Count Binface
countbinface.com
countbinface.com
(The videos on this website are worth the watch. Hilarious, of course. But also...Binface conjugates Latin to Sky News, and not just as a bit. I don't know how I feel about the British comedy candidate outclassing half of the American elected leadership–and a good fraction of its industrial leadership–on IQ.)
> I came to Earth in 2017 and stood against Prime Minister Theresa May (as ‘Lord Buckethead’). Then in 2018, after an unfortunate battle on the planet Copyright, I rewspawned in my true form as Count Binface.
Part of Clacton is relatively well off; part of the wider constituency (Jaywick) is genuinely deprived on a national scale, and they really do need an MP that bothers to understand them and that they can relate to.
Farage is absolutely manipulating and exploiting them for his own benefit; he uses their concerns to give himself a way to play on the national stage but he is a pretty terrible MP (though he’s not the only politician to forget they have a local constituency).
But if Binface could win, I don’t think it’s at all wrong to question whether the man under the bin is going to be good for them.
His job, I think, is to expose Farage’s lies and insecurities.
I do wonder if Farage will decide to drop out before the vote.
Farage, more than most people, seems to strongly dislike ridicule and to lose a good deal of his vote to a comedy candidate would significantly damage his long term political prospects. If the polls look really bad for him it might be better to cut and run.
If that happened it would be difficult for the Count as I assume he would win the seat, but having to be a reasonably behaved MP is an onerous task and one that he might prefer not to take on.
Your entire political system has flirted with anti-intellectualism for over a century; it used to pretend to be uneducated simpletons to appeal to the electorate (witness, e.g. the folksy “ahhm just a simple mayynn” gurning schtick of Senator John Kennedy, who literally fakes his accent and demeanour despite having a sharp legal mind and Oxford degree, and who could likely conjugate latin; he is following a path trodden by Bill Clinton) and now it has refined the concept such that politicians can actually be simpletons for real: Tommy Tuberville isn’t faking being thick and neither is Markwayne Mullin.
I don’t know about conjugating latin specifically (I used to be able to do this but the memory has faded) but the standard of literacy in the UK was excellent.
We do now have a fairly similar literacy skills profile in the young as the USA and Canada, but unlike in the USA, older adults outperform them, partly because more of us were exposed to the (now essentially eliminated) selective education (grammar school) system that favoured advanced literacy.
We are thus as I understand it unique in having (ETA: or having had) declining literacy; it is declining to the US/Canada level rather than below it but it is rather sad.
Binface went to good schools and has an Oxford classics degree, I think. Much of our political class did. More recently they will have done the PPE degree (which is more or less training to be a politician). He is in that sense as “establishment” as Farage, but more importantly he is a product of that fading system. So it is this you are observing; writers, politicians, actors often come from that declining tradition.
Side note: even many politicians from a non-traditional background have gone through this path at some level; the famously working-class deputy prime minister John Prescott studied at Ruskin College, which was a college associated with the trade union movement based in and sort of orbiting Oxford University that specialised in providing PPE-type education to aspiring politicians from working class backgrounds (originally founded, incidentally, by two Americans)
Look on it as a hiring process. Don't you want to select someone competent?
I realised I should have said "wishes". Not everyone votes based on self-interest.
(And in a FPTP system you are, IMO, better off voting against the person who least represents your wishes).
Mullin, like MTG, has some political instincts and some facility with the parliamentary process, as it turns out, and I almost feel bad about putting him in the same category as Tuberville, but he is not a smart guy.
Don’t get me wrong, we have many mediocre politicians in the UK, but few like these guys at the parliamentary level.
The difference is this whole flirting with anti-intellectualism thing. Pretending to be less educated or intellectual than you are has just not been a big part of our wider culture.
It was really interesting to me to see BoJo's take on it, which was similar but with aristocratic mannerisms (and stereotypes!) mixed in. I guess it was aimed at the middle class, for whom upper-class dogwhistles have typically landed well.
He did fake being a buffoon, of course, but he was doing that long, long, long before Trump. He is terrifically intelligent and obviously absurdly well-educated, he's just a liar and a sociopath.
Indeed his chosen buffoonish, winging-it character hints at that, because buffoon is the easiest comic role to play if you have very little empathy. It blunts all the qualities that would make him unbearable. His buffoon routine was helped by him being very authentically clumsy across all domains both physical and intellectual, and it helped him manage that too. The upper-class twit aspect couldn't be avoided so he doubled down on it from early on.
(He has his brother and sister to thank for humanising him, and his father to blame for his worst impulses)
Farage is definitely playing at Trumpism, and he has the cruelty aspect nailed down, but he lacks the ability to clown, doesn't he? He's fundamentally sour-faced and nasty.
If Farage survives the crypto donation scandal (and is therefore free to take more dodgy money), there's a real risk that the default rightwing party becomes Reform and the Conservatives become irrelevant, which would be a bizarre act of self-destruction.
Whatever happens re: Farage, the rules around donations will change, I think. We need to keep money out of our politics and make large donations seem intrinsically shady (because they always are)
No idea how intelligent he is, I wouldn't say I've seen any obvious signs of outstanding cerebral capabilities.
As to his education, he got a 2.1, quite respectable but given the resources employed (Eton and Oxford) in his education anything less would have been shameful.
Probably not philosophically. But it’s why pure democracies don’t work. And America has a weird problem of not enough electoral representation at some levels combined with electoral fetishisation at many others.
https://www.ons.gov.uk/explore-local-statistics/indicators/e...
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/oct/08/england-yo...
We were, for decades, a country in considerable literacy decline, and the only one of its kind. Some of this might have been a consequence of scrapping the grammar school system without giving the comprehensive system access to the same resources.
I tend to think that when Americans observe that British politicians and actors speak with a larger vocabulary or more eloquently, the people they are observing are products of the tail end of the grammar school system and the growth of a bias towards private education that emerged in its wake; the school system that turned out men and women of letters used to be available to all and now is available only to those with money.
Again, I think, citation needed, since conservative media does like to bang on about this a lot, but I’ve not seen actual proof that education standards are falling, or worse than they were when I was at school.
What I think has happened since the close of grammar schools is that the gap between most educated and least educated has closed significantly. This government report from 2023 shows that gap closing, while also showing an improvement from previous years.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/675330e020bcf...
