Just to cheer you all up, here's the latest Address To The Nation (well, Clacton, anyway) by the one-and-only serious candidate in the upcoming by-election:
I have read them all and there's only one sensible one.
Tony Francis independent -lives in Clacton. In a post on social media he says he is standing to put local people before party interests, practical solutions before political games, and service before ego.
He wants to protect the Clacton coastline and open spaces, support older residents and vulnerable people and improve local transport infrastructure.
Gosh, @Boogie that seems to go well beyond the call of duty seeing as you don't actually live in Clacton. I've gone rather off Binface after hearing him onThe Rest is Politics. He came across as rather arrogant and too clever by half.
I've gone rather off Binface after hearing him onThe Rest is Politics. He came across as rather arrogant and too clever by half.
What did he say that gave you that impression?
He said something. This is where things have started to unravel for Zack Polanski and Andy Burnham (and others too). I’m sure it’s best to have a position and leave communication to others more skilled in that dark art.
I've gone rather off Binface after hearing him onThe Rest is Politics. He came across as rather arrogant and too clever by half.
What did he say that gave you that impression?
He said something. This is where things have started to unravel for Zack Polanski and Andy Burnham (and others too). I’m sure it’s best to have a position and leave communication to others more skilled in that dark art.
Sorry, I'm not sure I understand. You're saying that Binface, Polanski, and Burnham should only set policy, not communicate to the public?
I've gone rather off Binface after hearing him onThe Rest is Politics. He came across as rather arrogant and too clever by half.
What did he say that gave you that impression?
He said something. This is where things have started to unravel for Zack Polanski and Andy Burnham (and others too). I’m sure it’s best to have a position and leave communication to others more skilled in that dark art.
Sorry, I'm not sure I understand. You're saying that Binface, Polanski, and Burnham should only set policy, not communicate to the public?
Not quite. They should leave communications to the experts as far as possible, and get professionals in to write their speeches to minimise damage.
That leaves the Q & A format, like Question Time, and that demands planted questions and sticking to your chosen material. Don’t go off-piste.
I've gone rather off Binface after hearing him onThe Rest is Politics. He came across as rather arrogant and too clever by half.
What did he say that gave you that impression?
I think starting off quoting a whole load of Homer in Ancient Greek was not necessarily a great idea. I think he was torn between being the comedy candidate and actually taking the idea seriously and coming up with a workable manifesto. Also I didn't like the artificial voice.
I've gone rather off Binface after hearing him onThe Rest is Politics. He came across as rather arrogant and too clever by half.
What did he say that gave you that impression?
I think starting off quoting a whole load of Homer in Ancient Greek was not necessarily a great idea. I think he was torn between being the comedy candidate and actually taking the idea seriously and coming up with a workable manifesto. Also I didn't like the artificial voice.
Thanks.
I've been giving myself a crash-course on Binface's interviews, and am not excessively impressed. But I'm probably the wrong person to judge, because, as a rule, I find joke candidates tiresome. The novelty wears off pretty quickly, after you've seen one or two doing their schtick.
I get more of a kick outta the unintentionally comic fringe candidates who take themselves seriously, eg. the perennial candidate in my hometown's civic elections, who once campaigned on opposing the publically accessible computers at the downtown library, on the grounds that they could be used by drug dealers to conduct business via email(*).
(*) I knew him personally. Quite a nice guy, but tended to ride some odd hobby horses.
If he's not promoting racism, xenophobia, misogyny, transphobia and attacks on disabled people (or any permutation thereof), then he could recite the entire Odyssey in Ancient Greek, throw in a few hymns of Enheduanna in the original Sumerian for good measure, all the while doing a vocal imitation of Wee Jimmy Krankie and having a major identity crisis on air as to whether he's joke or serious and he'd still be a massive advance on Nigel Farage.
Having just seen a bit more of what Scottish Labour have been getting elected and putting forward for leadership I'm afraid he'd be an advance on a lot of them too.
