“Making sense” is not the right wing media’s remit.
That clever Establishment, with its nefarious conspiracies and its mastery of time travel…
No, see, it’s not the Earth establishment. Count Binface is part of the galactic establishment.
So, I got curious and actually looked into the serious national issue of the location of the hand dryer in the men’s toilet in the Crown and Treaty pub in Uxbridge, and it is indeed in a very inconvenient location. It’s actually hard to believe that the Count’s steadfast position on this matter has not been sufficient to propel him to victory in past elections.
At the last election, Farage and other candidates of the right secured more than 75% of the vote. Honestly, even if these people are pissed off with Farage I don’t see them turning en masse to Count Binface; at worst, they’ll just stay home. Between the hardcore rightwingers, and the people who still haven’t seen through Farage, he will still have more then enough to win.
But with a significant chunk of the vote going to Binface, which pretty much ruins the “I’m a man of the people standing up to the elites!” schtick he was going for.
Indeed. Running only against a man with a bin on his head, you have to get 95%+ of the vote or you’re a joke yourself. The election isn’t about Farage versus the elite; it’s about Farage the whining, entitled man-baby who throws hissy-fits.
Farage will win this election, but at enormous cost to his brand. And I think it signficantly degrades his chances of winning the next by-election, the one that is likely to follow adverse findings by the parliamentary enquiry into his failure to declare donations.
According to Australia’s leading constitutional expert Anne Twomey, it’s not certain Farage can actually run again yet. British MPs can’t actually resign as such, so there’s a very British workaround where they notionally get a post in a government sinecure which prevents them from being in parliament, so they are actually thrown out of it rather than resigning.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer has to agree to grant that post the the MP, AND then agree to Farage vacating the post so he can run again. If Farage forgets to apply to be removed from that post, or the Chancellor of the Exchequer doesn’t grant that, Farage simply cannot run for parliament again. In which case Binface is in!
This: (i.e. @UDS1’s post)
I think it’s a good idea to rachet way down expectations, else Farage winning the by-election be seen as an affirming result. Which is what he is seeking.
The “best” result is that an irksome, dangerous guy polling and promoting himself as being the next UK Prime Minister suffers a material swing against him even though unopposed by a major party.
The outside prospect is for Count Binface (and I believe he deserves use of his full title) to win a plurality. Were that to come to pass I’d call that a glorious result affirming “sensible policies for a happier Britain”, as Blackadder would say but I have zippo skin in the game.
Farage accepted the office of “Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead” to facilitate his resignation.
I can’t find any Clacton-specific polling yet, but a nationwide poll puts Count Binface in the lead. Doesn’t really mean anything, but it’s amusing.
The poll suggest that a majjority nationwide would like Count Binface to win, not that they think he will.
And, of course, what the majority nationwide would like is neither here nor there. Only the electors of Clacton get a vote, and they’ve made some fairly odd choices in the past.
Which presumably means they’d vote for him in that election if they could.
As I said, it’s just an amusing bit of data that doesn’t mean anything for the race itself. I wonder if we’ll see any polling in Clacton proper any time soon.
FWIW, William Hill (the bookie agency) have Binface at 7/2 odds, which is considerably longer than Farage’s 1/6, but nothing to sneeze at. (I believe that that means a bet of £2 would return £7 if he won.)
Also… fwiw.. there are currently 11 candidates standing in Clacton :-
(not 12 as it says in this preview 
)
I for one would like to hear more about Mr. Fishfinger’s platform.
He has a website, sort of, which has not been updated with his
latest exploits, but which contains a lot of fish based puns.
The Clacton and Frinton gazette describes him as “a second comedy candidate” !
Not sure which of the others is the first…
SD should record what Rachel Reeves, Chancellor of the Exchequer, said in granting Farage his resignation:
(I paraphrase: I can’t find a cite)
"If Mr Farage wants to spend the summer arguing with a bin, that’s his business "
We can but hope 
It was a post on X from Reeves: Rachel Reeves on X: "I will accept Nigel Farage’s request to be appointed Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead. It is a farce and a desperate distraction, and the people of Clacton deserve better. But if he wants to spend the summer arguing with a bin, I won't stop him." / X
Many, many thanks! I don’t ‘X’, whatever that is.
X is the Shitshow Formerly Known As Twitter.