I do think that it took a generation to figure out how to put into the comprehensive school system the same deep focus on “maths and english” that was always the grammar school advantage.
My own feelings about having been through grammar school education are complex (I can see, in retrospect, what I lost as well as what I gained) but I do think that in a world where success might come from communicating with considerable nuance with a computer in written form, more of the grammar school model may need to come to general education: perhaps nothing matters more now than a facility with language and semantics.
Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss, Boris Johnson, Theresa May, and David Cameron went to Oxford and Starmer did a postgrad there.
So the current PM and previous five.
Maybe Binface can make PM after all?
Ultimately it is all for the good; clearly a -face name is much more quintessentially British.
Also in the US, Apple’s search assumes we want the guitarist.
He studied Classics at Oxford. He'd be in trouble if he couldn't.
It is however true that you're only allowed to say true, intelligent things in British politics if you're a joke candidate. Jester's privilege. Binface has driven the rightwing press mad because he's the last threat to their darling candidate, so they're now trying to smear him as if he were a serious candidate. Which he is not. The end result is very funny.
Edited to add: Some of my favourite commentary around this by-election is along the lines of:
A fundamentally un-serious candidate with no coherent policies or political experience running against Count Binface.
It's Count Binface vs The Count of Dodgy Crypto.
Farage seems to have broken Parliamentary Rules (laid down after the cash for questions scandal in the 1990s) by accepting large sums of money as gifts - but without declaring them, something all MPs are required to do for any gift. But worse, one of these gifts came from a convicted crypto felon.
The Parliamentary standards committee seemed likely to suspend him or order a recall by-election as a result.
Nigel's aim in preempting this near-inevitability was apparently to use the media spotlight the by-election would give him to dominate the summer headlines and present himself as a man-of-the-peeps martyr-rebel under mean & outrageous establishment persecution (rather than just the rich little chancer he is, on the make, with the murkiest of murky connections). If he could hammer this impression into the public imagination, they'd then be deaf to any subsequent findings from the Parliamentary Standards Committee.
In other words he thought this little manoeuvre could turn a damaging problem and weakness into a strength. Unfortunately for Nige, the other parties understood this, & instead have left him to play all summer long with the jokers and silly parties, looking like a laughingstock.
So as you see, there's nothing anti-democratic about it. If he wins, he will still face the suspension and recall election that was coming anyway. But as part of procedure - not on the terms he's trying to set with this little stunt.
I get you. Farage is still learning, on his frequent visits to the US. Give him time.
We definitely are the weaker and more pathetic side of the Atlantic when it comes to corruption in our politics at the moment. We do bow to your superiority in this area.
It leads me to wonder what I could get done for myself if I was to drain some savings and send a bung to a politician. But alas, I have scruples
Why is it not a violation of Parliamentary Rules to conspire to create a false candidate in an election?
Also if these people are genuinely breaking the law, how would it go any differently?
You seem deeply ignorant about the rules UK politicians are bound by. The Parliamentary Standards investigation doesn't need any creativity in interpreting a failure to declare a £5m gift as a breach of parliamentary rules.
On the broader point, popularity doesn't exempt politicians from the rules that apply to every MP. Not that Farage is popular, he's -27 in the latest poll.
Either way, there is no way to become PM without (approx) three hundred MPs. There's plenty of time before the true next election (not this by-election which Farage has forced) for him to attempt to stand candidates in and win that many seats.
> conspire to create a false candidate in an election
Binface is not a false candidate. He's complied with the rules just like everyone else.
That doesn't make much sense as who is to decide whether a candidate is "false" and what does that mean? Farage could easily be described as a false candidate as he barely does anything for Clacton and doesn't hold his MP surgery which is usually part of representing an area.
Also, who do you think is conspiring in this case? Binface has been around for a while and is pretty much a one-man band. If anything, Reform UK Ltd conspires to get their candidates elected (as do other political parties).
https://thenationalpulse.com/2026/07/13/farage-offered-secur...
Glass houses are not a recommended location for shot put practice, regardless of if it is as severe a topic as this:
There's also a few complaints of money laundering with the various "gifts" that he received which may be one reason that he's tried so hard to avoid any scrutiny. Also, it doesn't really enhance his "man of the people" act.
The only Reform policy document that was finished before the May elections was the cryptocurrency policy, and Farage happens to have asked the governor of the Bank of England to change policy in a way that would benefit Tether; the governor describes that as “lobbying”.
I’m sure these are coincidences.
What should happen is the investigation to run its course. The whole resignation is just an attempt to divert attention from it.
Amusingly, I find it more likely Farage would lose to Count Binface than to the mainstream candidates. To win, you need merely the most votes, not more than 50%. If the "not Farage" vote gets split between Labour, Greens, Lib Dems and Conservatives, he might eke out a win. But if anyone who doesn't like Farage just needs to vote Count Binface, it might actually happen.
I believe that while the Parliamentary Standards Committee can order a suspension, the prospect of a recall election is not due to the committee ordering it but rather sufficient electors in the Member's constituency petitioning for it.
The recall election only becomes a possibility if any suspension is greater than ten days in length.
I wonder how the legalities of this work. If people write in "Count Binface" or if that's the name on the ballot, then if he wins, does that mean Jonathan David Harvey (the actual name of the guy who plays him) is elected? Does Count Binface count as an alias? If not, he required to use that name while in office - or more precisely, is he not considered a member if he goes by his own name?
If he goes into the parliament building without his costume, it would be a bit awkward if, say, they were required to address him by his Count Binface alias.
Or, perhaps they wouldn't care too precisely about the naming aspect, since everyone knows who he is, but politics is vicious and I'm sure there are plenty who would use any possible legal maneuver to keep him out of parliament. Surely there are laws to handle these kinds of discrepancies around someone's identity... right? Laws that could get him kicked out?
If he actually wins, would he try to do some serious good or would he keep the joke going? Should he actually prepare a serious "if I actually win the election" policy list? It would conflict with his joke list since he would be asked more questions about the real one. Or would he just have one big mixed list split 50/50 between jokes and serious ideas?