Some people seem to be taking His Excellency the Count rather too seriously - after all, he's just passing through on his way back to Sigma IX - but O! what a lark if he does by some strange chance actually win !
Whatever transpires, of course, and I don't doubt that Farage will come first, he (Farage) will have succeeded in making himself look like a total Twit. Moreover, he'll still have to face more parliamentary scrutiny of his *ahem* finances.
I've gone rather off Binface after hearing him onThe Rest is Politics. He came across as rather arrogant and too clever by half.
What did he say that gave you that impression?
I think starting off quoting a whole load of Homer in Ancient Greek was not necessarily a great idea. I think he was torn between being the comedy candidate and actually taking the idea seriously and coming up with a workable manifesto. Also I didn't like the artificial voice.
The man's name is Count Binface, and he wears a large bin on his head. He's not going to get away from an element of being the comedy candidate.
As a piece of electoral calculus, this by-election is irrelevant. Labour will still have a huge majority after the election, and Farage almost never shows up in the commons anyway. A comedy bin can hardly do worse. This is all about political stuntery, and Binface is absolutely mocking Farage.
As far as the Greek goes, perhaps Binface decided to quote the Iliad in response to a light-hearted Odyssey film intro because he doesn't know the Odyssey by heart. I don't think it's an attempt to cast Farage in the role of Achilles. Absurd, perhaps, but Messrs Campbell and Stewart were engaged in conversation with a man with a bin on his head, so ...
Perhaps there was an opportunity for a Martin Bell moment here, but I don't think that works in a byelection generated by Farage playing his own political games. Mockery seems like the only reasonable response.
I shouldn't imagine Binface actually wants to win, so it's possible he is trying to put people off voting for him at this stage. Whilst still mocking Farage, of course. It will be interesting to see what he does if Binface does win.
Whatever happens, Count Binface seems to be doing good things for Clacton without even being elected- drawing attention to the local tourist sites, for instance, and someone is now making little models of him for sale!
He has cited Martin Bell as a model in some of his videos - I suspect if he won he would try to do one term and not stand again, which would be about two years I think given the next GE.
Well, that would give him time to build one affordable house, and to cap the price of croissants at 99p. Clacton could certainly do worse...
Goodness knows what other countries think of this comedy show, but there is at least one major European state which has a former TV comedian as President.
I'm not sure that His Excellency the Count is of quite the same calibre, though of course I wish him well.
Whatever happens, Count Binface seems to be doing good things for Clacton without even being elected- drawing attention to the local tourist sites, for instance, and someone is now making little models of him for sale!
Those models have actually been available for much longer than this election campaign, my son showed me one he got years ago. I must admit I have been tempted by some of the merch on offer, paprtly because it's funny and partly to support the Bin against Farage.
Some "economics commentator" at The Guardian named Simon Nixon has a column up about how Binface, whom Nixon seems not to take seriously even as a protest candidate, is having the supposedly unfortunate effect of drawing attention away from the Rejoin EU party and its candidate in Clacton, a former Conservative MP named John Stevens.
According to Nixon, some of Stevens' biggest critics are his fellow Rejoiners, who think the anti-Farage vote should solidify around Binface. But Nixon's analysis seems to be that since(he claims) Farage is guaranteed to win anyway and Binface is actually not all that popular within Clacton itself(as opposed to among the non-voting chattering classes nationwide), it'd be a good time to highlight serious support for Europe.
Having some experience with parsing the distinction between local opinion in a given area and outside impressions of that local opinion, I can imagine that Binface might not be quite the people's hero in a historically right-wing constituency that he is among armchair ironists who only know him from podcasts. Though I wonder if there are other explanations for Stevens' lack of profile besides "The media is irresponsibly using the clown as clickbait while ignoring the real issues."
