In praise of Count Binface

By Brian Clegg

I’ve been surprised of late to see a number of journalists suggesting that the Clacton by-election being a decision between Nigel Farage and Count Binface (I think we can ignore the other candidates) is terrible because it’s anti-democratic and because Binface brings our solemn democratic process into disrepute.

Here’s a couple of prime examples:

I have today muted the words “Count Binface” from my X feed. There is already more than enough heated clucking about the fairly nonsensical Clacton contest, without that tin twit popping up on top… He feels like the final destination of what passes today for British satire, an unfunny joke with no point. Gareth Roberts, The Telegraph

And

The chattering classes are having a good old laugh at Nigel Farage. His triggering of a by-election in his own constituency of Clacton has descended into “farce”, they crow… Watching plummy London leftists squeal over a possible Count Binface victory is enough to make you gag. Brendan O’Neil, The Spectator

Admittedly, O’Neil is primarily moaning about the main parties not standing, but he still is clearly no Binface enthusiast. It’s interesting that the complaints I turned up are both from right wing publications, though it wouldn’t surprise me if there has been criticism from the left too.

What the binmoaners (O’Neil blames ‘remoaners’ for not standing against Farage) miss is the power of the jester. Historically, the jester was the one person who could safely speak truth to power. When I worked at British Airways, a friend of mine briefly had the job title Corporate Jester – it was a brilliant idea, but didn’t last long… because power doesn’t often like being told uncomfortable truths. 

Looking at Binface’s manifesto, with promises like making 99 flakes cost 99p and forcing rule-breaking cyclists to ride unicycles (I’m with him on this one), you might think there’s not a lot of truth being dealt here. But the point of such satire is surely to show how meaningless most real manifestos are. He also demonstrated his worth when he appeared on Newsnight, once the BBC’s leading investigative journalism programme, and commented ‘You get me on Newsnight and you start trying to deconstruct a character. I would say, what are we doing here, on a programme which used to construct proper investigative journalism and now is a souped-up podcast.’

If I lived in Clacton I would absolutely vote for Count Binface. Not just to show Farage that he can’t use the by-election process to get around investigation, but also because I believe the House of Commons could do with a jester who doesn’t pretend to be a serious politician (unlike the many other jokers present).

Vote for Binface, Clacton!

Image of the Bin Signal calling Count Binface to Clacton from a Binface post on X

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Now Appearing is the blog of science writer Brian Clegg (www.brianclegg.net), author of Inflight Science, Before the Big Bang and The God Effect.