Political Background
Originally a member of the Conservative Party, Hockney contested the constituency of Pendle for the Referendum Party at the 1997 General Election, narrowly losing his deposit. He then moved to UKIP, for which he stood in Kensington and Chelsea at the 1999 by-election and the 2001 General Election. He was the UKIP London Mayoral candidate in 2000, and in June 2004 he was elected as a London-wide Member of the London Assembly for UKIP.
On 30 January 2005 he announced that he was defecting to Veritas, the new party founded by ex-UKIP MEP Robert Kilroy-Silk. It was subsequently announced that he would serve as deputy leader of Veritas. On 29 July 2005, following the resignation of Kilroy-Silk, Hockney announced his resignation as deputy leader.
In September 2005 Hockney founded the One London Party with fellow London Assembly Member Peter Hulme-Cross.
In February 2008 the One London Party announced that Hockney would be its candidate in the 2008 Mayoral election. However, on 27 March 2008, Hockney announced that he was pulling out of the race to become the mayor of London. He cited a lack of media opportunities for the candidates representing smaller parties as the reason, but confirmed that the party would still contest the Assembly election.
By profession, Hockney is a magazine publisher. He also once entered A Song For Europe, the UK preliminary round of the Eurovision Song Contest.
Hockney is distantly related to artist David Hockney.
Read more about this topic: Damian Hockney
Famous quotes containing the words political and/or background:
“Since the Civil War its six states have produced fewer political ideas, as political ideas run in the Republic, than any average county in Kansas or Nebraska.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)