The biggest explanation for why the media is ignoring real issues is because the by-election is just a political stunt (that Farage seems to have misjudged, if reports that he thought it would close Parliamentary investigations of the £5m "gift" are accurate) and real issues are hidden behind that. Reform doesn't have any new policies to talk about, and it seems nothing that relates directly to Clacton. Binface has a manifesto, but one that's heavy on satire. The major parties have decided not to engage with Farage's political stunt, and wait for the by-election that's expected when Farage gets sanctioned for not declaring that £5m. In 6 months (± a bit, depending on timescale of conclusion of the investigation of that £5m) when there's another Clacton by-election the major parties will all be standing and there will be media discussion of real issues - though whether a RejoinEU candidate has a chance in the middle of Brexit central is a different question.
Some people do not seem to get the joke. Farage is turning the democratic system into a publicity machine for his grievances and 30-odd satirical candidates are ensuring that the absurdity of the situation is highlighted.
Analysing the politics of the man with a bin on his head - who has only ever won a few hundred votes in every byelection he has stood in - misunderstands the situation.
Binface is not going to win. Farage is going to get a thumping majority.
But Farage will always be the man who called an unnecessary byelection to avoid scrutiny of his finances and as a result will be photographed on the winning rostrum next to a bin.
Some people do not seem to get the joke. Farage is turning the democratic system into a publicity machine for his grievances and 30-odd satirical candidates are ensuring that the absurdity of the situation is highlighted.
Analysing the politics of the man with a bin on his head - who has only ever won a few hundred votes in every byelection he has stood in - misunderstands the situation.
Binface is not going to win. Farage is going to get a thumping majority.
But Farage will always be the man who called an unnecessary byelection to avoid scrutiny of his finances and as a result will be photographed on the winning rostrum next to a bin.
That's the takeaway point here. That photo.
Sure. And the photo will give all the people who thought the milkshake tossings were absolutely hilarious something new to laugh about. But how many among the currently pro-Farage or Farage-curious will be converted to Never Faragers?
And the photo will give all the people who thought the milkshake tossings were absolutely hilarious something new to laugh about. But how many among the currently pro-Farage or Farage-curious will be converted to Never Faragers?
I suspect the photo itself won't make much difference. After all, Burnham was manoeuvred into standing on the platform between Count Binface and an man in an animal suit and most people have forgotten - though, in that case it was clear he saw the funny side of where they'd arranged to stand before he got on the platform (I'm far from convinced Farage has a suitable sense of humour to laugh at that).
Where it's quite possible the support of pro-Farage or Farage-curious will come under strain will be the claim that Reform is "a new way of doing politics". The last few months have shown that Reform and Reform MPs are raking in cash, in a way that most people will see as no different from how Reform claimed politicians in traditional parties are just in it for the money and don't care about the people who voted for them (until the next time they need their vote when they'll promise the world and then not do what they said). And, then to top it off Farage pulls a political stunt by resigning and standing in the by-election that caused, while he's built his reputation on not "playing politics". Will people who have been voting Reform in the last few years thinking they're getting politicians who are working for the people and not themselves continue to vote Reform? I suspect that the decline in Reform in polls over the last few weeks is almost entirely due to that demonstration that Farage and Reform in general are not fundamentally different from other parties in being professional politicians and willing to use any political manoeuvring to advance their position, Farage vs a bin has been great entertainment for many of us, but isn't really that big a thing in terms of actual politics.
I wouldn’t have such hopes for voters losing faith in Farage, Reform and their Ilk. There are millions of people who are inherently racist and millions more who can be persuaded to vote for such policies, thanks to manipulation and outright lies in the mainstream and social media.
Any pretence the English had of being tolerant is now, and probably always was, a fiction.
It'll be interesting to see what sort of turnout occurs in Clacton - probably low, but, if it's a fine day, more people might join in the 'fun', perhaps in the cooler periods of morning and evening.
