Count Binface

[extasia]

> Binface announced a series of satirical policies for the 2019 general election, including:

Bringing back Ceefax, the teletext service.[9] He had previously promised to bring back the service in 2017 as Lord Buckethead.[12]

Returning 20,001 police officers to the street, a reference to the Conservative pledge of 20,000 more police officers.[13]

Nationalising model railways.[14]

Holding a referendum on holding a second referendum on the United Kingdom's membership in the European Union.[14]

Allowing any Czechs on the Irish border to remain.[14]

Nationalising Adele, the English singer.[15]

Abolishing the House of Lords.[15] He had previously pledged the same in 2017 as Lord Buckethead.[16]

Giving free broadband to everyone.[15]

Stopping the sale of arms to repressive regimes.[15]

Making Piers Morgan zero emissions by 2030.[15]

Renaming London Bridge to "Phoebe Waller-Bridge".[15]

Introducing a minimum voting age of 16 and a maximum of 80.[15]

Sending £1 trillion a week to the NHS.[14]

Proroguing Jacob Rees-Mogg.[14]

Banishing Katie Hopkins to the Phantom Zone.[14]

Moving the hand dryer in the men's toilet at Uxbridge's Crown and Treaty pub to a "more sensible position".[14]

[thih9]

My favorites are the ones from 2024 London mayoral election[1]:

> The Binface manifesto called for the abolition of VAR [video assisted referee] (presumably in football matches) and promised to force Thames Water managers to "take a dip in the Thames... see how they like it", in reference to the recent sewage discharge controversy; also to "build at least one affordable house", referring to the housing crisis in London.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Count_Binface#2024_London_mayo...

[yjftsjthsd-h]

My real favorite part is that some of these are obviously nonsensical, but some of them are actually reasonable sounding ideas... I'm not sure I would personally vote for free broadband for everyone, but that is absolutely legitimate platform that I could see somebody actually running on.

[Findecanor]

I'm not British, but I'm a fan a silly humour. One message I like is:

"I would make an absolutely cast-iron firm commitment to build the 100bn Trident weapon system ... but then I would make an equally firm private commitment after that public commitment not to build.

Because they are secret submarines and no one will ever know...

Win-win. A hundred billion quid. Shove it in the health service"

[WJW]

> Moving the hand dryer in the men's toilet at Uxbridge's Crown and Treaty pub to a "more sensible position".[14]

Finally!

[arethuza]

Clearly Count Binface not being in the House of Lords is some kind of administrative oversight?

[jsheard]

Binface getting more votes than the neo-fascist Britain First in the recent mayoral elections was cathartic. They tried to play it off that they weren't really trying to win so it doesn't count, and they're definitely not mad, please don't put in the newspaper that they got mad.

[ta1243]

Jeremy Vine analasys: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVEI1jOR-0U

[ianpurton]

> All government ministers' pay, including that of the mayors, should be tied to that of nurses for the next 100 years.

A brilliant policy.

[gnrlst]

> Introducing a minimum voting age of 16 and a maximum of 80.

> Sending £1 trillion a week to the NHS.

can we squeeze those in too?

[mhh__]

People like this kind of stuff but it's unthinking populism.

[beardyw]

Proud that the UK leads the world:

List of frivolous political parties - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_frivolous_political_pa...

[riffraff]

Didn't the UK use to have a joke candidate called "lord Buckethead" too? I'm pretty sure I saw him on some stage with Theresa May. Is it related to the count?

In somewhat related news, Hungary has a joke-ish party called the "Hungarian two-tailed dog party"[0], which does a lot or civic work but usually campaigns with slogans such as "more of everything less of nothing", "100% more happiness", sends people on tv tribunes dressed like chickens etc..

This year they managed to elect the major of a district in Budapest which has been controlled by Fidesz since forever.

Do not underestimate jokes.

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_Two-Tailed_Dog_Par...

[omnicognate]

Same guy - from tfa:

> In earlier elections, Harvey stood as Lord Buckethead, but was forced to change the character due to a copyright dispute with the American filmmaker Todd Durham, who created Lord Buckethead for his 1984 science fiction film Hyperspace.

[graemep]

The best known in the UK was probably Screaming Lord Such: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screaming_Lord_Sutch

Absolutely right about the power of jokes.

[thih9]

Voting in the UK has its own flavor. Somewhat related: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Tobin_(astronomer)

> In the 2019 United Kingdom general election he stood as an independent candidate against Boris Johnson in the Uxbridge and South Ruislip constituency. As he had not resided in Britain for more than 15 years he was ineligible to vote but eligible to stand as a candidate. He focused his campaign on voting rights using the slogan "Don't vote for Tobin, let Tobin vote". He gained five votes.

[drcongo]

And somewhat related to that, astronomer Patrick Moore used to be the chair of a far-right anti-immigration party. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Country_Party_(United_K...

[masfuerte]

He got his wish. The tories removed the 15 year limit in 2022.

eta: I just noticed that he died on 7th July 2022. The law came into effect on 28th April 2022 but he never got a chance to use it.

[mpeg]

I'm appalled that the Count Binface wikipedia article has no picture on it

[noman-land]

Be the change you want to see.

[ButterWashed]

His recent announcement to bring in a policy to make former Prime Ministers do National Service really did bring tears of laughter to my eyes.

[einpoklum]

Binface vs Rishi Sunak! Now there's a match between candidates of a similar political caliber.

Anyway, watch the interview with Count Binface after his participation in the London mayoral election:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WncWiGYNCeg

[tylerhannan]

There is something about this that makes me so very happy.

[jakeweary]

Sadiq Khan shaking Count Binface's hand during the London mayoral results announcement is rather touching.

https://youtu.be/jkbX0DBhvKE?si=LAz-9-9JYM0N0EBy

[VyseofArcadia]

See also, on the other side of the pond, Vermin Supreme: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermin_Supreme

[ThrowawayTestr]

I've been wary of joke candidates ever since I watched that black mirror episode

[mhh__]

I may be being a bit sour but I haven't found Binface funny for years now.

[kitd]

> Make your vote COUNT

Genius!