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Count Binface

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Re: Count Binface

#191

Post by ectoloph »

gadders wrote: post #125
logifail wrote: post #119

Neither Binface nor Farage have any answers for the problems the UK appears to be facing; this election feels like something specifically designed to create material for viewers of Have I Got News For You[0] to laugh at. From The Atlantic: "The [UK's] output per person is now only just above that of Mississippi, America’s poorest state - and that slight lead is only achieved thanks to London. Outside the capital, in…

I think Farage and Reform/Restore have a solution to this: From The Atlantic: "The [UK's] output per person is now only just above that of Mississippi, America’s poorest state - and that slight lead is only achieved thanks to London. Outside the capital, in places where tourists do not visit, living standards fall well below Mississippi’s" This is what happens when you import low-skilled migrants (and their extended…

Net Zero isn't what sets the price of UK electricity generation.

Marginal pricing means that gas sets the price.

At time of writing, gas is only generating 6.9% of the UK's electricity. https://grid.iamkate.com/

Re: Count Binface

#192

Post by fauigerzigerk »

einpoklum wrote: post #170
fauigerzigerk wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, parliament has a rule against wearing costumes like this. But Count Binface called that rule "binist" and claimed there was some wiggle room in the way the rule was worded :) I think leaving the seat empty if he wins is the only possible choice, both legally and democratically. He should make it clear that this is what would happen if he gets elected so the people of Clacton know what they are voting for.

As described in one of the clips at the link, that rule says "in general", and one can well argue that this is the penultimate special case.

Yes, that's the wiggle room Count Binface was referring to in the interview I watched.

Re: Count Binface

#193

Post by gadders »

defrost wrote: post #174
gadders wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> Farage said the funds are required for his personal security Nope. If he had declared that then there would be no issue what so ever. There is no restriction on gifted money, no requirement on what to use it for - simply a common code of conduct that requires gifts to be declared . Farage could of declared it, but didn't - now he has been outed with his hand in cookie jar in a dark closet he's retconning a reason h…

"The Exemption Rule: Parliamentary ethics rules generally require MPs to register financial interests and "personal benefits" received in the 12 months before taking office. However, Farage and Reform UK have leaned on the exemption for strictly personal gifts "which could not reasonably be thought by others to be related to membership of the House" or his political activities"

Personal security would come under that.

I mean you may not agree, but it's an arguable case.

Re: Count Binface

#194

Post by nephihaha »

pjc50 wrote: post #184
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #9

"Harvey previously stood as a similar character, Lord Buckethead, but was forced to create a new character due to a dispute with the filmmaker Todd Durham, who owns the Buckethead character" [1]. (The videos on this website are worth the watch. Hilarious, of course. But also...Binface conjugates Latin to Sky News , and not just as a bit. I don't know how I feel about the British comedy candidate outclassing half of t…

Note that the ability to conjugate Latin does not correlate with good character, despite what the English public school system would have you think. Most famous example of that is of course Enoch Powell. It is however true that you're only allowed to say true, intelligent things in British politics if you're a joke candidate. Jester's privilege. Binface has driven the rightwing press mad because he's the last threat…

Enoch Powell was gifted linguistically, despite his notoriety elsewhere (and his Brummie accent?). I heard he was fluent in Urdu of all things, and was even seen speaking to Pakistanis in it when he was out campaigning. He could speak Welsh too. I was reading some academic paper on Greek literature once, I forget which, only to notice that it was written by one J. Enoch Powell.

Re: Count Binface

#195

Post by JumpCrisscross »

madaxe_again wrote: post #67
dofm wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't know how I feel about the British comedy candidate outclassing half of the American elected leadership–and a good fraction of its industrial leadership–on IQ.) Your entire political system has flirted with anti-intellectualism for over a century; it used to pretend to be uneducated simpletons to appeal to the electorate (witness, e.g. the folksy “ahhm just a simple mayynn” gurning schtick of Senator John Ke…

Isn’t it the democratic ideal though? Of the people, for the people. If a representative democracy is to truly be representative then the elected representatives should be… representative? Tuberville and Mullin I wouldn’t say were thick so much as they’re pretty average.

