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London mayoral candidate Count Binface poses for a photo on College Green beside the Palace of Westminster in London on April 25, 2024. BENJAMIN CREMEL/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
Now and then, person and moment meet and history is made. Think of Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Nelson Mandela. Is it now a moment for history and Count Binface?
Nigel Farage, leader of the Reform U.K. Party, resigned his seat in the British Parliament after it was reported he is being investigated for receiving a five million pound gift from a cryptocurrency billionaire. But Farage is running for an instant re-election in Clacton-on-Sea before any investigation, saying, "The people of Clacton should be the judges of my actions."
Major parties have refused to field candidates to run against him, contending the quick election is a stunt. A stunt? In politics? Imagine...
But Farage does have one opponent who's got a household name: Count Binface.
Count Binface is a character created by comedian Jonathan David Harvey. Count Binface says he's from the planet Sigma IX. He has a cape. And he gives interviews through a hole in a trash bin over his head.
Count Binface has already run and lost against Prime Ministers Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak in their constituencies. Well, Lincoln and Churchill lost some local elections, too, on their way to greatness.
And Count Binface is campaigning on hard, specific pledges.
To the Clacton voters, he says, "I'll cut your taxes and raise everyone else's." He'll also prohibit people from eating noisy snacks in a movie theater. Count Binface vows to build one affordable home, rename London Bridge the Phoebe Waller Bridge, after the noted actress. Count Binface wants to nationalize the singer Adele. She has sold more than 120 million records, and so is notably more profitable than Britain's nationalized rail system.
The Count's odds of being elected should not be discounted. The British town of Hartelpool in 2002 elected a mayor who was the monkey mascot of the local football club. He promised a banana for every schoolchild. 10 years ago, people voted to name a polar research vehicle Boaty McBoatface. So there's some history of the British recognizing the value of a good laugh, perhaps especially in politics.
As Count Binface himself told the BBC, through the slat in his trash bin, "My job is to demonstrate that British democracy is wonderful and unique in the entire Cosmos."
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