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earth-tattoo

Why is this on the front page of hacker news?

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As the Count might say himself: why not?

- interview on BBC Morning Live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAXT5xf9ot4

- interview on The Today Programme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGOmzQbRT_E

- interview with Andrew Marr on LBC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRBh7uGwxmU

Same reason as always. Someone found it interesting and submitted it. Others found it interesting and up voted it within a period of time.

I'm amused that hacker news crowd finds this front page worthy.

Why is it atypical? It’s a joke candidate running against a populist right wing politician with some real support. It’s exactly the kind of societal commentary this community finds interesting

What's most interesting is that the "joke" candidate was put forth by the other parties, because they know they cannot win a fair election against Farage in his district. They're hoping for another "Boaty McBoatface" outcome here, but their strategy will fail.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boaty_McBoatface

what are you on? Farage resigned their seat because they got 5 million they didn't declare and wished to avoid parliamentary procedure, instead saying "the voters should decide", and the other parties knew it was only a PR stunt so declined to take place, because there will be a by-election (yet another £200,000) that will happen anyway once the undeclared gift gets him booted.

I was wrong, the average cost is 348,000 gbp

The 5 million gift from friends was unrelated to his political campaign, and did not need to be declared. The committee is desperate to keep Farage from becoming PM. We saw the same sort of lawfare used against Trump during the 2024 election. Also, with Le Pen in France.

Yeah, I mean obviously. Who among us hasn't received a casual £5M from friends now and again? Why would it have anything to do with his political campaign?

Feel free to complain about the costs to taxpayers of having an unscheduled election, but remember what triggered it. Farage resigned to prevent more lawfare against him. His constituency will re-elect him.

And when or if they do, he will be subject to the investigation again. So... what is the point?

He resigned to try and prove that his constituents would still vote for someone that was bought for 5 million pounds.

Farage resigned to try to avoid the parliamentary standards committee over his undeclared millions in income. He framed it as letting the voters decide. That's not how it works - its a pure PR move. If he wins again he still gets investigated.

The other parties declined to stand candidates as they did not want to play Farage's silly game - they want to investigate him.

Farage has broken no laws. The committee is desperately trying to prevent him from becoming PM, which is inevitable if they don't murder him first.

I dunno if Hacker News encompasses hacker culture, but I’d say novelty candidates are absolutely hacker culture.

Because the mainstream parties have refused to stand candidates in opposition to Farage, stating "it's a stunt" there is some feeling Binface will not only get his deposit back, if the protest vote is strong enough...

Farage is very popular in Clacton. It's an older, reactionary community but british elections are First-Past-The-Post and normally have a low turn out so if enough old people died after the last election and enough younger people come out to vote, it is possible although I personally think unlikely, Binface will win.

Regrettably, for purists, and those who want Binface to win, other novelty candidates are now standing. The man dressed as a fox, and the monster raving loony party. Both appear to be somewhat petulant, MRLP is unhappy Binface has taken their spot in novelty candidature, and there are rumours MRLP and Mr Fox are being funded by right wing parties opposed to Farage. British Politics are very strange.

If the UK had proportional/transferrable votes, these alternate candidates would ultimately send votes to Binface in all likelihood. But, thats not how it works in British Parliamentary elections and by-elections. Forms of complex vote are used for the regional devolved parliaments in Wales and Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Andy Burnham (the future Labour prime minister from Manchester replacing Sir Keir Starmer) has previously indicated support for ending FPTP but people often say this before achieving power, and then fail to make it happen in power. Should he carry out another proposed idea of "a Parliament for England" based in the north, then it is likely as for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland it would not use FPTP.

Didn't they hold a referendum on an alternative voting system and it failed? I'd moved away by that time, but I seem to remember they basically chose a bad and confusing system to make sure it didn't pass.

MMP seems to work very well where I currently reside and it wouldn't be too confusing to add it to the British system, basically adding a party vote alongside the local MP vote and then taking MPs from the party lists to make it proportional.

> there are rumours MRLP and Mr Fox are being funded by right wing parties opposed to Farage

Opposed? This sounds like the right strategy for those allied to him. It dilutes Binface's vote pool, giving Farage a better chance of winning.

Yes, a very good point. However I do not believe there is much love lost between Restore and Reform. I think I allowed my enthusiasm for splintering to run away with things.

I just submit things I find interesting and occasionally other people find it interesting too. Usually opposite to what I expected.

Because the world has hacks outside of tech and a life outside tech. Most of the interesting articles on HN are things like today's lost city in egypt, not oh look lols my llm performs well.

Such is the state of British politics?

Such is the state of politics worldwide?

Have you seen the clown they elected in the US? Also, ive heard in Ukraine they elected a comedian as president.

> Have you seen the clown they elected in the US?

So much worse than a clown... At least clowns are scary and funny - but yeah... Not the Tangerine Terror. He's just scary in the stupidest of ways (as in; "How is this clown allowed to be in charge of anything at all? He's a danger to himself and everyone else.")

Did you not read the article? They are re-writing Count Binface in Rust.

:facepalm:

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