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British public more likely to prefer Count Binface wins Clacton by-election than Nigel Farage (ani.social)

submitted 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) by zabadoh@ani.social to c/unitedkingdom@feddit.uk

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[-] A_be_seedy@beehaw.org 9 points 5 days 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 22 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days 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 win 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 is not the head of state; explaining all this in detail is a whole other ordeal]. Joke candidates are never expected to win. However, he decided to run against Farage 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.

[-] A_be_seedy@beehaw.org 5 points 5 days 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?

[-] melvisntnormal@feddit.uk 6 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

I'll need to do more research before I can answer this fully. Off the top of my head:

Yes, an MP can be suspended for less than ten days, but that doesn't imply MPs actually turn up every day. Suspension really just means they're not allowed to.
The requirements for triggering a petition are defined by the Recall of MPs Act 2015, which also provides for a petition for MPs convicted of a crime and sentenced to a prison term of a certain length. I believe there's another condition too but I can't look that up right at this minute
Recall elections are referendums asking if a representative should be recalled, right? We don't do that here; we go straight from a petition into a by-election. However, petitions cannot be started by the public, they are triggered automatically according to the RoMA2015
Having the other parties running would give Farage what he wants. If he wins against other parties in this election, it gives him more political weight to argue against another by-election after the investigation concludes.
Count Binface winning is more likely than usual, but basically not going to happen, unless turnout is low or the people of Clacton have had a change of heart since the last time I looked into this. Farage got 45% of the vote in the last general election [election of every seat in the HoC; I make this distinction because US generals happen in years divisible by 4when you guys elect the President as well as the House? We don't have midterms here], so it's more than likely he'll with with a huge percentage but less absolute votes. However, I wouldn't be surprised if Count Binface eats into his potential majority [margin of victory; as a mathematician, it annoys the hell out of me that we call the difference between first and second place a "majority"]
Clacton-on-sea is a seaside town, not necessarily rural, but was in a much better state in the previous century. As far as I know, Clacton has been left behind by the political establishment and for decades, like many parts of the UK, and the people there are rightly pissed about it. However, to say it's equivalent to one of he small red states you mentioned is, IMO, a little reductive, but that's because I know about as much about these states that you do about Clacton

Again, stream of consciousness here. 100% accuracy is not guaranteed. This infodump was brought to you by Procrastination From Employment™.

[-] A_be_seedy@beehaw.org 1 points 5 days ago

Thanks! This makes a lot of sense. Big bummer that Binhead isn't really in the running though.

I'm honestly really surprised by the petitions. I think a recall election in most states would be a vote to remove and a vote for who to replace them with - probably basically the same as yours. How are the petitions distributed? Are their people just going to Farmer's Markets with clip boards? Or do people actually seek out petitions in the UK and go to the election office and sign them?

Lastly, I looked up Clacton-on-the-Sea, it looks very similar to the filming location of Jersey Shore, I got looking and you have Geordie Shore, which is filmed in-land and not near a beach at al? I am so confused.

[-] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 5 points 5 days 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.

[-] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 3 points 5 days ago

It's so dumb, steps down from his seat to waste money on a by-election that he's going to win to change headlines.

[-] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 1 points 4 days ago

As dumb as "draining the swamp"?

Meanwhile two elections later...

[-] A_be_seedy@beehaw.org 3 points 5 days ago

This was the part that made the most sense to menas an American!

[-] sem@piefed.blahaj.zone 5 points 5 days 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:

https://web.archive.org/web/20260214082722/https://www.ajc.com/news/state--regional-govt--politics/hopeful-move-into-congressional-district-divides-georgia-voters/OoP2sM8pQFe8vGB90u2ogI/

https://georgiarecorder.com/2021/02/15/how-marjorie-taylor-greene-ascended-from-atlanta-suburbs-to-d-c-spotlight/

[-] fakeman_pretendname@feddit.uk 9 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

It's a good question, but I guess it's fine - Farage doesn't live in Clacton either.

[-] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 7 points 5 days ago

No, MPs don't need to live in the riding they represent. Neither Britain nor Canada.

[-] kent_eh@lemmy.ca 3 points 5 days ago

nor Canada.

Example: Pierre Polierve, leader of the opposition party who lost his seat in the last General election and had another MP (in one of his party's safest constituencies in the country) resign so he could run (and win) in a by-election there.

[-] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 1 points 4 days ago

And in his old riding, he had over 20 opponents, which just shows how popular this guy was. Post election, he has been completely impotent, no one cares what he has to say. Imagine basing a career on kissing Trump's ass.

[-] kent_eh@lemmy.ca 1 points 4 days ago

And in his old riding, he had over 20 opponents

That was mostly the "longest ballot" folks.

[-] prole 1 points 5 days ago

We call them "carpet baggers" in the US

this post was submitted on 14 Jul 2026

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