No joke: Britain might be about to elect ‘novelty’ candidate Count Binface 

If you had the choice between voting for your current member of Congress and a guy in a trashcan costume, who would you vote for?  

In Britain, that choice is not abstract — it is very real, with Reform UK leader Nigel Farage facing off against a candidate who goes by the moniker Count Binface.  

Binface, who is really comedy writer Jonathan David Harvey, is part of a long line of joke candidates who have run for Parliament. The bar for candidacy is ridiculously low, requiring just a form and a 500 pound fee (just shy of $675). There is no residency requirement for British House of Commons constituencies, either; a British citizen in Scotland could run for Commons in London. 

On the surface, this contest — the American equivalent of a special election for Congress — looks like a dull affair. Farage is running in a safe seat against a welter of practical jokers and nobodies on an absurdly long ballot. But it is turning out to be a complex political spectacle from a strategic perspective, which could have significant ramifications for British politics going forward.

The backstory is that Farage was already an elected MP but quit in the face of a corruption investigation, triggering this special election. The other major parties refused to play along and are boycotting by not fielding any candidates, resulting in a farce of an election with Farage running against........

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