In an interview with Jeremy Vine, The Count was challenged on the general requirement for people to not wear hats in the chamber. His retort was that it’s also generally required to declare donations.
British public more likely to prefer Count Binface wins Clacton by-election than Nigel Farage
Submitted 23 hours ago by zabadoh@ani.social to unitedkingdom@feddit.uk
Comments
clav64@lemmy.world 18 hours ago
djdarren@piefed.social 18 hours ago
I enjoyed his interview with Andrew Marr.
Marr: “Are you actually going to fight a serious door-by-door, street-by-street campaign?”
Count Binface: “….No.”
tazeycrazy@feddit.uk 5 hours ago
In Furness to him Farrage will have to interrupt his visit to America and GBNews show to go door to door so I could see it being a quiet summer for the voters
Digestive_Biscuit@feddit.uk 9 hours ago
I saw that. It was amazing. He said something along the lines of if Nigel can get away with not declaring donation then he can probably bend the rules to allow a costume in parliament.
clav64@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
Another take away line, after being asked if the count was worried about the monster raving looney party running in Clacton, there were words to the effect: “If anything, the monster raving looney party will split the Reform vote”
SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 13 hours ago
His promise to build one affordable house would out perform the entire government.
His trillion dollars a week to NHS was a dig at Brexiters who promised £200M a year to NHS, which never happened.
SethTaylor@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
Unfortunately, in Clacton…
In the 2016 referendum, an estimated 75% of those who voted chose to leave the European Union.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Clacton_by-election#Previous_result](en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Clacton_by-election)
ieGod@lemmy.zip 10 hours ago
What in the hell is that title?
funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works 7 hours ago
prefer is a transitive verb, wins is intransitive.
They’ve changed “would prefer (he) wins” to “prefer (he) wins” which is still correct f.
ieGod@lemmy.zip 3 hours ago
Is the “wins” that throws me. Shouldn’t that be “win”?
snugglesthefalse@sh.itjust.works 5 hours ago
They could have just used “winning” and it would have been fine
Paddzr@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
Can we get those AI titles? At least they’d be readable over this abomination.
_stranger_@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
ќ.
merc@sh.itjust.works 5 hours ago
Make your vote Count.
rustydrd@sh.itjust.works 14 hours ago
Unfortunately, this is a national poll. AFAIK, there is currently no specific poll with only Clayton voters, and some projections expect Farage to win with an even higher margin than last time.
Fun fact about the national poll: Count binface didn’t just beat Farage, he also beat “neither” as a response option. So the overall public doesn’t just want Farage to lose but to be humiliated by losing to a walking trash can.
Blackmist@feddit.uk 8 hours ago
I’m sure every letterbox in the area has now been stuffed with propaganda that Count Binface is a lefty woke terrorist who personally beat Ann Widdecombe to death with a dildo.
M0oP0o@mander.xyz 4 hours ago
So there is now a chance?
SethTaylor@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
Interesting. Jeremy Corbyn has a “conspiracy theorist” brother who is running in Clacton and apparently was a councillor for Labour in Southwark some decades ago.
sem@piefed.blahaj.zone 14 hours ago
Could you explain to a USian how a local representative is elected by the whole state?
Are people in northern Ireland and Scotland also voting on this?
SpatchyIsOnline@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
They’re not, only registered voters in Clacton will be voting in the actual by-election. Someone just conducted a national poll to see what the consensus was over the entirety of the UK, and the results of that poll aren’t exactly surprising
fakeman_pretendname@feddit.uk 13 hours ago
The poll was just a quiz, for information or fun.
The actual vote is local only, for the people who live in Clacton.
However, though only a local election, because Farage is also the leader of a political party, the result will also be used politically, to say whether people generally support or reject him and his views, and those of his party.
Because he’s a… let’s say “controversial figure”, then there’s some degree of national hope that he’ll be defeated and ideally, embarrassed.
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 13 hours ago
This is like if USA Today did a nationwide poll about Mamdani
WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today 8 hours ago
Why do people vote Farage over Bin face? Can’t they see how satirists make far better leaders than any politician or business leader?
SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 13 hours ago
But Clacton has a very high concentration of fuckwits, so Farage is fine. He will build a new parking structure, the Farage Garage.
kreskin@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
The British monarchy needs to be abolished and then recreated around Count Binface.
Zorque@lemmy.world 22 hours ago
How much of that public actually lives in Clacton?
echodot@feddit.uk 21 hours ago
Farage won Clapton with 45% of the vote with multiple candidates. That same showing this time would lose him the vote. Which would be hilarious because not only would it on seat Farage, it would also be the fifth by-election they failed to win.
