A Candidate Named ‘Count Binface’ Is the Most Normal Part of This Pivotal UK Election — Wired

RESOLVING THE LEDGER

One of Britain’s most high-profile and perennial candidates, Binface has stood in six previous elections across England over the past decade (UK politicians do not have to live in a constituency in order to represent it in parliament). This Thursday, he faces Clacton incumbent Nigel Farage—leader of the right-wing anti-immigration party Reform UK and a friend of Donald Trump—in a by-election triggered by the latter’s resignation amidst allegations that he and his party accepted and failed to declare financial support, including a £5 million gift from a Thailand-based cryptocurrency tycoon. Reform did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment.

Farage maintains he has done nothing wrong and wants to recontest his seat to let voters judge his actions. Major parties, including governing Labour and the opposition Conservatives, refused to field a candidate in the contest, branding it a “gimmick” and a “circus.” When then chancellor of the exchequer Rachel Reeves accepted Farage’s resignation, she said: “If he wants to spend the summer arguing with a bin, I won't stop him.”

In the vacuum, campaigners have rushed to use a high-profile vote to push their own issues, from psychosexual theory to Bible messaging to white-nationalist conspiracy theories. There are also a number of novelty candidates, three from satirical party Monster Raving Loony Party alone, Nick the Incredible Flying Brick, Baron Von Thunderclap, and Howling Laud Hope, who plans to shrink hospital waiting lists by reducing the font size.

The 34-candidate list is unprecedented; the 3-foot-long ballot papers are reportedly bigger than the tables used to count them on and have proved difficult for organizers to fit into envelopes for postal votes. The parties are fighting frenziedly for voters’ attention. Rosie Morrell of the Everyone Is God party–whose policies include creating a “stable world economy” and “to map and fully comprehend the complete spectrum of human psychology and sexuality”–offers to take off her Union Jack dress so I can snap a photo of her in her matching bikini. That’s what other press have been asking for as her partner contests the by-election, she says, pink feathers dangling from her ears.

In national coverage, Count Binface has broken through. A common figure in British politics, he most recently ran against Prime Minister Andy Burnham in June and has contested several other general and London mayoral elections before. Inside the trash can is comedian and writer Jon Harvey, who has worked on satirical television shows including Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, weekly British news quiz Have I Got News for You, and iconic BBC comedy The Thick of It. With Farage’s popularity collapsing across the country, Britons nationally want a victory for Binface–who pledges to nationalize singer Adele, cap ice cream prices, and hold a referendum on whether Pluto should regain its planet status.

“We did have a giggle, and get that it’s someone just trying to make light of it,” Jaywick resident Angelina Port, who is not a Reform voter, recalls about first reading about Binface in the national press. “But we do have issues that need to be resolved,” she says, standing on the front steps of her bungalow, which has been raised on bricks to avoid flooding. It’s a common feature in the neighborhood, which was built as a summer holiday resort but ended up permanently inhabited due to bomb damage and a housing shortage in London caused by the Second World War. Ten of her neighbors have signs saying “I’m voting Reform,” staked outside. The breakfast and burger van she runs with her partner is parked in her drive.

It’s the first Tuesday of August, 82 degrees Fahrenheit (28 Celsius) by midmorning and bin day in Clacton. Garbage trucks heave down quiet cul-de-sacs and flies are buzzing as canvassers armed with leaflets for the Rejoin EU Party’s John Stevens trudge sun-baked tarmac. They are targeting former Conservative voters in the affluent neighbourhood of Holland-on-Sea. Houses with glass fronts, large balconies, and gated, manicured front drives overlook the turquoise sea lapping a sandy beach–where last month a small boat of migrants landed after crossing the English channel from continental Europe.

Once a Conservative member for European Parliament, Stevens is positioning himself as a vote against Farage and his political baby, Brexit. In recent years, national attitudes toward EU membership have shifted, with Brexit being blamed for an annual multibillion-pound hit to the British economy as growth stagnates and living costs climb.

Stevens wants to see if local attitudes have changed, believing that if even those living in Brexit heartlands—around 70 percent of Clacton voted for Brexit in 2016—believe it was a bad idea, it will send a message to Westminster. “The one policy that Farage has been advocating all his political life is widely regarded as a disaster—and that’s how you attack him,” says Stevens, who quit the Conservative party over its increasing Euroscepticism. “You don’t attack him through his money or his morals, because those simply don’t hit.”

Some houses they skip: Those with signs reading “I’m voting Reform” and showing a pointing, smirking Farage staked in the ground. Stevens has learnt from knocking on 2,500 doors so far that staunch Farage fans aren’t concerned by the £5 million. “Everybody knows that Farage is going to win this, because he’s got the place nailed down,” Stevens says.

His view is affirmed when he stops local retiree and Reform voter Jeff Brown, on his sea-view walk. Farage needs the money for security, says Brown, and who wouldn’t accept a £5 million gift? “I don’t think he should have done what he did, resigning and standing again,” he adds, but nevertheless believes Farage has been a good MP in the past couple of years and has voted for him again. Having voted for Brexit, Brown started supporting Farage two years ago when he burst back onto the political scene on Clacton Pi...

A Candidate Named ‘Count Binface’ Is the Most Normal Part of This Pivotal UK Election — Wired | AIPROPX