is absurd.
Current Prime Minister Theresa May was up for re-election in her constituency of Maidenhead. As is glorious tradition, several eccentric characters contested the seat, either for publicity or just for our enjoyment.
First, there's Elmo.
This Elmo isn't officially sanctioned by Sesame Street, but is here to represent Bobby Smith and his one-man "Give me back Elmo" party. Smith is a father's rights campaigner. Smith's mum is inside the Elmo that greeted Theresa May when she arrived at her polling station to vote on Thursday.
Then there's Lord Buckethead.
Lord Buckethead's Twitter profile describes himself as an "Intergalactic space lord, running to be an independent Member of Parliament for Maidenhead. Enjoys planet-conquering, dominating inferior species, and Lovejoy." We don't know who's under the bucket, but it's not the spacelord's first time at this. The first time was in 1987, according to Buzzfeed. Perhaps it's a hereditary title?
Whoever it is, they won 249 votes, and finally managed to stand next to Theresa May.
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And don't forget the Monster Raving Loony Party.
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The leader of the party himself showed up to contest the seat. They've been at this for a while and are pretty omnipresent in elections. The party's policies include "painting half of the grey squirrel population red, setting up a pot hole preservation society, and clearing away Britain’s national debt with a credit card."
Glorious.
Never change, Britain.
Topics Politics
Liza Hearon was the Deputy Editor for Mashable UK. Liza started her career in journalism writing about punk bands for a 'zine in Florida, and her wanderlust has led her to work for news organisations in Russia, Japan and now London. Prior to joining Mashable, she was the European homepage editor for the Wall Street Journal. Liza loves podcasts, karaoke and really, really spicy food.