FishFace@piefed.social 18 hours ago
You’re assuming that the “same showing” would see every person who voted for someone other than Farage vote for a joke candidate.
The premise of the “same showing” is already clearly implausible, without adding that on top
thehatfox@lemmy.world 19 hours ago
The last election Clayton had a 58% turnout. So there might be some potential Binface supporters who didn’t vote last time.
I don’t think Clacton is likely to flip, but there is an outside chance.
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 12 hours ago
Farage won Clapton with 45% of the vote
Now we just need to see if he can win Beck and Page. Maybe we can finally have a Yardbirds reunion.
zabadoh@ani.social 23 hours ago
“I’m the sane one” Binface sings
psx_crab@lemmy.zip 15 hours ago
Really hope he win, it will be better than Farage in every possible way.
SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 13 hours ago
His costed budget is to fund NHS at a trillion dollars a week and to build one affordable house.
SethTaylor@lemmy.world 2 hours ago
I will vote for him if I can have the affordable house on weekends.
NihilsineNefas@slrpnk.net 13 hours ago
I’m already voting for him, you don’t have to sell it to me any more
yermaw@sh.itjust.works 18 hours ago
And thats even after we saw the Waldo episode of Black Mirror
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 13 hours ago
I thought that episode was stupid when it first aired.
I watched it again sometime after 2016, and I no longer felt that way.
A_be_seedy@beehaw.org 15 hours ago
American here, I’ve been seeing rumblings of binface, seems like he might be the leader you need to recover from Brexit, but can anyone give me the rundown of Binface, what the election is for, why a fringe is maybe doing well, and other context? I’ve mostly just seen pocs of bin face and it seems he’s running for PM because someone stepped down, but you guys have a lot of elections it feels like, not one every set number of years.
melvisntnormal@feddit.uk 14 hours ago
I’ll put US-equivalent terms in [square brackets]. Note that I equate Parliament with Congress, but the UK is not a federation; nonetheless, Parliament functions as the national UK legislature as Congress does in the US.
This election is a by-election [special election] in the constituency [congressional district] of Clacton, to elect a new Member of Parliament (MP) [representative] for Clacton to the House of Commons (HoC) [House of Representatives].
The former MP for Clacton, Nigel Farage, resigned his seat in order to frustrate an investigation into financial interests he should’ve declared (I’m glossing over this). Had the Parliamentary Standards Committee (PSC) [House Ethics Committee, I think] found Farage had done something wrong, they could recommend that he be suspended from Parliament for a period of time. If he had been suspended for 10 days or more, a recall petition would have been initiated in his constituency; if 20% of his constituents signed it, that would trigger a by-election in which he would still be able to stand.
Farage decided to preempt this by resigning, attempting to take control of the narrative. This backfired when all the other major parties refused to contest the by-election, leaving Farage looking a little ridiculous. Plus, if he does with the by-election, which is the most likely outcome, note that the PSC investigation is only suspended, not closed, and would resume when he returned to Parliament, meaning this entire charade is a waste of time and public money.
Now, the UK has a history of joke candidates running in elections, one of which is Count Binface. He usually contests the seat of the current Prime Minister (PM) [there isn’t really a US-equivalent; the PM is the head of government like the US President, but explaining all that is a whole other ordeal]. Joke candidates are never expected to win. However, he decided to run against Garage because of course he did, and because the other major parties are not contesting this by-election, he’s suddenly become the most high-profile opponent in the race. Farage wanted to make this about him versus “the establishment” (I use quotes here to highlight hypocrisy, not because the establishment doesn’t exist), and now he has to explain why he’s the underdog fighting against a man with a bin on his head.
Basically, the people of Clacton have a chance to do the funniest thing British politics has seen in a good while.
sem@piefed.blahaj.zone 14 hours ago
The one thing I don’t understand is how can count bin face “choose” to run anywhere. He doesn’t have to run where he lives?
We sort of had this where one of our trolls, Majorie Taylor Greene (not to be confused with Magic The Gathering) had to rent a sham residence and “live” in the district that she wanted to elect her for a certain minimum period to be eligible.
Some references:
A_be_seedy@beehaw.org 13 hours ago
Thanks! This is a really good explanation (although I’m sure there’s someone that will say you oversimplified it or find some obscure irrelevant detail that doesn’t match 1:1 but it explained everything for me perfectly).