If people commonly use it to refer to them it makes it that person's name for most purposes. Changing the name officially also requires only an affirmation or an oath at a court, although I don't think this would be the case here.
I think nobody would care much and the majority of politicians would go along with Count Binface as the proper way of address, because it'd be rude to do otherwise. Not the least because picking a fight with Count Binface would be seen as getting themselves dirty in non-serious politics. Not a very attractive proposition to be perceived as such for most political parties no matter how ridiculous their actions might be otherwise.
The full birth certificate name of the former "born American" PM is Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, so arguably that person's "first name component" isn't Boris alone.
Count Binface is in a different situation, because "Count Binface" is a stage name, which he (presumably) doesn't go as in his real life. However, stage names are still considered legal enough to go on your UK passport. Ultimately, whether he would be allowed to write "Count Binface" as his name on the registration documents would depend on what the Electoral Commission decides. I had a look last week, but couldn't find their rules.
One can stand for election using any name that one is "commonly known by".
For a passport, the only real requirement is vague evidence that you actually use the name.
Oi! It's a Driving Licence here in Blighty!
If the people vote for a man in a bin costume then he should have the right to represent them in that very same costume. On the other hand, to satisfy both his desire for a costumes as well as parliament's rules that basically allow its members to look at each other eye to eye, he might switch to a transparent bin. Something that would benefit the whole country as transparent bins allow its users as well as the bin (wo)men to identify bins that have been filled with the wrong waste.
Tremendous comment :-)
The name isn't really that much of a problem.
My apologies to the beautiful people of Recyclon for the unflattering comparison.
I know you are explaining in earnest but the way you ended and formatted it is sooo (un?)intentionally funny. Like, of all the stunts Binface is pulling, the name is the least legitimate of concerns.
Kinda like what they say about the poor people of Clacton having to choose between a joke trash candidate and Count Binface.
What's this type of makes-you-do-double-take, got-me-in-the-first-half-ngl humor called other than just British?
I think leaving the seat empty if he wins is the only possible choice, both legally and democratically. He should make it clear that this is what would happen if he gets elected so the people of Clacton know what they are voting for.
If Binface is the second-last special case, who is the last one?
He would though have to remove the bin for votes at the least
Let's not get started on the sexism against men with Hoyle wanting them to wear ties and a jacket but for women just 'business-like' is expected.
In fact, "naming" an MP is mark of having broken the rules:
https://www.parliament.uk/site-information/glossary/naming-o...
From what I can tell there isn't anything about identity in the way you're suggesting. However there are conventions and regulations around dress in the Commons which preclude wearing hats.
As for what he'd do if he won, he hasn't said so far. However he does have a policy list which includes nationalising Adel and building 1 affordable home. As an MP he could campaign for those and attempt to table a private members bill.
I think the answer to a lot of these questions is "we don't know". He's been running in various campaigns for years, this is just the first time he's the only other candidate in a potentially high profile campaign.
I hope some Oxfoed PPE students will be using this for their dissertations.
There are (fortunately) very few rules on who's allowed to be an MP. The public are supposed to be the ultimate arbiter. The rule against being elected while in prison was only introduced after Bobby Sands MP, for example. Otherwise the rules seem mainly concerned that you're not bankrupt or holding an ineligible state office.
https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/guidance-candidates-a...
Members of Parliament aren't allowed to address each other by name in the Commons chamber.
All debate must be addressed to the Speaker (or Deputy Speaker if one of them are chairing the debate).
References to other members are made in the form of "the X member for Y constituency", where X is:
- "honourable" (the default);
- "right honourable" if they are sworn of the Privy Council (i.e. they've been a minister in the past);
- "learned and honourable member" (a qualified lawyer); or
- "gallant and honourable member" (somebody who has served in the armed forces).
Also, in 2002, Richard James changed his name to “Mr Yellow-Rat Foxysquirrel Fairydiddle”, in exchange for a pint of beer*.
You're not allowed to use a deed poll to give yourself a title, so the "Count" part of "Count Binface" may need to be changed, but specifically because he presents himself as an intergalactic space lord, the official example (for passports) is with "Doctor" being used as a first name being fine when it's not a fake title: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-names-we-use-...
* It says something about the world we live in that my effort to find the story about Mr Fairydiddle returned one of my own comments on hacker news rather than a newspaper: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26375394
The actual politician he’s standing against is an asshole
Binface, ridiculous though it may seem, is going to be the unity candidate for tactical voting, and that's deadly serious from the point of view of those who wish to get Farage out.
Even if Farage wins, but with a reduced majority, in an election where the alternatives are fringe or novelty candidates, it will be hard for his dignity to recover.
I think you'll get a non-trivial amount of people voting for Binface either a) because you don't care about politics & think it's funny b) as "anyone but Farage" c) to treat it as a by-election because they think Binface won't take his seat and it'll trigger the 'real byelection' with their preferred party instead.
According to the bookies, Binface is currently 8/1 to win (about 11% probability), and Farage 1/8 (about 89%), with the rest of the candidates nowhere. There's probably something Bayesian you could do to estimate the probability of various margins from that, but it's going to be uncomfortable for Farage no matter what - winning over Binface by an embarassingly small margin will not enhance his image, particularly if there is going to be another byelection called soon after with the financial issue continuing to be in the spotlight. The only way this works out favourably for Farage is if he scores a crushing victory over Binface with an increased voter share relative to his previous election result, and I think the odds of that are slim.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RRS_Sir_David_Attenborough#Nam...
He wouldn't get away with his headgear in the commons but top hats are permitted (at least when not speaking) so he has some room for manoeuvre.
There's just no way to claim that as a decisive victory with a straight face. It'll always come with the caveat "... against a bin" - which means Farage has already lost.
> Drummond immediately decided to concentrate on politics and ceased being H'Angus; he was quoted as saying, "I am Stuart Drummond, I am the Mayor of Hartlepool, not the monkey." Drummond was re-elected in 2005, more than doubling his vote (up to over 16,000)
Farage left fighting a trash can as the UK populist's election gamble backfires
There's even some talk of a potential Loony-Bin alliance.
I sincerely hope the best alien wins.
Notably, if he is re-elected, the Parliamentary Standards Committee will simply continue their investigation into his dodgy finances.
