IdioC's Fifth Dimension

Politics is a very bizarre business in which groups of grown adults descend upon each other verbally like children on a playground, over sometimes trivial matters. University societies are no stranger to politics (neither am I, having been involved with the politics of two of them and also a moderator for a free online political game) and AGM-season for the election of new committees will often collapse into groups of friends going for the jugular. You’d be forgiven for thinking that the Bristol Computer Gaming Society in general would line up to shoot each other. Oh, wait.

So, having graduated from Bristol, I was in a position where it wouldn’t be fair for me to run for positions. The year before, I had run a satirical campaign for RON (Re-Open Nominations) with a photoshopped picture of Hedley Lamarr from Blazing Saddles, launching a faux autocratic campaign that four people on AGM day said they would have voted for.  The bad-taste ante had to be stepped up and so The Lemon Party was created…

Lemon Party Banner

…complete with a rosette for individual campaign manifestos to use…

Lemon Party Rosette

…and candidates for nearly every position, some of who signed up to the party after its launch, others making due reference to the united platform. Using the Obamicon.me website (and subsequent colour modification), I created a teaser poster before the party’s launch to sit in a forum thread, making people wonder what we were up to in the shadows.

Citrus Teaser Poster

Sadly, only one of the candidates got elected into a position, largely by his own merits as a TF2 Soldier impersonator and immense discount organising capability rather than the Lemon Party monikers and the actual rosettes I bought off the internet. The less said about the failed Presidential candidate’s sabotage run on the Treasurer position the better.

I put these up on here so that if someone, somewhere is annoyed with the politics their society, JCR or whatever goes through at least once a year, they can just rip these (or at least draw inspiration from a similarly cynical and disillusioned spirit) and make people realise the lighter side of political change and discussion: scathing satire.

(Lemon image from StyleTips101.com, found using Google Image Search. Rosette image from PartyCheap.com, found using Google Image Search.)