Darn it, I reckon a single issue of the Daily Mail or the Daily Express will contain a statement about Britain’s legendary tolerance and at least one, probably three highly emotive features about illegals, fake disability and positive discrimination towards LGBTQ+ people.
Darn it, I reckon a single issue of the Daily Mail or the Daily Express will contain a statement about Britain’s legendary tolerance and at least one, probably three highly emotive features about illegals, fake disability and positive discrimination towards LGBTQ+ people.
Are you saying that these august organs are right, and representative of the majority of English people?
“Thank you Clacton, I have beaten the bin. Isn’t that impressive”.
I think his speechwriters are more likely to frame it as something like "The reason I'm standing next to a bin is because of all the so-called serious parties, none of them had the courage to face me in this by-election."
Usually a raised stage is erected for the candidates to stand on when the result is announced. However, one large enough for them all and strong enough to take their weight could not be found.
So instead the 34 will line up on the floor of the sports hall in alphabetical order to hear how many votes they received.
After the result only the winner will make a speech, which will last up to three minutes.
That individual will be the Clacton MP once the result is declared by the returning officer. They will be sworn in at the House of Commons once Parliament returns from the summer break in September.
BBC
Binface acceptance speech - positive and forward looking for Clacton.
Far rage acceptance speech - whiny, self-serving and negative.
Farage is by far the most likely to 'win', though one can but hope...
Seriously, though, ISTM that the best result for Clacton as a whole would be for the Rejoin EU chap to win, however unlikely that is. Reports seem to indicate that many people in the constituency (which includes Frinton, Walton, and other places, as well as Clacton itself) are heartily sick of Farage,
The Metro asked Binface and Farage questions separately. Binface was very about Clacton. Farage was not. It was all about the national policies of Restore. When asked what was the best night out in Clacton Binface said there was a lot of choice but that fish and chips in the pier was his choice. Farage pit NA not applicable.
Farage is by far the most likely to 'win', though one can but hope...
Seriously, though, ISTM that the best result for Clacton as a whole would be for the Rejoin EU chap to win, however unlikely that is. Reports seem to indicate that many people in the constituency (which includes Frinton, Walton, and other places, as well as Clacton itself) are heartily sick of Farage,
Given the strength of the Brexit vote down there, I doubt the Rejoin EU party has a realistic hope. There's at least one good looking local independent for those who don't want a satirical candidate.
For Farage, "win" is more than being returned as the MP (which is almost certain). He needs to justify the decision to "let the people of Clacton decide" about his £5m "gift", he needs to be able to go back to the Commons and tell the Parliamentary authorities "you may think I did wrong, my constituents don't care and fully back me" and just as importantly know that there's a good chance of a recall petition falling or if that passes to know he'll still have a comfortable majority in a by-election where the main political parties will be standing. For that he needs a big majority, an increase on his 2024 vote share, from a respectable turn-out. Count Binface may have created enough interest for the turn-out to be respectable, but also could take more than enough votes to leave Farage with a reduced vote share and no compelling defence against Parliamentary standards questions based on "I have the explicit support of the people of Clacton".
Comments
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umfn6tqgUno
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/aug/03/clacton-byelection-independent-candidates-nigel-farage-count-binface
Clacton deserves better than Farage, or at least those do who didn't vote for him in 2024,,,
https://bleedingcool.com/comics/count-binface-gets-a-comic-by-dave-mckean-martin-rowson-and-me/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UU-AJqOKM8E
O! Clacton! Just make us all happy, and people (except Reform diehards) will love you for ever...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crlw69p6lyeo
Tony Francis independent -lives in Clacton. In a post on social media he says he is standing to put local people before party interests, practical solutions before political games, and service before ego.
He wants to protect the Clacton coastline and open spaces, support older residents and vulnerable people and improve local transport infrastructure.
What did he say that gave you that impression?
He said something. This is where things have started to unravel for Zack Polanski and Andy Burnham (and others too). I’m sure it’s best to have a position and leave communication to others more skilled in that dark art.
