So for context. Nigel Farage (Populist right wing UK politician, leader of the Reform party) has been accused of not following parliamentary rules around disclosure of donations - which are designed to ensure transparency of decision making and potential influence. Basically, he received £5M from a crypto billionaire. He claims that it was (a) a personal donation (not needing to be declared according to the rules), (b) before he was in parliament, and (c) he was not involved in politics. His opponents say that personal donation rules are meant for family members, and that while he might not have been in parliament he was President of the Reform party at the time.
So the whole thing is in front of the Parliamentary Standards Ombudsman who will report to the Parliamentary Standards Committee. That committee can recommend a penalty of a suspension from parliament (which is then voted on by the House). If he is suspended for more than 10 days, then a recall petition can be launched - and if that gets more than 10% of the registered voters in the constituency (which it would), then there is a by-election to decide whether he is fit to serve.
So Farage has announced that he is resigning his seat (causing a by-election), in which he will stand. he claims that he is accountable only to the voters in his constituency (Clacton). All the other major parties have announced that they will not field candidates against him, claiming he is trying to avoid / pre-empt a suspension and a recall by-election. The only other announced candidate is Count Binface - a 'joke' candidate.
Interestingly, it also turns out that at least theoretically (and with a precedant from 1842) his resignation could be blocked. You cannot actually resign your parliamentary seat between elections - you can only be disqualified. And due to UK history, the main reason for disqualification is holding an appointment from the Crown (i.e. the King, not the more general sense of "the Crown" as the government). So if you want to resign your seat, you apply for one of a couple of reserved crown appointments - the usual one is Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds. That disqualifies you, and then there is a by-election. Now it turns out that these appointments are controlled by the Treasury, which is part of the Government (which of course is just the majority faction in parliament). There is a case from 1842 of the Treasury refusing to make a Crown appointment to stop a by-election. It has been suggested that parliament could vote to stop the appointment (and therefore the by-election), at least until the Parliamentary Standards Committee report has come out.
It’s fun and games, but you have to bear in mind that joke candidates never expect to win.
It’s entirely possible that every anti-Farage voter could coalesce behind him. Upon winning, he would have his name and face be publicly known. He would attract a huge amount of (global, even) media attention. He would suddenly have a serious job with real responsibilities. And he would have the unbridled rage of everyone in the UK who has decided that 100 years of the Tory/Labour cycle has run its course and meaningful change is needed. To give an indication of the electoral weather, Reform UK has led the national opinion polls for more than a year.
I’m not sure he has the balls for all that, but we will see.
>And he would have the unbridled rage of everyone in the UK who has decided that 100 years of the Tory/Labour cycle has run its course and meaningful change is needed
Binface is a better protest candidate than Farage for this purpose. Reform is worse than the status quo, hard as that can be to believe.
>He would suddenly have a serious job with real responsibilities
It would probably be worth reminding Farage of this. He has one of the worst attendance records as both an MP and an MEP, and indeed seems to have spent a lot of his time as MP outside the UK.
I like Binface's election platform: "I'm not Nigel Farage". I'd vote for him if I was in Clacton - Farage is pretty much the dictionary definition of the term "odious".
To be honest, a novelty candidate couldn't possibly do less as a constituency MP than Farage and might plausibly turn up to Parliament more often. Would certainly liven up televised debates.
I don't think someone that runs for office is really that bothered that people who voted for other parties don't like them, particularly not people so unworldly they think a guy currently running away from an investigation involving him concealing Posh George (author of the semi-autobiographical How To Launder Money, whose mum once dated the King) paying for his social media manager and a Thai crypto billionaire and Tory donor paying him £5m as a 'personal gift' represents the voice of the ordinary person against the establishment.
> And he would have the unbridled rage of everyone in the UK who has decided that 100 years of the Tory/Labour cycle has run its course and meaningful change is needed.
> He would suddenly have a serious job with real responsibilities.
Backbench independent MP is not a serious job with real responsibilities; really most backbenchers in general barely do anything. Farage himself is fairly notorious for hardly ever even showing up.
I dont care about UK politics, but for me Farage will always be the guy that caused Brexit, then immediately moved to France.
Besides, Mick Herron believes Nigel will soon die in an accident and he has been right about Farage matters before.
Binface on the other hand would for obvious reasons survive being hit on the head by 15L of paint. So he might get my vote for being the more resilient candidate.
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[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 42.5 ms ] threadSo the whole thing is in front of the Parliamentary Standards Ombudsman who will report to the Parliamentary Standards Committee. That committee can recommend a penalty of a suspension from parliament (which is then voted on by the House). If he is suspended for more than 10 days, then a recall petition can be launched - and if that gets more than 10% of the registered voters in the constituency (which it would), then there is a by-election to decide whether he is fit to serve.
So Farage has announced that he is resigning his seat (causing a by-election), in which he will stand. he claims that he is accountable only to the voters in his constituency (Clacton). All the other major parties have announced that they will not field candidates against him, claiming he is trying to avoid / pre-empt a suspension and a recall by-election. The only other announced candidate is Count Binface - a 'joke' candidate.
Interestingly, it also turns out that at least theoretically (and with a precedant from 1842) his resignation could be blocked. You cannot actually resign your parliamentary seat between elections - you can only be disqualified. And due to UK history, the main reason for disqualification is holding an appointment from the Crown (i.e. the King, not the more general sense of "the Crown" as the government). So if you want to resign your seat, you apply for one of a couple of reserved crown appointments - the usual one is Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds. That disqualifies you, and then there is a by-election. Now it turns out that these appointments are controlled by the Treasury, which is part of the Government (which of course is just the majority faction in parliament). There is a case from 1842 of the Treasury refusing to make a Crown appointment to stop a by-election. It has been suggested that parliament could vote to stop the appointment (and therefore the by-election), at least until the Parliamentary Standards Committee report has come out.
It’s entirely possible that every anti-Farage voter could coalesce behind him. Upon winning, he would have his name and face be publicly known. He would attract a huge amount of (global, even) media attention. He would suddenly have a serious job with real responsibilities. And he would have the unbridled rage of everyone in the UK who has decided that 100 years of the Tory/Labour cycle has run its course and meaningful change is needed. To give an indication of the electoral weather, Reform UK has led the national opinion polls for more than a year.
I’m not sure he has the balls for all that, but we will see.
this is an election for members of parliament - its not like the 650 of them all do stuff most days
Binface is a better protest candidate than Farage for this purpose. Reform is worse than the status quo, hard as that can be to believe.
>He would suddenly have a serious job with real responsibilities
It would probably be worth reminding Farage of this. He has one of the worst attendance records as both an MP and an MEP, and indeed seems to have spent a lot of his time as MP outside the UK.
I don't think someone that runs for office is really that bothered that people who voted for other parties don't like them, particularly not people so unworldly they think a guy currently running away from an investigation involving him concealing Posh George (author of the semi-autobiographical How To Launder Money, whose mum once dated the King) paying for his social media manager and a Thai crypto billionaire and Tory donor paying him £5m as a 'personal gift' represents the voice of the ordinary person against the establishment.
And a salary!
Backbench independent MP is not a serious job with real responsibilities; really most backbenchers in general barely do anything. Farage himself is fairly notorious for hardly ever even showing up.
Buckethead's real identity isn't a secret.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Waldo_Moment
Besides, Mick Herron believes Nigel will soon die in an accident and he has been right about Farage matters before.
Binface on the other hand would for obvious reasons survive being hit on the head by 15L of paint. So he might get my vote for being the more resilient candidate.
As I have some questions for him :)