I’m a but confused by the suspension system. So he could be suspended for over 10 days, does that imply he could be suspended for fewer than 10 days? Does this imply that you MPs actually show up to work on a mostly daily basis? In the US, I think our fucks only are supposed to work 10 days every 2 or 3 months. And they don’t even show up for those days, that’s why it takes so long to find senators washed up in nursing homes, we didn’t even know they were missing.
Is the petition an easier thing to do over there? We had an issue in my small town with a city counciler and it required a certain percentage (lower than 20% I think) but it worked out to like 2500 signatures and it was deemed to be too much work, especially since an election was in like a year and a half. It cost Ohio over $6 million to get the weed on the ballot, I just looked up Clacton, looks like its about the area of a county and similar population (80-90k). That makes it make more sense, but that’s still an insane amount of signatures, especially given that I think he’s over half way through his term. How common are petitions? How quick are recall elections?
I’m not really understanding why the other parties wouldn’t run - is it just to say, “he’s not guilty till he’s proven guilty but he hasn’t sat through court to decide, so until then, we’re presuming innocence” Something like that anyways?
Any idea how likely it is for Count Binhead to win? Like is this a legit shot or is he going to get maybe 20% of the vote and still embarrass Nigle?
Considering Nigel appears to have had a big role in Brexit, and the population seems light and rural, I’m going to assume that Clacton could have been replaced with [Ohio], [Utah], [Alabama], or maybe even [Florida] - which makes me believe the people here would rather elect a pedophile that someone that has their interests in mind. Is this accurate?
Photo55@mastodon.social 13 hours ago
@melvisntnormal @A_be_seedy
There is no reason to assume that Binface would be a less energetic and effective representative of his constituents than Farage, substantial reason to think he would be, and he might not be the only comedian to rise to the occasion on a national forum if elected.Vote (if you are in the relevant place) Binface!
SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 13 hours ago
TLDR, Farage is corrupt and got caught, but he’s a populist and in a riding of idiots who will re elect him as “anti establishment”. This must sound familiar to Americans.
lemmelemmy@feddit.org 16 hours ago
So other parties rejected not to enter the election (which is ridiculous- it feels like they’re basically told by tech oligarchs not to) but if binface also didn’t challenged him, what would have happened? Wouldn’t he just ended up resigning? Also how can you be a nominee after resigning?
ILikeTraaaains@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
AFAIK this election was triggered by Farage because he’s being investigated for some issues with donations and the outcome would be a sanction and trigger the same election, this way he can present himself like the people chose him and it wouldn’t have the sanction against him in the public opinion.
The thing is that if he is elected now, it doesn’t mean that the investigation is stopped, it would continue and find as he did things wrong and trigger the investigation election.
Not presenting candidates agains him from the major parties don’t give legitimacy to his shenanigans and don’t waste time and resources on a process that will be done again a few months down the road.
psx_crab@lemmy.zip 15 hours ago
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he will be winning the post uncontested, exposing the theatre play he setting up
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resigning mean only quit the current post he’s holding, basically vacating the seat and trigger a by-election, because a seat cannot be left vacated if the next election is still far away. he’s still eligible as a candidate. It’s very different than quitting a job
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deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 15 hours ago
These is a tradition that parties don’t stand a candidate in other parties leaders’ electorates.
It’s 100% bullshit.
SpatchyIsOnline@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
That is absolutely provably false, the reason no party put forward a candidate in this by-election was to not legitimise Farage’s publicity stunt.
Farage openly claimed this was going to be a “him vs the establishment” election, so “the establishment” as he calls it refusing to contest him has successfully made him look like a fool and has him crashing out hard in interviews
Lydia_K@lemmy.world 22 hours ago
Yes! Let’s go! Pull the mask full off and things will finally change, be or hero Binface.
OwOarchist@pawb.social 19 hours ago
No no – the mask stays on.
IronBird@lemmy.world 19 hours ago
binface will be only rep in parliament not wearing a mask
frunch@lemmy.world 12 hours ago
He actually said in the interview that he’s willing to challenge the rule barring head coverings in session LOL 😆 🗑️
Lydia_K@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
I don’t mean his binface mask, I mean the mask of politicians being anything more then entertainers with no real desire to govern for the people who elected them.
SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 13 hours ago
Sadly, that is illegal in Parliament.
supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 11 hours ago
Yeah but what is Binface’s position on Israel’s right to exist?
Paddzr@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
Better than Farage’s lol
scutiger@lemmy.world 10 hours ago
Define “exist.”
anarchy79@lemmy.world 34 minutes ago
Too bad! What most people want isn’t important, just whatever this inbred town of boomer yokels thinks!