Sorry, I'm not sure I understand. You're saying that Binface, Polanski, and Burnham should only set policy, not communicate to the public?
Not quite. They should leave communications to the experts as far as possible, and get professionals in to write their speeches to minimise damage.
That leaves the Q & A format, like Question Time, and that demands planted questions and sticking to your chosen material. Don’t go off-piste.
A pilot has used their GPS to draw out a giant bin in the sky just off the coast of Clacton.
Source
I think starting off quoting a whole load of Homer in Ancient Greek was not necessarily a great idea. I think he was torn between being the comedy candidate and actually taking the idea seriously and coming up with a workable manifesto. Also I didn't like the artificial voice.
Thanks.
I've been giving myself a crash-course on Binface's interviews, and am not excessively impressed. But I'm probably the wrong person to judge, because, as a rule, I find joke candidates tiresome. The novelty wears off pretty quickly, after you've seen one or two doing their schtick.
I get more of a kick outta the unintentionally comic fringe candidates who take themselves seriously, eg. the perennial candidate in my hometown's civic elections, who once campaigned on opposing the publically accessible computers at the downtown library, on the grounds that they could be used by drug dealers to conduct business via email(*).
(*) I knew him personally. Quite a nice guy, but tended to ride some odd hobby horses.
Having just seen a bit more of what Scottish Labour have been getting elected and putting forward for leadership I'm afraid he'd be an advance on a lot of them too.
Some people seem to be taking His Excellency the Count rather too seriously - after all, he's just passing through on his way back to Sigma IX - but O! what a lark if he does by some strange chance actually win !
Whatever transpires, of course, and I don't doubt that Farage will come first, he (Farage) will have succeeded in making himself look like a total Twit. Moreover, he'll still have to face more parliamentary scrutiny of his *ahem* finances.
The man's name is Count Binface, and he wears a large bin on his head. He's not going to get away from an element of being the comedy candidate.
As a piece of electoral calculus, this by-election is irrelevant. Labour will still have a huge majority after the election, and Farage almost never shows up in the commons anyway. A comedy bin can hardly do worse. This is all about political stuntery, and Binface is absolutely mocking Farage.
As far as the Greek goes, perhaps Binface decided to quote the Iliad in response to a light-hearted Odyssey film intro because he doesn't know the Odyssey by heart. I don't think it's an attempt to cast Farage in the role of Achilles. Absurd, perhaps, but Messrs Campbell and Stewart were engaged in conversation with a man with a bin on his head, so ...
Perhaps there was an opportunity for a Martin Bell moment here, but I don't think that works in a byelection generated by Farage playing his own political games. Mockery seems like the only reasonable response.
Goodness knows what other countries think of this comedy show, but there is at least one major European state which has a former TV comedian as President.
I'm not sure that His Excellency the Count is of quite the same calibre, though of course I wish him well.
Well, quite.
Those models have actually been available for much longer than this election campaign, my son showed me one he got years ago. I must admit I have been tempted by some of the merch on offer, paprtly because it's funny and partly to support the Bin against Farage.
According to Nixon, some of Stevens' biggest critics are his fellow Rejoiners, who think the anti-Farage vote should solidify around Binface. But Nixon's analysis seems to be that since(he claims) Farage is guaranteed to win anyway and Binface is actually not all that popular within Clacton itself(as opposed to among the non-voting chattering classes nationwide), it'd be a good time to highlight serious support for Europe.
Having some experience with parsing the distinction between local opinion in a given area and outside impressions of that local opinion, I can imagine that Binface might not be quite the people's hero in a historically right-wing constituency that he is among armchair ironists who only know him from podcasts. Though I wonder if there are other explanations for Stevens' lack of profile besides "The media is irresponsibly using the clown as clickbait while ignoring the real issues."
Analysing the politics of the man with a bin on his head - who has only ever won a few hundred votes in every byelection he has stood in - misunderstands the situation.
