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I am very excited about Count Binface attempt to defeat Nigel Farage (just one letter away from being a count himself) in Clacton. It's great to see people taking this ridiculous comedy figure seriously (and I can't be bothered to do another joke here, but feel free to amuse yourself by pretending that was about Nigel Farage). Is it possible that he could actually win?
It's true that almost half of the fine and thoughtful people of Clacton voted for Farage last time, but will they be as keen now or will they see this as a costly unnecessary hissy-fit from a man of dubious character and either not turn up or cast their vote elsewhere? And the good thing about Farage that whilst he amazingly has about 25% of the country supporting him based on his one policy of not liking immigrants, is that people who don't want to vote for him really hate him. Fifty of them managed to right off a car, according to him, which unless they set it on fire is a remarkable achievement for a mob. If even imaginary people hate him that much then maybe some real people might see the value of having me defeated by a bin.
I am still surprised how few people are pointing out the fallacies and childishness of his arguments. He's trying to avoid talking about the various dodgy-looking donations by pretending to be furious that the media has brought his daughter into all this (even though they haven't as far as I can see - she just lives in one of the five houses of this anti-establishment millionaire). You've all had an argument with a teenager whose opinions are not holding up, so they suddenly take huge umbrage at some perceived slight that they think trumps whatever is going on.
I mentioned his argument that if he has to give his money back then the people interviewing should also give their money back - even though they are being paid for doing something, which Farage claims he's not. It's the being given five million pounds in return for nothing that people find tricky to believe.
Also of course the whole idea of the by-election being some kind of referendum on whether he is a good or bad person is meaningless too. Crimes are not judged on whether people who have no real access to the evidence think they might have happened or not and even if they did then self-selecting one of the few places in the country where Reform is getting almost 50% of the vote is not "going to the people". It's going to a load of people who like you already and have been hoodwinked by your lies, but likely to double down rather than admit they've done something a bit silly.
When a Reform spokesperson says they're putting it to the people, no one is stepping in and saying "That's not true is it? So stop saying it."
Obviously they are hoping people will view it the same as Andy Burnham claiming his election gives him some sort of mandate. Which is equally not true, but at least he was in a constituency where Labour had recently come second and his impressive victory did give some indication that he might be the man to take on Reform.
Anyway, thin-skinned, possibly reptilian Farage did not even consider that the other parties might not play ball with this ludicrous attempt to prove his popularity. Nor that his main opponent might be a man with a bin on his head. Nor that those many people the despise Reform might see the value and humour in voting for the joke candidate (again do your own joke).
Having interviewed the Count and seen the hideous creature that lurks beneath his helmet, I genuinely think he'd be an excellent MP for however long this parliament lasts (I have a feeling Burnham will call a snap election in the next few months).
Can Binface win? It seems pretty unlikely in reality, though in an ideal world he should and I still have a hope that he might. Though if Binface gets any significant percentage of the votes it's going to be hard for Farage to bounce back from this and even if he doesn't, the fact that Farage has to go up against joke candidates (and the serious challenge of Laurence Fox) will make this man who claims to not understand comedy and wants to be taken very seriously, extremely uncomfortable. Hopefully it will also highlight his own inadequacies.
It's a possible actual triumph for satire, which rarely if anything changes anything and I wish the Count the best of luck. Smear campaigns have started, which I am sure he can cope with, but it does indicate that Reform are at the very least a little bit jumpy. I am confident that if this was an actual referendum of everyone in the country that Binface would win. And I hope, like someone else who I saw on social media that the result is 52/48 in the illegal alien's favour.