Farage announced his intention to stand in this by-election (which he is entitled to do), arguing that only his constituents had the right to decide whether he was fit to be a Member of Parliament. He argues that the Standards Committee is fundamentally illegitimate because he would be judged by his political rivals; in any case, the greatest sanction the committee could impose would be his expulsion from parliament, which would trigger a by-election that he would be entitled to stand in. The other major parties have all decided not to stand candidates against Farage in the Clacton by-election, creating this slightly farcical contest between the incumbent and a joke candidate.
Instead of waiting out the inquiry, Farage decided to immediately run for his own vacant seat again, framing the sudden election as a "people versus the establishment" referendum to clear his name. All Britain's major political parties, including the governing Labour Party and the opposition Conservatives, are boycotting the race entirely.
Farage’s primary opponent is a man wearing a trash can on his head who goes by the name "Count Binface", a "beloved" staple of modern British democracy who regularly runs against prime ministers and prominent politicians as a satirical protest vote, armed with policies like capping the price of croissants and mandating functioning Wi-Fi on trains.
Farage received a "gift" of £5M. He didn't tell parliament about the gift, which breaks the rules. MPs or campaigning MPs need to declare gifts and donations, as there are strict rules on who you can receive money from. The media found out about the "gift", and Farage was going to be investigated. He resigned as MP for Clacton, which stops the investigation and triggers an election. I think his plan was for him to win again, and then be able to turn around and say "the people have decided, they don't care about gifts I get." However, all the other parties refused to stand candidates in the upcoming election. If Farage wins, then the investigation will start again. However, we have numerous comedic parties that will run in elections in the UK. Count Binface will challenge Farage. Farage won with something like 46% of the vote last time. With the negative coverage he's been receiving, and the option of sticking it to reform by voting for Count Binface, the people of Clacton might end up delivering a very embarrassing defeat for Farage. This is the country that voted to name a research vessel Boaty McBoatFace.
A Lord can’t address the commons, which was most recently an issue when ex PM David Cameron was made foreign secretary in the dying days of the last Tory governemt.
There have been non-MP (ie non-Commons) PMs.
I suppose that in theory if Reform could form a government after the next election, but Farage still didn't get a seat, a party colleague could become PM and appoint him as a peer. There's a rich history of politicians losing elections and getting appointed this way instead, though as far as I know none of them subsequently became PM.
You also have to be an MP.
Currently Kier Starmer is a Labour mp in an area of London. He’s resigning and is being replaced by someone (Burnham) who was Labour Mayor for Manchester, but stood as MP in an area of Manchester last month after another Labour MP resigned.
Burnham beat reform in that election, and Count Binface. There was a discussion thy given how unpopular Labour is, that reform might win. In the end everyone who was anti reform (Farage’s party) voted Burnham and he got 55% of the vote.
While the sentiment in the U.K. is that if a general election were held tomorrow, Farage would win his seat, and reform would win a large number of votes. In reality polling puts Farage’s party around 25%, with four other parties on 10-20%. As the election isn’t proportional though it’s possible reform could get 55% of the seats with 25% of the vote, however last time they got 1% of the seats with 12% of the votes.
I don't think that's strictly true. You definitely don't have to be an MP in order to hold a cabinet office. I think that extends to the PM as well. It's never been tried obviously.
The last member of the House of Lords to be PM was Lord Salisbury in 1900.
As noted Alec Douglas-Hume had to leave the House of Lords in 1963 and get elected as a MP.
The previous attempt would have been Lord Halifax in 1940 but by then it was clear the PM had to be from the Commons.
Firstly, that election is three years away; it's a separate political event.
Secondly, that depends on the outcome of at least three hundred constituency elections, which would have to return Reform candidates. They did OK for a minor party at the last council elections, but they have a very high attrition rate as candidates are discovered to be above the acceptable racism threshold, bent, mad, or simply never intended to do the job in the first place.
And "Killing in the Name" as Christmas song of '09, to spite the usual X-factor shoo-in.
There is a chance that more entertainment is yet to come from Clacton.
Basically Nigel Farage won the seat to become a member of parliament representing the Clacton district. Then, there was an ethics scandal, so Nigel Farage resigned his seat, but is running in the special election to fill the vacancy. All the other serious political parties (Greens, Labour, Conservatives, Restore) think this is a stunt and a waste of time, so they aren't running any candidates. So, Nigel Farage is the only "real" politician in the race, and the "silly" candidate with the most support is Count Binface. So the special election ends up being between Farage and Count Binface.
However the senator decided to stand in that special election. If they win the bribery investigation resumes.
Add in that under the U.K. system it’s not just red va blue, it’s a multi party election. In 2024 Farage got 45% of the vote. Since then he came out pro Trump and pro Iran war, then went quiet as he realised nobody wanted that and he’s taken millions in “personal gifts”, he avoided tax by giving money to his floozy to buy a house for him (in cash), and he’s spent about zero days in the constituency he represents and about 6 days in parliament, and most of the time in the us furthering his media career.
Now imagine the only other candidate was a man dressed as a bin.
If he’s found to have broken the rules, it’s possible he’d be suspended from parliament and subject to a recall election. However, he has resigned from this position himself instead, which means there will be a by-election for that seat.
It’s widely perceived that he has done this to distract from the investigation, with the view being that if he runs, then wins, a parliamentary suspension looks like a coordinated attack on someone who has just proven he has local support.
The major UK parties have decided not to field candidates in this election, claiming it is a distraction tactic and a waste of resources. This will leave Farage campaigning head-to-head with a man dressed as a bin, neutering any claims that this is a “real” election win (as well as generating plenty of entertaining news footage over the next few weeks).
By standing down as an MP, rather than letting the enquiry proceed, he hopes he has removed the parliamentary authorities' powers to look into his affairs too closely, but to avoid embarrassment, he's asserted in public that he stood down (and then immediately put himself forward as a candidate to stand in the special election that results) as a way to thwart the deep state's efforts to tarnish his reputation and to take away the power of the establishment to try him unfairly, and handed the power to determine his fate to the good people of Clacton (who now won't get the chance to find out if their local MP is corrupt, thanks to the parliamentary enquiry being halted).
