Dem
47
GOP
53
There weren't any elections in the U.S. yesterday, but there was a very interesting one in the U.K. And regular correspondent S.T. in Worcestershire, England, UK was kind enough to send us a report:
You wait ages for a consequential by-election (special election) for the U.K. Parliament... and then three come along together. First we had the Gorton and Denton contest in February, which saw the Green Party achieve their first ever by- election victory, gaining a previously safe Labour seat; then Andy Burnham's retention of Makerfield for Labour in June, which propelled him into 10 Downing Street; and last, but by no means least, the titanic battle between Reform's Nigel Farage and the charismatic, sleaze-free, Count Binface. Nigel resigned his Clacton seat to force a by-election, where he could "take on the establishment." His plan came a little unstuck when the other main UK parties decided not to field candidates, resulting in his main opponent becoming the inter-galactic warrior from Sigma 9.
The contest took place yesterday with, as usual in the U.K., an overnight count. Turnout, at 44.3%, was relatively robust for a by-election. Even before the declaration, there was controversy with Farage, at a privately run "Farage Fest" staged by Reform, saying he would not attend the count as police had told him about "an organized campaign to disrupt and degrade the result." The police subsequently stated that not advised any candidate not to attend the count. So we were denied the usual pictures of all the candidates (34 in total!) lined up as the result was declared.
Farage won with 22,293 votes (63.3%), slightly more numerically than he achieved at the general election. This is not entirely a surprise. If the Reform party were able to gerrymander a seat to maximize their support, they would probably have end up with something like Clacton. It is 96% White, has an elderly demographic, exceptionally low levels of education and very high levels of deprivation. Its estimated support for Brexit in the 2016 referendum was, at 73%, one of the highest in the U.K. But the Binface bandwagon saw the Count get 9,455 votes (26.9%):
This is by far his best result in any election he has stood in—and a reminder that, as shown in recent by-election, voters are more than willing to vote tactically for the candidate most likely to challenge Reform. No other candidate got more than 500 votes.
Incidentally, this farce of a by-election will have cost the UK taxpayers around £300,000.
As readers may recall, Nigel's problems do not end here. The main reason he prompted this by-election was to divert attention away from a £5 million so-called "personal gift" which he received from a Thai based crypto-billionaire just before the 2024 General Election. Farage failed to declare this when he was elected and the Standards Commissioner, who deals with such matters, is considering whether he should have. Once he resigned, the inquiry was put on hold, but it will be re-activated as soon as he returns to the House of Commons. It is widely expected, not least because of some of his own comments, that he will be found guilty of misconduct and probably suspended for more than 10 days, which in turn will allow his constituents to launch a recall petition. Should 10% of them sign it, there will be a further by-election.
So, Farage could soon be contesting Clacton for the third time in just a little over 2 years. Should this arise, the other major U.K. parties will probably rejoin the fray, trying to focus their campaigns on Farage's and Reform's very curious funding arrangements. As for Count Binface, it is unclear whether he will return to Sigma 9 or, given his political momentum, be tempted to hang around and run again!
Thanks, S.T.!
Since we are not likely to write about Binface again (at least, not anytime soon), we'll also pass along this piece in which an economist attempted to put a price tag on the candidate's (deliberately) absurd political program. His guess is around £1 billion. Now, that could be cut in half by abandoning plans to nationalize the singer Adele (est. cost: £500 million), but the ice cream subsidies will run almost £100 million, while the referendum on whether Pluto is a planet will cost around £130 million. And if the plan to put solar panels is funded by the government rather than by the energy companies, then the total price tag jumps more into the £15 billion range.
Although Binface's whole campaign was meant to be farcical, it nonetheless highlighted some real issues. One of those is that Nigel Farage is a corrupt jerk. Another, as the economist who crunched these numbers pointed out, is "a surprisingly familiar problem: how to pay for it all." It's easy to promise, but not so easy to deliver, especially once you're the one responsible for balancing the books. (Z)