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Count Binface

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Re: Count Binface

#271

Post by ben_w »

testfrequency wrote: post #145
Nursie wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Net Zero is not the cause of high energy costs in the UK. The cause is international al energy costs, a way of setting the benchmark price per unit against the most expensive power, and tax. Clean, renewable power is a way out of the mess.

You’re not allowed to celebrate how prepared for the future the UK is over nearly every other country in the world. You must get angry about current high energy costs due to the investments and war that are happening, just ignore anything positive.

In fairness, it is very difficult to look at the last 16 years of British governments and hold the belief "these people have well prepared the UK for the future".

Re: Count Binface

#273

Post by Lio »

WJW wrote: post #168
mlnj wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That hand dryer placement is absurd.

For real. I looked it up online to see if it's really as bad as Binface makes it out to be, but he's absolutely right. That hand dryer should be moved forthwith.

I hear Farage has been boasting that he likes it where it is!

Re: Count Binface

#274

Post by SideburnsOfDoom »

ben_w wrote: post #271
testfrequency wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re not allowed to celebrate how prepared for the future the UK is over nearly every other country in the world. You must get angry about current high energy costs due to the investments and war that are happening, just ignore anything positive.

In fairness, it is very difficult to look at the last 16 years of British governments and hold the belief "these people have well prepared the UK for the future".

Ed Miliband has been doing really well as Energy Secretary, "overseeing a boom in clean energy investment, driving jobs and growth" (1)

But he hasn't been there for very many of the last 16 years.

1) https://observer.co.uk/news/politics/article/miliband-bids-t...

Re: Count Binface

#275

Post by Lio »

frakrx wrote: post #59

A serious candidate could probably defeat Farage but they are hiding behind this Binface thing and present it as a smart move. Cowards.

They probably couldn't. Farage is in very safe seat. He wouldn't have called the election otherwise.

You don't vote for a comedy character to win an election in a safe seat, because they won't.

You vote for Binface because you think Nige is wasting money on a pointless box ticking distraction instead of spending the money locally to fix things.

Farage hasn't got much of a sense of humour but if massive majority gets smaller he might spend more time in the area and less time in America on speaking engagements.

Re: Count Binface

#276

Post by testfrequency »

ben_w wrote: post #271
testfrequency wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’re not allowed to celebrate how prepared for the future the UK is over nearly every other country in the world. You must get angry about current high energy costs due to the investments and war that are happening, just ignore anything positive.

In fairness, it is very difficult to look at the last 16 years of British governments and hold the belief "these people have well prepared the UK for the future".

I agree there’s no shortage of misses and embarrassments, though I would argue there’s still a lot to be proud of. A lot of progress has been made - especially when you zoom out and compare to peers. The HN crowd these days seems to have it out for Europe, and only sees headlines about doom and gloom in policy.

If anything, the past 16 years has taught me personally that everyone in the UK wants change - too much change possibly.

The UK was the first G7/G20 to cut carbon emissions by 50%, we just ranked [0] 3rd globally large in part to setting up for the future with green energy.

[0] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jul/08/climate-...

Re: Count Binface

#277

Post by gwerbin »

lproven wrote: post #236
gwerbin wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or in Massachusetts, Count Barrelface.

No. The point of the comment was to clarify the confusion that you are reinforcing. A "bin" in BrEn does not mean a generic container: it generally means a receptacle for waste, refuse, or garbage.

Yes, and in Massachusetts specifically people often call curbside trash cans "barrels", often without any qualification. "I forgot to bring the barrel into the garage and now there's a racoon family in there". Maybe it's some kind of extreme local regional thing in my area. I grew up in NY and I never heard anyone say it there, but all the locals here seem to say it.

Re: Count Binface

#278

Post by lambdaone »

another-dave wrote: post #224
jayflux wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He’s very popular in clacton and his odds to win are like 90%, I doubt anyone in his team are genuinely worried about losing.

He'll likely win alright, but at the last GE, he only received 21,225 out of 45,648 votes cast, (so got 47% of the votes on 58% turnout). I think you'll get a non-trivial amount of people voting for Binface either a) because you don't care about politics & think it's funny b) as "anyone but Farage" c) to treat it as a by-election because they think Binface won't take his seat and it'll trigger the 'real byelection' w…

I think Farage will probably win, but it will be a lot closer than he would like. While they will make no difference at all for his hard-core supporters, the financial allegations will be discouraging for at least some of his voters and will reduce his turnout, all serious anti-Farage tactical voters will vote for Binface as the most likely protest candidate, and a nontrivial number of voters will vote for Binface just because it would be funny to do so - Britain is the country of Boaty McBoatface, after all.[0]

According to the bookies, Binface is currently 8/1 to win (about 11% probability), and Farage 1/8 (about 89%), with the rest of the candidates nowhere. There's probably something Bayesian you could do to estimate the probability of various margins from that, but it's going to be uncomfortable for Farage no matter what - winning over Binface by an embarassingly small margin will not enhance his image, particularly if there is going to be another byelection called soon after with the financial issue continuing to be in the spotlight. The only way this works out favourably for Farage is if he scores a crushing victory over Binface with an increased voter share relative to his previous election result, and I think the odds of that are slim.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RRS_Sir_David_Attenborough#Nam...

Re: Count Binface

#279

Post by anonymousiam »

squidbeak wrote: post #248

I see from the comments here many Americans especially are confused by this situation. Some background might make help. Farage seems to have broken Parliamentary Rules (laid down after the cash for questions scandal in the 1990s) by accepting large sums of money as gifts - but without declaring them, something all MPs are required to do for any gift. But worse, one of these gifts came from a convicted crypto felon. T…

The other parties are terrified that the immense popularity of Farage will land him the role of PM, so they're creatively interpreting their Parliamentary Rules to accuse Farage of violating them, which he has not done. It's the same sort of lawfare that Trump and Le Pen have been a victim of. Override the will of the people by finding an excuse to oust a popular politician that they see as a serious threat to their power. So much for democracy...

Why is it not a violation of Parliamentary Rules to conspire to create a false candidate in an election?

Re: Count Binface

#280

Post by triceratops »

anonymousiam wrote: post #279
squidbeak wrote: post #248

I see from the comments here many Americans especially are confused by this situation. Some background might make help. Farage seems to have broken Parliamentary Rules (laid down after the cash for questions scandal in the 1990s) by accepting large sums of money as gifts - but without declaring them, something all MPs are required to do for any gift. But worse, one of these gifts came from a convicted crypto felon. T…

The other parties are terrified that the immense popularity of Farage will land him the role of PM, so they're creatively interpreting their Parliamentary Rules to accuse Farage of violating them, which he has not done. It's the same sort of lawfare that Trump and Le Pen have been a victim of. Override the will of the people by finding an excuse to oust a popular politician that they see as a serious threat to their…

Weird that there have been "immensely popular" politicians before but they didn't have "lawfare" deployed against them on this scale.

Also if these people are genuinely breaking the law, how would it go any differently?

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