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Comment by tromp

13 days ago

> Binface received 26.9% of the vote

> That's why Count Binface has been able to stand in so many high-profile elections. He has, however, lost his £500 every time, after failing to meet the minimum 5% of votes cast in order for his deposit to be returned.

It would seem he didn't lose his £500 this time...

34 comments

tromp

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dofm  13 days ago

And this time he got enough votes that if they were to be signatures in any recall petition if triggered by the standards investigation, Farage will lose his seat and have to fight it again if he wants it.

  • davidhbolton  13 days ago

    Here's a prediction. The standards committee won't do a recall. The reason, Farage won this election despite the accusation over the £5 million. Having another byelection would get the same result so it would be a complete waste of public money.

    • choult  13 days ago

      They don't decide on a recall. They can sanction an MP, such as suspension from the House of Commons.

      Instead, a recall petition - requiring 10% of an MP's constituents to sign to then recall - is automatically triggered when an MP is suspended for 10 or more days.

      2 replies →

    • asib  13 days ago

      Farage won an election in which no other major party participated.

      The standards committee doesn't make decisions based on what they think is best. They make decisions based on the rules.

    • dofm  13 days ago

      I don't think the committee will be swayed by this stunt at all, especially since Farage has essentially admitted that he started all this to make them look silly.

      And they are highly likely to open another investigation into the Posh George stuff.

    • jmyeet  13 days ago

      You do know the other major parties didn't run a candidate right? The point was to demonstrate that this byelection was just theatrics by Farage to distract from the ethics investigation into the 5 million pounds. I think some, and maybe Farage himself, seem to think that the byelection wipes the slate clean either actually or practically because the people of Clacton have "spoken". it does neither.

      The lesson people should learn from Farage and Reform (which they won't, let's be real) is that the entire Brexit movement and all the subsequent European alt-right movements are incredibly astroturfed. They're the product of wealthy people funding fascism to avoid the electorate talking about economics ie why they're increasingly poorer and why there's increasing wealth and income inequality. Reform wants to direct attention to immigrants. It's pure distraction.

      It's the exact same thing in the US. It's immigration here too but it's all the other culture war bullshit issues like trans people too.

      What fomented all of this in the UK is that the UK government decided to bail out the banks after 2008 at the expense of taxpayers and then that was used to justify a decade of austerity measures that crippled the economy and wiped out the working class.

      It didn't have to be that way. Other countries like Iceland [1] let the banks fail and their economies massively benefitted.

      [1]: https://www.worldfinance.com/special-reports/failing-banks-w...

      11 replies →

epistasis  13 days ago

What are campaign finance laws like in the UK? Can he crowdsource this to offset his cost? I live in the US and am a citizen, with no connection to the UK, but this hand dryer situation at the Crown & Treaty really needs attention and nobody else is willing to deal with it.

  • KaiserPro  13 days ago

    > Can he crowdsource this to offset his cost

    probably

    but the important thing is that you can't spend that much money (well compared to the USA) for a by-election the maximum you can spend is 180k (if youre a member of a national party the party can spend 54K on your behalf. )

    in terms of crowdfunding the rules are pretty clear: https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/guidance-candidates-a...

    there is quite a high paper trail bar for doing this.

    However if you just want ot get your name on the ballot its £500. if you're just pissing about then thats all it costs.

    • jerf  13 days ago

      He's clearly getting his £500's worth even when he was losing it. I wouldn't worry too much about it.

  • figbert  13 days ago

    Well he's clearly getting funding from somewhere. Look at how his bin has improved over the years!

  • noir_lord  13 days ago

    In theory quite strict, in practice multiple parties have been caught breaking them and nothing really gets done.

    A rule is only a rule if it's enforced.

  • traceroute66  13 days ago

    > What are campaign finance laws like in the UK? Can he crowdsource this to offset his cost?

    Anybody can donate to a political party in the UK so that's how you would do it.

    There's no citizenship/residency requirement AFAIK.

    Here is his official entry on the register: https://search.electoralcommission.org.uk/English/Registrati...

    • robocat  13 days ago

      No, anybody can't donate to a political party in the UK:

        Political parties are responsible for checking the source of loans and donations over the value of £500 to ensure they come from permissible sources.

  Foreign companies and individuals who are not on the UK electoral register cannot make political donations.

      See https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainer/rules-fu...

      Other countries likely have similar restrictions e.g. New Zealand disallows foreign donations, and the source of larger donations much be known although I'm not sure if public (i.e. no anonymity above $X). Two digit millions is a significant amount in NZ politics.

      2 replies →

    • tialaramex  13 days ago

      Well, you linked to his registration entry but that's not donations. In fact he doesn't have any donations so maybe that's why you were confused. If you look for a political entity which does have donations, like Reform, you can see £50M over the years since it was formed (then as the "Brexit Party")

      And it's not true that "anybody" can donate. People can donate if they'd be allowed to vote in the UK, which currently includes people who don't live here and so don't care what happens but that might change to some extent. Non-people such as businesses can donate if they are legitimate UK entities with UK registration or whatever as appropriate (so e.g. a UK business you own for no purpose but to fuck with UK politics wouldn't fly, but if you've got a money-losing Californian Wine Importer that's a fun hobby you can make that loss $5000 bigger by having them them donate $5000 to Reform if you like)