In all honesty, it doesn't look like he knows what he's doing, but there was some suspicion that he was planning to drop out of the special election for personal reasons in due course, avoiding a return to parliament and the related scrutiny, and letting his seat fall to the Conservatives or Restore UK - but all the other parties refused to put up candidates, so now he's up against one comedy candidate and is probably going to win the seat regardless, unless he drops out and leaves the poor people of Clacton with a fiasco of some sort on their hands.
They can be moved into another public service role, and there are ceremonial roles designed to ‘shelve’ MPs, but other than that, criminal acts and incapacity, they can’t actually stand down. Starmer is resigning as Prime Minister, he is not resigning as an MP.
This is why the other parties see the whole thing as a farce. The chancellor approved the budget for the by-election by saying “if he wants to spend his summer talking to a bin, so be it” but it’s unclear if there’s any constitutional legality to it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stewards_of_the_Chilte...
It's hardly unprecedented for an MP to resign. What is almost unprecedented is immediately standing for election again: it's not a revolving door, you're supposed to fuck off and stay out. Especially not to pre-empt an investigation into your conduct. It is indeed a farce.
Nigel Farage is basically like the UK's Trump: he was the head of the UKIP party, which championed Brexit, and then became the dog that caught the car when Brexit actually happened. Since then, the Reform UK party has taken up the position of far-right-practically-Nazis in UK politics, and Farage is the head of that.
Farage is also an MP (Member of Parliament) for Clacton. Recently, he was embroiled in a scandal where he clearly took foreign bribe money. As an MP, Parliament can run an investigation of him for it. So he stepped down—pre-empting that investigation...but immediately stood in the by-election that was triggered. This way, either he loses the by-election to one of the other major parties—Labour or the Tories, which these days roughly count as "somewhat right of the US Democrats and a tiny bit left of the US Republicans", respectively—or he is returned to Parliament with a strong mandate, having defeated whatever candidates those parties sent to oppose him.
Except...they didn't send anyone to oppose him.
This means that he's basically a shoo-in to return to Parliament unopposed—meaning he has no mandate—to face his investigation.
...Enter Count Binface.
Now the options for him are "return to Parliament having faced no serious candidates, right into an official investigation", or "lose to the man with a bin on his head".
Neither of these are good options for Nigel Farage.
That's also before you consider who Binface actually is - he graduated in Classics from Oxford University, has been a script writer for the Thick of It and Have I got News for You (both popular political satires) and has a Podcast that gets some big names on it. Every interview he does, he comes across as extremely smart, sharp and articulate. If there is ever a face-to-face discussion between him and Farage, it will generate endless clips of Farage's humiliation.
Policital affiliation aside, it is good to see somebody arogant and entitled brought down to size.
The _Official_ Monster Raving Loony Party (http://www.loonyparty.com/), you mean?
Wikipedia (of course) has a page on it (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Official_Monster_Raving_Loony_...) and also has a list of frivolous political parties worldwide (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_frivolous_political_pa...)
Nah, never going to happen. There's history between Binface and the Loonies... and they're a lot more right-wing than people often think they are
More seriously, he actually seems like a decent guy. This is a really touching and personal history which gets into his motivations and his life https://archive.ph/61Ecw
Ok you have my vote.
Mine too.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MCCVt8IhJkA&pp=ygUHQmluZmFjZQ%...
If the recall-petition is signed by 10% or more of voters in that MP's constituency, this triggers a by-election.
So there's a reasonable possibility that once the investigation concludes, there will be another by-election in Clacton.
He's arguing that if he gets reelected then the investigation doesn't matter. The other parties are arguing it's a stunt, and so are fielding no candidates.
Binface's candidacy accurately represents the absurdity of the whole thing.
The timing of this by-election is also such that, were there an actual race, Farage would likely get his propaganda on the front of the newspapers throughout the summer months while everyone else in politics is on holiday.
More info should follow here today:
https://www.tendringdc.gov.uk/content/13-august-2026-electio...
Having Count Binface as the only other candidate is IMO a second-best option.
It’s time to get rid of FPTP, but the real problem seems to be that people just keep voting for the wrong policies.
Yes and he’s running against Count Binface
(sorry)
"Joke candidate making a serious attempt at practically unseating a probably corrupt party leader through democratic voting process" is infinitely better than what happens on the other side of the Atlantic. Or as I would call it "vote for one of the two presidential candidates who can't form a coherent sentence. Except your vote doesn't matter because your state is deep red or blue. And your congressional vote doesn't matter either because you are gerrymandered. But your congressional vote not mattering doesn't matter anyway because the congress has given up governing."
I think it's sad that Binface is the only one even attempting to engage in democracy at this point. He's a satire but he's also, seemingly, the only legitimate opposition that populists face. That should be concerning and embarrassing, but no one has learned anything over the past 10 years.
So, what happens when Binface loses? Are they just going to try to put Farage in prison like they're doing with the other populists? That'll surely help.
And if he does somehow win, what then? Doesn't that also prove that populism is the only viable strategy? Either way people are celebrating their own defeat.
The other parties have all said that they will run candidates against Farage in the almost inevitable second byelection that will by triggered later when parliament finishes its investigation into his corruption and punishes him for it.
You claim that this kind of thing "generally harms populists more than anything else," but I can't think of a single time that it actually has at the scale that matters. What would harm populists would be a viable alternative that takes the concerns of the population seriously.
I sense that you are not British, but you can trust us when we say this has absolutely made a fool of him to the British public.
This is really a bespoke kind of humiliation.
I'm pretty sure that just like every other backhanded attempt to squash the populists, this will backfire. I can't know that of course, but I'm pattern-matching against years of this kind of stuff happening in like 5-6 different countries in Europe already.
You are right that it could backfire, but to give you a much longer and more analytical answer, here is the picture as Farage understands it and why he did what he did:
- Farage is the leader of an insurgent party with the ability to command national media attention. He can make the main news channels attend.
- He was already MP with a large majority off a pretty good, recent turnout.
- There is no local media at all to speak of — no local newspaper worth a damn, no local TV, no other earned media
- The election is five or six weeks away.
- No national party can stand up an adequate candidate in a parliamentary constituency election in that time. It will be novices, first-time candidates with poor name recognition.
So the above is the election he wanted to fight, right?
