Bye By Farage...

[Beany]

It's only really interesting once the votes are in, though. Also, he's not actually contesting against real candidates so it's politically a nothing burger (unless he loses, which is extremely unlikely).

[duncs500]

Well there might be people who were apathetic about voting, a bit of media coverage might coax them out. Usually on polling day the news teams are out talking to voters. How can the 100th heatwave of the year and exam results day (which happens every year) be more newsworthy?

Also re no real candidates, surely (as SJ's diagram indicates) even though it's unlikely Farage will lose, the magnitude of the victory could be very politically important?

[Rich B]

Why is the by-election buried so far down on the BBC news page? Surely this is by far the most interesting thing happening today?

They're not allowed to talk much about it on the day -

https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/ ... olling-day

[Jobbo]

As Rich says. Just wait until 10pm when voting closes.

And don't stay up for the count unless you're Count Binface.

[duncs500]

Ah, good to know.

Really hope binface gets a load of votes. It's a bit annoying that a load of other candidates came out of the woodwork as they'll probably take a small proportion of the binface vote.

[duncs500]

Boo.

Shame, it was a good effort from binface. Can't believe the people of Clacton didn't vote to get the 99p ice cream, opportunity missed!

[Sundayjumper]

I like the Lib Dems. Their spokesperson said:

Like most people who win a fight against a bin, Farage has come away looking daft and smelling of yesterday’s chip paper.

[jamcg]

Binface gets his deposit back this time though, and as none of the main parties stood he should have had a far bigger vote share than he had

[Rich B]

It’s not exactly the full vindication he was after is it - 10k of “his people” voted for a bin to state how they didn’t believe he could be trusted.

[Jobbo]

I have enjoyed Binface's statements. Particularly 'see you soon for part 2'.

[speedingfine]

I have enjoyed Binface's statements. Particularly 'see you soon for part 2'.

Link please

[Beany]

Imagine you're a """serious""" politician only up against comedy candidates and nobodies, in your safest seat, and you can't even get 80% of the vote.

He got a bit over double what the main comedy candidate got, in his safest seat, after one of the hardest campaigns Reform have pushed for ages, even, as I understand it, crippling their Manchester mayoral campaign as part of it, as they pulled staff away to fight in Clacton.

And even then, he still couldn't get a truly resounding victory. Oh, and he lied about a security threat so that he wouldn't have to be seen with the other candidates. Because he knew how bad that would look, and likely knew Binface would take the piss mercilessly.

That's actually a shockingly pathetic performance. No-one serious actually expected Binface to walk it, but for Binface to do so well, and for Reform to win so badly after, and I cannot stress this enough, trying to politically smear a bin, is probably causing a lot of Reform staffers to be having a very bad day.

This is catastrophic for Reform, and it's hilarious. The cope from their supporters is nearly as funny. Most of them aren't politically astute enough to realise just how bad this is for them.

Anyway, roll on the Standards Commission outcome, and more than likely, another by election, this time against real candidates.

[Sundayjumper]

And the investigation is back up & running. No time being wasted.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... cial-gifts

[Jobbo]

I have enjoyed Binface's statements. Particularly 'see you soon for part 2'.

Link please

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/c20eyx09949o

[speedingfine]

[Jobbo]

Changed the second link to Count Binface's own channel rather than the Mirror's.

[MikeHunt]

A comedy alien comes across as more eloquent than quite a few world leaders in my lifetime.

[Gavster]

That's because he genuinely is very eloquent In case anyone missed it, Binface's interview on The Rest is Politics was absolutely hilarious

[V8Granite]

Another embarrassment for those who pulled out of the race as they wanted a Gotcha on Farage.

UK politics, sigh.

Dave!

[Rich B]

Another embarrassment for those who pulled out of the race as they wanted a Gotcha on Farage.

UK politics, sigh.

Dave!

The gotcha is that the investigation restarted before breakfast this morning and we’re back to the exact place we were 3 weeks ago, having achieved nothing except showing that people are 100x more likely to vote for a bin when it’s up against Nigel Farage than they did against Andy Burnham.