> 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.)

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)

Excerpt from linked page:

> 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.

I think it's so interesting he was a scriptwriter for "The Thick of It", a satirical comedy about British politics

>>But also...Binface conjugates Latin to Sky News

He studied Classics at Oxford. He'd be in trouble if he couldn't.

Why would Todd Durham have issues with a Lord Buckethead doing his thing in another country and continent, but apparently not with a guitar player named Buckethead in the United States?

Note that the ability to conjugate Latin does not correlate with good character, despite what the English public school system would have you think. Most famous example of that is of course Enoch Powell.

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.

Vote Bin, not rubbish!

I, for one, am ready for FFS1 & nationalising Adele.

In my experience in the UK aliases and names are used in a rather flexible way compared to other countries. Anybody can decide on a name and start using it. It's not illegal unless it is done for the purpose of deceiving people.

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.

In Parliament, members are referred to by the place they represent, eg "The Right Honourable Member for Harry Pottershire" rather than their names. It's a way to make things less personal.

In fact, "naming" an MP is mark of having broken the rules:

https://www.parliament.uk/site-information/glossary/naming-o...

There's no such thing as a "legal name" in the UK. For example, Boris Johnson's first name isnt actually Boris - that's just what he goes by.

> If he goes into the parliament building without his costume

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.

We're super flexible on name law in the UK. I could change my name right now and just use it, I dont need any formal approval or anything to do so. It only becomes a legal issue if you do it for legally questionable reasons.

The British constitution is unwritten and based on centuries of convention which are so old they are considered law... Sort of.

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.

The biggest practical obstacle, other than getting elected, is the dress code for the house of commons which disallows military uniform, disallows face covering (while voting), and requires smart business attire. You could argue that he might be in violation of all three!

The name isn't really that much of a problem.

There's slightly more controversy about https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q_Manivannan , who is perfectly calibrated to annoy the maximum number of rightwingers: nonbinary immigrant on a temporary visa with a one-letter chosen name.

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...

Also, parliament has a rule against wearing costumes like this. But Count Binface called that rule "binist" and claimed there was some wiggle room in the way the rule was worded :)

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.

I think Binface is going to smash his own records and get to like 20%. Farage will get enough that Farage is going to claim the result as a decisive victory while at the same time the result is actually deeply embarrassing for Farage.

There is at least some concern within their camp that they could lose the election to a guy with a bin on his head. That for me is a win.

The other parties aren't standing in this particular byelection because they (correctly) realise that it's just a media stunt by Farage, who is attempting to paint himself as a victim of establishment harassment (while being the epitome of 'the establishment' himself). By not standing, and forcing Farage to run against joke candidates, they've made a fool of him (which generally harms populists more than anything else you can throw at them).

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.

It's not that populists aren't facing opposition - it's that Farage resigned and said he'd be running in the by-election his resignation caused. He is using the by-election as a political stunt to try and get ahead of an incoming scandal - but by the opposition not running against him, he can't say that his mandate from the electorate is clear, and his only actual opponent is a (well spoken) bin.

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.

It's not a collapse of political opposition. The political opposition are simply not allowing Farrage to dictate the narrative here.

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.

I think the strategy in leaving Farage to only face Binface is that win or loose it makes Farage look like an idiot. He wanted to get credibility back by getting re-elected after the recent scandal and this binface thing robs him of that.

I think the special case of the totally unnecessary by-election is important here. I would not expect the other parties not to contest the general election. I don't like the "X is an attempt to distract from Y" framing, but this really is a distraction from the "sudden revelation" that Farage has really dodgy financing.

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.

There is no opposition in this round because it is a total farce initiated by Farage. It takes two to tango and no one else (other than Count Binface) is dancing Farage's Doofus Dance.

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.

Specifically in this case, Farage is a celebrity populist; he is not likely to lose, and the political system (and the wider British public who oppose him) are conscious of not dancing to his tune.

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.

The difference in this instance is that all of the major parties have stood aside, leaving the Clacton by-election as a race between Nigel Farage and Count Binface. Essentially it's turned into an election between Farage and anyone-but-Farage.

I sincerely hope the best alien wins.

> notably the Monster Raving Loony Party.

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...)

>Policies include building one affordable house.

Mine too.

> This person is hilarious, for non-UK people who are wondering what this is, this is a joke candidate for an MP who is getting a lot of attention because of the political system in the UK not working very well.

Yes and he’s running against Count Binface

(sorry)

What I find interesting is that he seems to be the only candidate? Aren’t there actual political parties that could have produced legitimate candidates?

The system has proved to be quite dynamic, really. The electorate have had real choices over the past 10-15 years. Stay in the EU or don’t. Elect a genuine socialist or a centre-right conservative as Prime Minister. And unpopular or incompetent Prime Ministers have been removed quite promptly.

It’s time to get rid of FPTP, but the real problem seems to be that people just keep voting for the wrong policies.

I think you make some good points, but as a UK citizen, there probably some extra context 'd want people to know.

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!

> Outside the capital, in places where tourists do not visit, living standards fall well below Mississippi’s

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.

In what ways do you expect a candidate for MP for Clacton to address the various calamities you mention?

I don't know what specifically is wrong with the US-centric numbers you are citing, but I know they don't match the lived reality of the UK, which compares favourably with not only Mississippi but with the US as a whole.

While I haven't been to Mississippi I have spent the last 6 months driving around the UK on a working holiday, and this sounds like a massive stretch. Free healthcare might be helping.

Why is the life expectancy for Mississippi significantly lower than the UK? https://www.mylifeelsewhere.com/compare/mississippi-usa/unit...

>Outside the [UK’s] capital, in places where tourists do not visit, living standards fall well below Mississippi’s

That is so sad and even somewhat shocking.

Actual rage bait.

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.

This election was designed to distract from investigations into Nigel Farage’s funding. The reason Binface is getting a lot of attention is because none of the major parties are standing, as a ‘fuck you’ to Farage, to make his distraction look all the more ludicrous.

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 think Farage and Reform/Restore have a solution to this:

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.

Not only do they get elected, sometimes they become heroes:

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

He was re-elected once more in 2009 and because the English have a really weird political system, the direct election of mayor was abolished by a vote in 2012 making him the first, last and only directly elected mayor the town ever had.

At least one! We might even get two.

"Bin," generally, isn't British English. We have recycling bins, for instance.

Same in the UK. If you look at his pic, you’ll see it’s literal!

Binny McBin Face.

Or in Massachusetts, Count Barrelface.

Nah, I think Americans are more into cruelty as entertainment.

Kinda, yes,

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

Farage has not given them a voice in parliament. He’s barely been in the country.

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.

Actually the prior art is Screaming Lord Sutch of the Monster Raving Looney Party[1] who started in 1963.

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.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screaming_Lord_Sutch

Lord Buckethead is much older than Boaty McBoatface.

Better prior art [1], in an actual election.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Drummond

I thought that's the prior art https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Waldo_Moment

I think you wildly misunderstand the situation.

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.