How come Lord Buckethead could stand for election pseudonymously?

Question

In the British general election of 2017, "Lord Buckethead" stood in the constituency of Maidenhead. Buckethead is a pseudonym. I understand Buckethead's identity is not public knowledge:

Buckethead, a self-described “intergalactic space lord” whose real name is unknown, won 249 votes in the Berkshire contest. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jun/09/lord-buckethead-elmo-and-mr-fish-finger-a-very-british-election

How / why is it permitted to stand for election under a pseudonym? Usually you see the candidate's full name and address on the ballot paper.

How have the electoral authorities confirmed Buckethead is eligible to stand for office? Do they know Buckethead's name in confidence?

Answer 1

If you watch the actual result in Maidenhead, you will see that particular candidate's vote is announced by the acting Returning Officer as "Jonathan, David; known as Lord Buckethead; 249." Similarly he will have given home address details, and any necessary identification procedures when he or his agent submitted his nomination papers as a validly nominated candidate.

If you look at the linked .pdf file, you will see a candidate is allowed to give a commonly used name. The general reason for this system is demonstrated by the next candidate announced in the video, "Hill, Anthony Charles; known as Tony Hill". The Returning Officer has a duty to disallow misleading, or offensive common names, so a candidate in Maidenhead couldn't run as, for example , 'Terry May', unless that was his real name. However Lord Buckethead isn't likely to be offensive, nor is it going to mislead anyone.

Answer 2

It is worth noting that this may not be a pseudonym. In the UK you can legally change your name to virtually anything via deed poll as long as it doesn't fall under the following restrictions

• does not include at least one forename and one surname;
• is impossible to pronounce;
• includes numbers or symbols (see section 2 below);
• includes punctuation marks that do not have a phonetic significance. However, you can have a hyphen to link forenames or surnames (for example, if you want a double-barrelled name) and an apostrophe in the case of surnames like O'Brien;
• is vulgar, offensive or blasphemous;
• promotes criminal activities;
• promotes racial or religious hatred;
• promotes the use of controlled drugs or includes the generic or slang name for them;
• ridicules people, groups, government departments, companies or organisations;
• may result in others believing you have a conferred or inherited honour, title, rank or academic award, for example, a change of first name to Sir, Lord, Laird, Lady, Prince, Princess, Viscount, Baron, Baroness, General, Captain, Professor or Doctor etc.
• exceeds the maximum number of characters allowed in a name (see section 7 below).

As such with a deed poll document you can get the name on your passport also changed. Technically speaking therefore this may not be a pseudonym but his real legal name.

I can give you the example as cited in this article of another "personality" who stood in this election but in Westmorland and Lonsdale instead of Maidenhead, where one individual legally changed his name via deed poll to be called "Mr Fishfinger" to stand against the incumbent Tim Farron (Leader of the Liberal Democrats).

Indeed Britain has a long history of people changing their legal names to appear as a joke candidate on a ballot paper, a tactic often taken up by The Official Monster's Raving Loony Party.

Never mind the ballot box, there is a long list of appearances in newspapers where name changes have resulted in some funny situations, I can give this example from last year when Buzz Lightyear was fined £200 for speeding in Devon

Answer 3

Lord Buckethead is definitely a weird name. However, in the UK you can switch your name to pretty much anything you want.

Restrictions on new names generally fall into these categories:

You can't pick an offensive or vulgar name You can’t pick a new name for fraudulent purposes Your new name can't promote any criminal activities You can't choose a racial slur as your new name, or anything that mocks certain groups or institutions Your name can't have any numbers, symbols, or made-up punctuations in your name Your name can only contain Latin characters If you're picking a title, it has to be a British accepted title (Mr, Mrs, Miss, Ms, and Mx)

So legally this guy may have switch his name via deed poll.

Of course the passport office might not accept Lord Bucketheads name but that is a different issue.