If any of the main parties stand up candidates, they will all feel they have to contest it so as not to lose vote share to Farage, and Farage wins.
If nobody stands up, Farage wins.
And if a novelty candidate stands up, Farage wins.
Whichever way, the outcome after the by-election is the same as the one before: Farage is going to be the MP for Clacton. So given that this happens regardless — it cannot be stopped even though he started it for his own benefit — what is the best outcome for people who wish to see Farage politically damaged?
It is not the first one, because that is the specific outcome Farage wanted.
This way he now has to campaign around the simple story: he is fighting for his political skin, and his main campaign position to the people of Clacton (and deprived Jaywick) is that it's OK he's been given money and gifts by crypto billionaires and convicted fraudsters and that it's unfair for that to be investigated.
This is not at all a backhanded thing; it's open party politics. The last time this was done it was done to a fully establishment Tory (David Davis) who resigned to fight a by-election on a single issue.
He'll still be under investigation(s) when he comes back, and he won't be able to blunt the impact of those investigations by claiming that he has beaten all the establishment candidates. This is the best path forward.
I agree this might be a normal political tactic on paper, but that's irrelevant when you're dealing with populism. The entire game is tribal framing. To anyone outside the anti-Farage coalition, this just looks like the establishment closing ranks, and that's more recruiting material for him.
What I can see happening here, at best, is maybe Farage stepping away if the pressure gets too much. But then you risk him getting replaced by a more angry figurehead who will use Farage's downfall as evidence of the "hatred and dirty politics" of the establishment.
And I presented that scenario in the form Farage understands it. Remember: he literally started this.
If Farage steps down — he's done it before, and I agree that there is a very good chance he does so before the election — then Reform is finished. There is nobody else, even though a few Reform people like to excitedly tell you that Zia Yusuf could do it.
It's the same with Trump: who is going to take Trump's mantle with the same authority when he goes? Nobody.
But in the UK, the chances of a populist party appearing at the fringes and seizing real power is very much held back by the way our system works. Farage is a unicorn; incredibly rare. Even the Tory party would have difficulty seizing back populism for the next decade or two.
And there is no establishment "overreach" here at all. Farage is a democratically elected MP who is being investigated by the parliament he joined for things any other MP would be investigated for. He could just sit and wait for that to be done, because he's an MP regardless and the people who ultimately judge whether he keeps his job are his own constituents anyway. If political parties choose not to play his game on his own terms and timescales, that is a decision for each of them.
The question is whether satire will puncture that.
Farage's supporters will be trying as hard as possible to paint Binface as a lefty establishment figure- but satire gives you an oportunity to reframe the debate.
Take the 5 million quid - the defence is it's a gift and who wouldn't take it if offered?
Binface can lean into that - rather than say it's terrible etc - he can say - yes I'd like a bit of that - and ask Farage how he can also get such a donation?
Such a question is in effect asking 'what do I need to do to get a 5 million donation' - which is the same as asking what Nigel did for it.
But it's more difficult to answer with 'none of your business' or I did nothing - implying Binface is equally likely to get it.
But perhaps I'm being over-optimistic.
Actually, you seem to be the one ignoring data out of partisan prejudice. The polls are quite clear Farage's shady finances are damaging both him and Reform.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/07/12/farage-slump...
But he's a bin, and it's his seventh election. You can't exactly ask questions like "where is a man pretending to be a garbage can getting the £100 filing fee from" without making yourself look incredibly silly. Everyone but the most extreme cultists can see that, even his own regular supporters.
You can't fight a bin. It's like wrestling with a pig: you just get dirty and the pig enjoys it. The real question is: is Farage's support strong enough to secure an overwhelming victory against the get-rid-of-Farage candidate without actually campaigning?
Farage is looking to get a popular mandate to try and both draw attention away from that investigation, and justify keeping his position because "the people have spoken". The other parties don't want to undermine the investigation by taking part in an election which would be moot if he were found guilty anyway.
Farage is therefore punching on air, and has been reduced to arguing that a joke candidate with a bin on his head who claims to be from outer space is an "establishment" (aka "deep state") plant.
It's actually a smart move from the other parties. Without a serious "enemy" to fight, populists look foolish as their usual rhetorical moves have no bite.
He will win, of course.
But Parliament can't actually eject him. All they can do is enable the one mechanism that could: a constituency recall petition that needs 10% of his electorate to sign it, that triggers… a by-election he could lose.
If he runs and his constituency vote for him in that, he's their MP.
Now would he win the second by election even with a finding of misconduct against him? He might very well. But the establishment parties (especially the Tories) will feel much better placed to challenge him if they have him being found to have conducted in dodgy behaviour.
If Farage wins, things continue exactly as they were: Farage the MP of Clacton, being investigated for undeclared financial gifts. With no serious counter-candidates, even getting 99% of the votes would be completely meaningless.
If Farage loses, well, he'll have lost to a bin, meaning his political career would be finished.
And anything besides a massive victory would only hurt Farage. Prior to this he was seen as a likely future Prime Minister. If he gets a 55/45 victory against a bin in a constituency which heavily favors his party, who would ever take him serious?
If the other parties contested the election, they would've legitimized his stupid "I'm getting a mandate from the people" move, automatically making it way more of a mess if his undeclared financial gifts turned into being expelled from the House.
The only winning move is not to play. The other parties know this, and by treating the Count as a completely legitimate candidate the media are guaranteeing this.
Any amount of votes Binface gets is a deep embarrassment to Farage! Binface is just pointing at the farce that Farage has created, and undermining him in a particularly British way.
If Farage wins, he will face the inquiry he is attempting to escape by pulling this stunt (in a summer where the WC is happening, Farage managed to score the biggest and most protracted own-goal in the history of own-goals). An effect of the inquiry is that it will trigger _another_ election in which the other parties are expected to field a candidate.
I'm not from the UK so I don't know the proper terms/political procedure but if you read up on the whole situation beyond the jokes, what I said above is a good rough outline. This is hardly the death of opposition to populists.
He wanted this election on his own terms; he called it, to give himself a chance to bloviate and to claim that the very serious allegations against him are an establishment fit-up (when they are not).
