Now showing in the UK: Mr Brexit vs Count Binface

William Pitt the Younger was, appropriately, Britain’s youngest-ever prime minister, taking office at the age of 24. The sitcom Blackadder made a gag out of it, showing an election in which the PM’s brother, a child (“Pitt the Even Younger”) is a candidate. But election-watchers might remember this episode for another reason: The candidate of the fictitious Standing at the Back Dressed Stupidly and Looking Stupid Party, doing just that. It was funny because it was real — satirical parties and candidates have long been a feature of British elections. Recall the Official Monster Raving Loony Party. Or, the Landless Peasant Party candidate standing with his fist raised behind Gordon Brown in 2010. But now, things have turned deadly serious: Nigel Farage’s principal opponent in the upcoming Clacton by-election will be Count Binface. The Reform UK leader resigned from Parliament and triggered the by-election in a bid to vindicate himself amid a controversy over his finances, and all other major parties are boycotting the poll — leaving Farage, in the words of Chancellor Rachel Reeves, to “spend the summer arguing with a bin”. Binface does wear a bin-shaped helmet; underneath it is comedian Jon Harvey. His policies include nationalising Adele and building at least one affordable house. One might twig from all this that the point is satire. Reform supporters, however, have been attacking Binface as an Oxford-educated member of the elite. Well, he is a count after all. Few expect Binface to win on August 13, although he may benefit from protest votes. There’s a discussion to be had about whether the other parties’ boycott deprives voters of serious alternatives or if participating would merely be playing into Reform’s hands. Beyond this contest, though, in a country that bins prime ministers faster than a lettuce can rot, the count may just embody the zeitgeist.