463
British public more likely to prefer Count Binface wins Clacton by-election than Nigel Farage
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this post was submitted on 14 Jul 2026
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You're assuming that the "same showing" would see every person who voted for someone other than Farage vote for a joke candidate.
The premise of the "same showing" is already clearly implausible, without adding that on top
in our causality, is binface really a joke candidate?
Is this a joke comment? Of course he's a joke candidate.
EDIT: instead of downvoting, explain how the literal comedian in a literal costume with a literal bin on his head is not a joke candidate.
Because he is a lot more sane than the other candidate.
Being sane relative to someone else is completely unrelated to being a joke candidate. Next?
"joke candidate" usually implies someone who enters with no chance of winning just to make a joke. The implication doesn't match in this case because he has a nonzero chance of winning.
But this isn't a normal by-election this is a by-election caused by someone who is under investigation for parliamentary misconduct and also is simultaneously under police investigation for criminal conspiracy to handle stolen money.
The normal rules don't apply.
Don't they? Do you think they didn't know exactly who they were voting for last time? And if the only other option is a guy who plays a space alien with a bin on their head do you think they'll actually show up?
The option isnt necessarily one or the other, its "do I even bother to show up at all?"
If you have two joke candidates, why bother voting for either? Meanwhile the people who have voted for Farage in the past will likely continue to do so.
This is a candidate with a fucking bin on their head, are you seriously questioning whether they're a joke candidate?
Look, I get that we all really want Binface to win but that does not mean he is not a joke. That's the whole bloody point.
And, in context, because he is a joke candidate wearing a bin, there will be lots of people who won't bother voting for him. (While many of Farage's faithful will turn out) Sorry to break to you what every sane person with an opinion is predicting...
And Nigel Farage is not a joke candidate? He took a £5M bribe in crypto, now seeks re election?
Ich bin ein binliner.
Did I say that? Try to stay on topic.
You don't even think that Farage is a joke candidate in the same way that Binface is. Sure, Binface can crack a joke that Farage is a "joke candidate" and it makes sense but it is not the same sense.
You think Farage is a joke because he's deserving of ridicule. But Binface is a joke because he purposefully invites ridicule. Binface is in on the joke because he's the one telling it. Farage is a joke because the idea that someone so disgusting could be near to power is a (sick) joke that we, those opposed to him, tell to make ourselves feel better about the sorry state of our country. Farage doesn't believe he's a joke at all.
You don't get it. Farage manipulation of the electoral process, and the behavior of the other parties is the joke here.
Farage is just another Trump, staying in power to avoid prison.
What power is Farage using here? This is incoherent.
I understand perfectly, you just want to talk about something I never talked about. Even when I try to meet you where you are you don't bother replying to it.
Please don't reply to me again if you're going to ramble on about something unrelated.
I got jumped on on reddit for suggesting the same thing. It feels like an active attempt to muddy the waters and dissuade honest discussion/criticism but I can't work out exactly why.
It's because calling someone a joke sounds disparaging... even if they're a literal comedy character played by a comedian. So that's enough to put it in the wrong bin when people are making black and white judgements of "does this person wholly align with my views or not"
But he's the establishment candidate! Just ask Farage!
My grand voted for a bin, my parents voted for bins....
No because it's percentage of the vote not quantity of votes.
All sorts of things could happen, perhaps the poor turn out in the last by-election was because people assumed he was a shoe in so didn't bother to vote. Perhaps people forgot (it seems like the sort of place where voter apathy is quite high). Perhaps people will be more likely to vote in this election because it seems funny. Perhaps he has really pissed off a lot of his voters due to his complete absenteeism from the position.
All of these possibilities don't change the fact that your assumption about the "same showing" is unrealistic. You can't have the same showing because the candidates previously standing are not, so where do you allocate their votes? Do you think none of the 116 people who voted UKIP (yes, they still existed in 2024!) might vote Farage over Binface? What about a few of the 12,820 people who voted Conservative? Any of them might align better with Farage policies than "nationalise Adele"?
If you literally have the same showing you'll have 21,225 votes for Farage, zero votes for any other candidate, and Farage will win with 100% of the vote.
There are a few far-fetched ways in which Binface could win. It's possible - I don't dispute that - but unlikely. My point, though, was about your argument based on the "same showing".
Ah I see, so you've divided the world into your enemies and your allies and you think that people who you previously saw as your enemy will still be your enemy. The thing to remember is they don't know you exist, nor do they care about what you're thinking.
In the last election they might have voted for the conservatives because they wanted the conservatives to be in charge. A vote for the conservatives is also a vote against Farage, so perhaps their primary motivation is they don't want Reform and will vote for whatever least worst option is presented in order to not get Reform. In the last election that was a Conservative candidate, in this election that's not an option, so it's binface or Farage, and if they're voting against him then literally anything will be better.
You've also completely disregarded my point that his antics over the last 2 years may very well have pissed quite a lot of his original voters off.
Let me remind you of the words you are trying to defend:
What "same showing" are you talking about? I think by this point it's clear you meant something other than what you said. Since my issue was with what you said, not whatever you meant to say, it's better we leave it here.