> Isn’t it the democratic ideal though?

Probably not philosophically. But it’s why pure democracies don’t work. And America has a weird problem of not enough electoral representation at some levels combined with electoral fetishisation at many others.

Re: Count Binface

#196

Post by pjc50 »

prohobo wrote: post #134

I don't understand why the mainstream is celebrating the total collapse of any meaningful political opposition to populists. This kind of fluffed-up 2010's style optimism campaign is exactly how the establishment lost control in 2016 in both the US and the UK. I think it's sad that Binface is the only one even attempting to engage in democracy at this point. He's a satire but he's also, seemingly, the only legitimate…

I think the special case of the totally unnecessary by-election is important here. I would not expect the other parties not to contest the general election. I don't like the "X is an attempt to distract from Y" framing, but this really is a distraction from the "sudden revelation" that Farage has really dodgy financing.

Also, Farage is the ultimate "establishment" candidate. He would be the same level of obscurity as Tommy Robinson or Restore if he didn't have a regular seat on BBC Question Time. All of his money comes from a small number of rich donors. He's appealing to anti-immigrant sentiment in a constituency that has hardly any immigrants.

Re: Count Binface

#197

Post by wizzwizz4 »

illliillll wrote: post #158
karel-3d wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh that's new. I knew you guys don't have any official government ID (and that it was an issue in Blair era) but I didn't knew you don't even have legal names.

Your legal name is whatever you want it to be at any given time, you can just order a new passport or drivers license with ~whatever name you want written on it. For a passport, the only real requirement is vague evidence that you actually use the name.

You can also have multiple names listed on your passport: for example, if you have a public and private name, or if you're a noble. I've found that the "vague evidence" requirement is actually quite strict, though: even if you use a name in 95% of everyday contexts, the passport office only counts bureaucratic evidence, and there are circular dependencies with most bureaucracies unless you produce a deed poll (which requires you to attest that you only have one name, for some reason: I'm not familiar enough with the law to know whether this is a real requirement, or just ceremonial language like the "I promise that a Catholic will never succeed to the throne" bit in the coronation ceremony). So the de facto rules about passport names are stricter than names in general.

Re: Count Binface

#198

Post by drcongo »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #8
WalterGR wrote: post #3

(In the US, his name would translate as Count Trash Can-Face or Count Garbage Can-Face.)

"Bin," generally, isn't British English. We have recycling bins, for instance.

The trashcan on modern macOS in Britain is called the "bin" and I hate it - somehow it feels wrong.

Re: Count Binface

#199

Post by [deleted] »

thrance wrote: post #179
teamonkey wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I went looking for stats saying the UK has declining literacy rates but could only find ones that said that literacy was improving. https://www.ons.gov.uk/explore-local-statistics/indicators/e...

That's because dofm is conflating general literacy with the political class'. There are still very smart people around, but they're no longer the face of elections.

[deleted]

Re: Count Binface

#200

Post by pjc50 »

stavros wrote: post #36
MarcScott wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very briefly: Farage received a "gift" of £5M. He didn't tell parliament about the gift, which breaks the rules. MPs or campaigning MPs need to declare gifts and donations, as there are strict rules on who you can receive money from. The media found out about the "gift", and Farage was going to be investigated. He resigned as MP for Clacton, which stops the investigation and triggers an election. I think his plan was…

Thank you for the explanation, so this is basically for the election as MP. Does this mean that Farage's party also can't win in the next general election (and make him PM)? AFAIK him becoming PM was a worry.

> Does this mean that Farage's party also can't win in the next general election (and make him PM)?

Firstly, that election is three years away; it's a separate political event.

Secondly, that depends on the outcome of at least three hundred constituency elections, which would have to return Reform candidates. They did OK for a minor party at the last council elections, but they have a very high attrition rate as candidates are discovered to be above the acceptable racism threshold, bent, mad, or simply never intended to do the job in the first place.

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