The reality is that the outcome of those investigations has the potential to lead to another by-election (because only 10% of constituents need to sign a recall petition). Farage’s calculation is that if he triggers the by-election and wins before those investigations conclude, he can blunt the chance of a recall petition succeeding (and build some national case for Reform)
The response of the major parties to just decide not to play his game on his terms has some precedent. This is not an abdication of their responsibility, it is exercise of it.
More importantly this outcome is funny, broadly understood as a fair response, and is utterly humiliating to Farage, who is thin-skinned and easily enraged. He would have won against any candidate any party could rustle up at short notice and he knows it. He will still have his victory but nothing changes except that he is diminished.
Whilst under investigation for undeclared funding, Farrage is trying to legitimise himself by resigning and having an electorate re-elect him at the expense of the tax payer. The mainstream parties have, understandably refused to play ball, leaving him to regain his existing position uncontested.
But, and this is the bit we are celebrating, Count Binface, a satirical figure, is standing against him, ridiculing him and highlighting in the media the whole selfish situation. This is a backfire for Farrage, as it has nationally pissed on his selfish legitimisation parade.
Also, Farage is the ultimate "establishment" candidate. He would be the same level of obscurity as Tommy Robinson or Restore if he didn't have a regular seat on BBC Question Time. All of his money comes from a small number of rich donors. He's appealing to anti-immigrant sentiment in a constituency that has hardly any immigrants.
You also have to keep in mind that it isn't about Clacton. It is a city of no importance. Farage chose to run there in 2024 because he expected it'd be a slam-dunk for him - and it was. He does literally nothing for the people of Clacton, it is just his entry into the House.
On the other hand, Farage is trying to establish himself as the major right-wing option. If he wants to become Prime Minister he'll need to have nationwide support - and the Ipsos poll is a pretty decent indication of how the nation feels about Farage right now.
"Binface" wouldn't be nearly as funny using an American term.
Bin is also short for rubbish bin (the smaller ones in the home) or dustbin (the larger ones outside).
Weirdly we rarely use either of garbage or trash. Even the lorries we call refuse trucks.
Nigel Farage is a populist gobshite. He's in trouble because he refused to declare a £5 million donation from a crypto billionaire, Christopher Harborne. MPs are expected to declare any "gifts" that might sway them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reform_UK_financial_allegation...
After Farage took that "gift", he became an MP and lobbied the Bank of England to adopt a stablecoin that Christopher Harborne was heavily invested in.
Recently, the press found years and years of undeclared dodgy donations to Farage and his party, many from convicted fraudster "Posh" George Cottrell, author of book How to Launder Money.
Sleazy MPs who take bribes are investigated, can be reprimanded, can be recalled by their constituents.
Farage is trying to get ahead of the curve by resigning now, then competing in the election for his successor. He's hoping to pause the investigation into his finances, and wants to pull the populist move of "The People support me!"
Every major party sees this trap and have boycotted Nigel's self-election. They'll fight him in the next election, after he's recalled for sleaze.
Effectively he is standing unopposed... except for the joke candidates. And who better a joke candidate than a quick-witted comedian in a ridiculous outfit? £500 to rip the piss out of Farage for a month is a bargain.
The thing populists hate most is being ridiculed and not taken seriously. It really pricks their ego. Will Nigel spend summer arguing with a bin? Will Nigel lose to a bin? That's for the people of Clacton to decide.
Practically no American ever calls a garbage can a "bin" (though like you say we do have a concept of generic 'bins') but a lot of Americans will immediately know what you mean if you say it, sort of like "flat" and "apartment" (nobody calls them flats in the US, but many people know what you're talking about if you say it).
Eh? Most commonly uttered words in UK English: "Have you put the bins out?"
Almost no words are exclusively "British English" as it is the original and oldest dialect of the language.
JK ... but American English retain many older features of English which British English since modified.
A "bin" in BrEn does not mean a generic container: it generally means a receptacle for waste, refuse, or garbage.
A bin is any trashcan in BrEn... in your office, in your kitchen or bathroom, behind the house, whatever. So it's still not an ideal match.
However there is a larger tradition of comedy candidates in the UK than in the USA. See also the Monster Raving Loony Party https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Official_Monster_Raving_Loony_...
And this sketch from Monty Python in 1970 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVI5ZOT5QEM
He’s spoken 41 times in parliament in 2 years, almost entirely on national issues.
My own back bench opposition MP (lib dem) has spoken over 400 times. The next constituency over (Tory) has spoken 1000 times, both raising local issues.
Binface would give Clacton a far higher profile. A literal bin would.
There’s no other candidate those anti Farage could vote for.
But... that's exactly what people in Clacton voted him in for. He was never going to represent their local interests - I think a lot of the locals realise that now. They care more about "immigration" and race-baiting than they care about the pot holes on their roads. This is the reality of modern politics.
My comment was more about the people who will never vote Reform, than the people that did.
Could be tatton 97 again.
It’s going to be decided on turnout.
However, I did like his suggestions to build at least one affordable home and rename HS2, the FFS1.
Oxbridge is as much a part of the establishment as Eton and Westminster School. Very few people go to these places yet they are overrepresented in the political classes.
So Dulwich boy vs Oxbridge Boy.
For Americans...One went to an exclusive private high school and the other went to an exclusive university.
Binface is fond of quoting Latin phrases which puts him into Boris Johnson territory, and is a posh boy's trait.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Official_Monster_Raving_Loony_...
As a former Monster Raving Looney I have decided to defect to the Binface Party based on their sensible policies on the hand dryer in the Uxbridge Crown & Treaty pub.
The "Boaty McBoatface" campaign was from 2016. "Lord Buckethead" first appeared in 1987, some 30 years earlier.
From The Atlantic: "The [UK's] output per person is now only just above that of Mississippi, America’s poorest state - and that slight lead is only achieved thanks to London. Outside the capital, in places where tourists do not visit, living standards fall well below Mississippi’s"[1]
According to the IEA, the UK has the highest industrial electricity prices of the 25 IEA countries reporting data.[2]
Hinkley Point C is routinely described as the most expensive nuclear power station ever built, four times the average for South Korean plants. Guaranteed pricing originally £92.50/MWh (2012 prices), now equivalent to around £133/MWh (2025 prices), inflation-linked for 35 years...[3]
HS2 is consistently ranked as the most expensive high-speed rail on the planet.[4]
[0] https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mkw3
[1] How Britain Became as Poor as Mississippi - A case study in self-sabotage https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/07/uk-productivity...
