The Gold Party received 59 votes at the general election in Finchley on the 11th of June 1987.

The Gold Party was set up and financed by Charlie Arnold. Michaelle St Vincent became the candidate and KY McKay was the electoral agent. Unfortunately Charlie was away working as a cameraman during the actual campaign. The manifesto of the Gold Party, and hence the name, was to give everyone in Britain a million pounds by selling the national assets. Ironically the selling of Britain’s publicly owned assets did come to pass, but only 25% of Brits saw any meagre profit as shareholders. The real profits were made by city bosses and institutions. During her tenure Thatcher sold off 40 state-owned businesses, including BP, Rolls-Royce, British Airways, British Aerospace, British Shipbuilders, British Telecom, British Gas, British Steel, The Royal Mail, Rover and Jaguar, not forgetting the electricity and water companies.

At the initial press conference in Hampstead at the Dôme, there were four independent candidates, but in the end only two were to stand, the Gold Party and the Gremloid Party. Lord Buckethead represented the Gremloids, as the first alien to stand for parliament. Apparently the film producer Mike Lee was inside the bucket, although the rumour at the time was that it contained Peter Cook. We don’t know, since he never took the bucket off. The Gold Party had absolutely no budget, all the money was spent on the election expenses. We did manage to roneo off some leaflets, while I contributed as official photographer. The campaign was led with great gusto by Michaelle, nobody was arrested and a good time was had by all involved.

Michaelle St Vincent is now an artist, you can see her work here.

KY McKay is a singer and composer, formerly with Albania, signed to Chiswick and Stiff Records.

Charlie Arnold is a film cameraman who toured with many pop groups including Prince.