Clacton By-Election Candidate Profile
Nick the Incredible Flying Brick
Nick Delves
Nick Delves, better known politically as Nick the Incredible Flying Brick, is one of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party’s longest-serving active campaigners. He first stood for Parliament in 1997, has now appeared in 15 major election contests including Clacton, and has spent decades using deliberately absurd policies to parody conventional politics.
A veteran satirical candidate
Nick’s own election archive is unusually comprehensive and shows a much longer record than the recent election databases alone. Clacton is his fifteenth major election appearance, consisting of fourteen Westminster contests and one Welsh Assembly regional-list election.
Who is Nick Delves?
Behind the Flying Brick persona is a long-time Loony activist whose own archive documents nearly three decades of elections, party administration and election-agent work.
Joined in 1994
Delves says he joined the Monster Raving Loony Party after speaking to Alan “Howling Laud” Hope by telephone in 1994. His first parliamentary candidacy followed at the 1997 general election in West Derbyshire.
He says the party’s candidate vetting process consisted of asking Hope whether he could stand and being told “yes”.
Fine art, family and music
His own blog says he studied Fine Art at Cheltenham Art College and graduated with a third-class honours degree.
In a 2021 interview he said he was married to Lizzie, an A&E doctor, had two children, and played bass in a punk and new-wave covers band.
Party Treasurer
The Official Monster Raving Loony Party lists Delves as Treasurer from 2007 and Deputy Leader from 2019. He also acts as the party’s representative to the Electoral Commission.
Election organiser
He has frequently acted as election agent and organiser for other Loony candidates. His own 2026 blog says the Makerfield by-election was the 29th time he had acted as election agent for a Loony candidate in a parliamentary by-election.
“The golden rule of Monster Raving Loony Party politics is to always have low expectations.”
Nick Delves, Loony BlogWhy “The Flying Brick”?
Unlike many novelty political names, Delves has explained where his came from.
School nickname + paragliding = Flying Brick
A campaign identity that began with his first parliamentary run.
Delves told The London Economic in 2021 that he had been called “Brick” at school. When he first stood for Parliament in 1997 he had also taken up paragliding, so the two became “The Flying Brick”.
His long-running political job title became Shadow Minister for the Abolition of Gravity. Delves says the idea itself emerged during the 1997 campaign when a friend shouted “Abolish Gravity” through a megaphone.
In 2002 Delves suffered a paragliding accident in which he broke his pelvis and subsequently gave up the sport. He later joked that abolishing gravity had therefore become a personal vendetta.
His Clacton manicfesto
Delves has published a separate Clacton-specific list alongside the wider Loony Party manicfesto. These are deliberately absurd satirical policies.
Abolish gravity
His defining policy remains the abolition of gravity, a campaign he has pursued since 1997.
Stop intergalactic meddling
Says British politics should be protected from Count Binface and his alleged Klingon controllers.
Clacton space port
Proposes a constituency space port, with Jaywick and Frinton serving as arrival and departure lounges.
“Delvsinian” space
Wants the gravitationally neutral nature of planetary centres officially named “Delvsinian” space.
Old money returns
Proposes returning Britain to pounds, shillings, pence, farthings, groats and shiny beads.
£50 trillion QE
Proposes issuing £50 trillion of quantitative easing and giving Clacton voters free lunch and complimentary refreshments.
Bet the gold reserves
Says the UK’s remaining gold reserves should be placed on the last race at Chelmsford City Races to reduce the national debt.
Piranha and crocodiles
Wants fishing and wild swimming turned into spectator sports using piranha in Holland Brook and crocodiles around Clacton Pier.
Scrap January and February
His Democracy Club statement repeats the party proposal to abolish January and February to reduce fuel bills and the cost of living.
“I am a single issue politician.”
Nick Delves, Clacton manicfesto, 2026The party’s Clacton “Unfunfair Election” manicfesto
The three Official Monster Raving Loony Party candidates share a wider satirical Clacton platform. The jokes target the by-election itself, politicians’ outside interests, crime, migration, government spending, AI and the cost of living.
AI political position indicator
A conventional left-right score would be misleading for Nick the Flying Brick. His published programme is intentionally absurd and is primarily designed as political satire. Individual jokes target politicians and policies from different directions rather than forming a coherent economic, social or constitutional ideology. For that reason Clacton.org does not place him at a particular point on the FL-L-C-R-FR scale.
FL = Far Left, L = Left, C = Centre, R = Right, FR = Far Right. This is a Clacton.org editorial assessment and is not supplied, endorsed or approved by Nick Delves or the Official Monster Raving Loony Party.
15 known major election contests
Nick’s own website provides a continuous election record from 1997 to Clacton in 2026. It includes fourteen Westminster contests and one Welsh Assembly regional-list campaign.
| Date | Election | Party | Votes | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 May 1997 | West Derbyshire, UK General Election | Official Monster Raving Loony Party | 281 | 7th of 8 |
| 7 June 2001 | West Derbyshire, UK General Election | Official Monster Raving Loony Party | 472 | 5th of 6 |
| 5 May 2005 | West Derbyshire, UK General Election | Official Monster Raving Loony Party | 405 | 5th of 6 |
| 22 May 2008 | Crewe and Nantwich Parliamentary By-Election | Official Monster Raving Loony Party | 236 | 7th of 10 |
| 6 May 2010 | Derbyshire Dales, UK General Election | Official Monster Raving Loony Party | 228 | 6th of 7 |
| 13 Jan 2011 | Oldham East and Saddleworth Parliamentary By-Election | Official Monster Raving Loony Party | 145 | 7th of 16 |
| 5 June 2014 | Newark Parliamentary By-Election | Official Monster Raving Loony Party | 168 | 7th of 11 |
| 7 May 2015 | Doncaster North, UK General Election | Official Monster Raving Loony Party | 162 | 8th of 8 |
| 5 May 2016 | North Wales, National Assembly for Wales regional list | Official Monster Raving Loony Party | Party-list vote | Not elected |
| 23 Feb 2017 | Stoke-on-Trent Central Parliamentary By-Election | Official Monster Raving Loony Party | 127 | 7th of 10 |
| 12 Dec 2019 | Islington North, UK General Election | Official Monster Raving Loony Party | 236 | 6th of 6 |
| 6 May 2021 | Hartlepool Parliamentary By-Election | Official Monster Raving Loony Party | 108 | 14th of 16 |
| 15 Feb 2024 | Wellingborough Parliamentary By-Election | Official Monster Raving Loony Party | 217 | 9th of 11 |
| 4 July 2024 | Holborn and St Pancras, UK General Election | Official Monster Raving Loony Party | 162 | 8th of 12 |
| 13 Aug 2026 | Clacton Parliamentary By-Election | The Official Monster Raving Loony Party | Pending | Current election |
Candidate and party links
Sources and further information
This profile uses Nick Delves’s own long-running election archive, the Official Monster Raving Loony Party, Democracy Club, official election documents and independent reporting.