[2] https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/68da5e91dadf7...
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinkley_Point_C_nuclear_power_...
That is so sad and even somewhat shocking.
It would be if it were a meaningful comparison, but it isn't. The comparison shouldn't be about the GDP per capita etc, but the life that gets you in the country you live - and there it fails.
From The Atlantic: "The [UK's] output per person is now only just above that of Mississippi, America’s poorest state - and that slight lead is only achieved thanks to London. Outside the capital, in places where tourists do not visit, living standards fall well below Mississippi’s"
This is what happens when you import low-skilled migrants (and their extended families) who are a net drain on the economy.
I think they're also against Net Zero, which is causing all the high energy costs.
Clean, renewable power is a way out of the mess.
But he hasn't been there for very many of the last 16 years.
1) https://observer.co.uk/news/politics/article/miliband-bids-t...
If anything, the past 16 years has taught me personally that everyone in the UK wants change - too much change possibly.
The UK was the first G7/G20 to cut carbon emissions by 50%, we just ranked [0] 3rd globally large in part to setting up for the future with green energy.
[0] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jul/08/climate-...
https://www.lbc.co.uk/article/kemi-badenoch-says-tory-hopefu...
Wholesale electricity costs make up 28.7% of the bill
Carbon taxes make up 6.4%
[0] https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-...
"Prior to 2006, the margin between retail and wholesale electricity prices was broadly stable at 3.88 – 4.79 p/kWh with an average of 4.23 p/kWh (2006 money). Had this margin been maintained in the subsequent years ie the costs of the energy transition not been added to bills, households would have saved £130 billion in 2006 money (£218 billion in today’s money). In contrast, some estimates suggest that the UK spent an additional £75 billion as a result of the 2021-23 gas crisis.
So despite what people say about high gas prices being responsible for high electricity prices, this was only true for late 2021-23 – for most of the past 25 years, something other than gas prices has been driving electricity prices higher."
https://watt-logic.com/2025/05/19/new-report-the-true-afford...
>>Clean, renewable power is a way out of the mess.
Yes, can't wait until it exists.
Because of the marginal energy pricing scheme in use, which pays for all generation as if it were the most expensive. That and taxes etc. The UK energy market needs reform, blaming the Net Zero effort is ... well it's just wrong.
But essentially there no countries with high renewables and low energy cost: https://nypost.com/2025/05/07/opinion/cheap-solar-and-wind-i...
Top of the list is probably the problem that most of the renewables are generated in Scotland while demand growth is in England, especially around London. Getting electricity across the country requires power lines. However, NIMBYs are holding the entire country hostage: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2n76244x5o
In order to avoid opposition, there is a new plan: https://www.easterngreenlink1.co.uk/ + https://www.easterngreenlink2.co.uk/ , which will be almost entirely undersea. Almost. NIMBY opposition is focusing on the shore landing points. I believe "grade 2 listed concrete anti-tank cubes" were mentioned at one point, although I can't find that reference.
Once those are built, there should be no more instances where we have to burn gas in the south while curtailing wind in the north. More distributed battery storage is being deployed (again, in the face of NIMBYs).
Anyone who is going to tout nuclear as the solution: you are going to have to deal with even more NIMBYs. Coal? Obviously a non-starter. Gas: there is some argument that you might be able to get more out of North Sea drilling. However, please provide a timescale for that. It's not instant either.
Marginal pricing means that gas sets the price.
At time of writing, gas is only generating 6.9% of the UK's electricity. https://grid.iamkate.com/
So no, neither of them has a plan, but that doesn’t really matter because neither of them will be running the country after the election either. It’s a bielection for a single seat. Running the country will be down to the new Labour PM and his team. As such the rest of your post is fairly irrelevant.
I don’t even have the energy to get into how cherry-picked this entire post is. Bad and inaccurate comparisons, false tourism claims, lame tropes, ignoring extreme and amazing progress while pointing at why some numbers may appear how they appear.
Firstly, the Farage/Binface byelection is a result of Farage being investigated for breaking laws designed to stop political corruption. He's called an early local election to "let the people decide". Even if voted in, if he's found accountable for those charges, he'll have to call another election. So all major parties are staying out of this one, but would likely stand in a second. Essentially what I'm saying is, this isn't a normal local election by any means so I wouldn't use it to talk generally about political parties offering to the UK.
I would also urge against using HS2/electricity-prices/Hinkley to make a " therefore the UK is in dire trou me". There all quite different: Hinkely and HS2 are certainly managed and unpopular, but they're individual projects - a lot of the UK issues are caused by much more complex, larger economic problems than government projects being mismanaged.
And then on the energy price, the UK has really expensive energy. One reason for that is because there's a huge amount of invesent in renewables right now, and the investment is paid for by the consumer. I'm not arguing this is necessarily good, but it's a political choice to prioritise more expensive electricity today, with the goal of cheaper / more secure energy tomorrow. It's a lot more complex than just "the UK is cooked because it has expensive energy".
Sorry for the minor essay! I think the UK's economic situation is serious, but also very interesting (it's possibly the most extreme global example of financialisation backfiring), complex and worth understanding!
The article appears to treat nominal GDP per capita as a measure of living standards, which is obviously nonsense. Rather than looking at things like the Human Development Index or World Happiness Report, in both of which the UK outranks the US (incl. all the non-Mississippi states).
Residents consistently reporting higher life satisfaction and happiness likely speaks more to their living standards than non-purchasing power parity adjusted GDP per capita.
It is baffling how a sentence this uninformed made it into the article.
If what you think is true, why did Farage step down call the election in the first place?
It seems rather clear it was a PR stunt he knows he'll win in this district, which lets him distract from his own corruption scandals.
But if you think there is some other reason I'd be interesting to hear the theory.
You don't vote for a comedy character to win an election in a safe seat, because they won't.
You vote for Binface because you think Nige is wasting money on a pointless box ticking distraction instead of spending the money locally to fix things.
Farage hasn't got much of a sense of humour but if massive majority gets smaller he might spend more time in the area and less time in America on speaking engagements.