Binface is not going to win. Farage is going to get a thumping majority.
But Farage will always be the man who called an unnecessary byelection to avoid scrutiny of his finances and as a result will be photographed on the winning rostrum next to a bin.
That's the takeaway point here. That photo.
Sure. And the photo will give all the people who thought the milkshake tossings were absolutely hilarious something new to laugh about. But how many among the currently pro-Farage or Farage-curious will be converted to Never Faragers?
Where it's quite possible the support of pro-Farage or Farage-curious will come under strain will be the claim that Reform is "a new way of doing politics". The last few months have shown that Reform and Reform MPs are raking in cash, in a way that most people will see as no different from how Reform claimed politicians in traditional parties are just in it for the money and don't care about the people who voted for them (until the next time they need their vote when they'll promise the world and then not do what they said). And, then to top it off Farage pulls a political stunt by resigning and standing in the by-election that caused, while he's built his reputation on not "playing politics". Will people who have been voting Reform in the last few years thinking they're getting politicians who are working for the people and not themselves continue to vote Reform? I suspect that the decline in Reform in polls over the last few weeks is almost entirely due to that demonstration that Farage and Reform in general are not fundamentally different from other parties in being professional politicians and willing to use any political manoeuvring to advance their position, Farage vs a bin has been great entertainment for many of us, but isn't really that big a thing in terms of actual politics.
Any pretence the English had of being tolerant is now, and probably always was, a fiction.
It'll be interesting to see what sort of turnout occurs in Clacton - probably low, but, if it's a fine day, more people might join in the 'fun', perhaps in the cooler periods of morning and evening.
Darn it, I reckon a single issue of the Daily Mail or the Daily Express will contain a statement about Britain’s legendary tolerance and at least one, probably three highly emotive features about illegals, fake disability and positive discrimination towards LGBTQ+ people.
On that front, Binface asking whether Laurence Fox was the name of the man in the fox suit was quite delicious.
Are you saying that these august organs are right, and representative of the majority of English people?
I think his speechwriters are more likely to frame it as something like "The reason I'm standing next to a bin is because of all the so-called serious parties, none of them had the courage to face me in this by-election."
So instead the 34 will line up on the floor of the sports hall in alphabetical order to hear how many votes they received.
After the result only the winner will make a speech, which will last up to three minutes.
That individual will be the Clacton MP once the result is declared by the returning officer. They will be sworn in at the House of Commons once Parliament returns from the summer break in September.
BBC
Binface acceptance speech - positive and forward looking for Clacton.
Far rage acceptance speech - whiny, self-serving and negative.
Seriously, though, ISTM that the best result for Clacton as a whole would be for the Rejoin EU chap to win, however unlikely that is. Reports seem to indicate that many people in the constituency (which includes Frinton, Walton, and other places, as well as Clacton itself) are heartily sick of Farage,
For Farage, "win" is more than being returned as the MP (which is almost certain). He needs to justify the decision to "let the people of Clacton decide" about his £5m "gift", he needs to be able to go back to the Commons and tell the Parliamentary authorities "you may think I did wrong, my constituents don't care and fully back me" and just as importantly know that there's a good chance of a recall petition falling or if that passes to know he'll still have a comfortable majority in a by-election where the main political parties will be standing. For that he needs a big majority, an increase on his 2024 vote share, from a respectable turn-out. Count Binface may have created enough interest for the turn-out to be respectable, but also could take more than enough votes to leave Farage with a reduced vote share and no compelling defence against Parliamentary standards questions based on "I have the explicit support of the people of Clacton".
He reminds me of Humpty-Dumpty, and of Trump, for whom words mean what they want them to mean.
In fairness, almost no politician, upon winning an election, then gets up and lists the arguments for their mandate being not that strong.
O, he'll win, but hopefully (as @Alan Cresswell says) with a reduced share of the vote.