Count Binface is a
satirical political candidate created by British comedian Jonathan Harvey in 2018. He was a candidate for
Uxbridge and South Ruislip
Uxbridge and South Ruislip is a constituency in Greater London represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. The seat has been held by the Conservative Party since its 2010 creation. Since 2015 it has been represented by Boris J ...
in the
2019 United Kingdom general election
The 2019 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 12 December 2019. It resulted in the Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party receiving a Landslide victory, landslide majority of 80 seats. The Conservatives made a net gain of 4 ...
against prime minister
Boris Johnson
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...
. He also stood in the
2021 London mayoral election
The 2021 London mayoral election was held on 6 May 2021 to elect the mayor of London. It was held simultaneously with elections for the London Assembly, other local elections across England and Wales, and devolved elections in Scotland and ...
.
In earlier elections Harvey stood as
Lord Buckethead
Lord Buckethead is a satirical political candidate who has stood in four British general elections since 1987, portrayed by several individuals. He poses as an intergalactic villain similar to the '' Star Wars'' character Darth Vader.
Lord B ...
, but was forced to change the name due to a copyright dispute with American filmmaker
Todd Durham
Todd Durham is an American filmmaker, comedy writer, and novelist, best known as the creator of the concept for the ''Hotel Transylvania'' film franchise and as the creator of Lord Buckethead. Durham's works, including over forty screenplays and ...
, who created the character for his 1984 science fiction film
''Hyperspace''. Another individual contested the Uxbridge and South Ruislip seat as Buckethead, representing the
Official Monster Raving Loony Party
The Official Monster Raving Loony Party (OMRLP) is a political party established in the United Kingdom in 1982 by the musician David Sutch, also known as "Screaming Lord Sutch, 3rd Earl of Harrow", or simply "Lord Sutch". It is notable for its ...
, to which Binface said he "look
forward to both the hustings and to challenging
imto take part in a receptacle-to-receptacle debate".
Character
Count Binface is an independent space warrior
[ in a black and grey costume, with a long silver cape and a helmet shaped somewhat like a ]dustbin
A waste container, also known as a dustbin, garbage can, and trash can is a type of container that is usually made out of metal or plastic. The words "rubbish", "basket" and "bin" are more common in British English usage; "trash" and "can" a ...
with a glowing strip where his eyes would be. Binface claimed to be 5,965 years old in 2019.
2019 general election policies
Binface announced a series of satirical policies for the 2019 general election, including:
*Bringing back Ceefax
Ceefax (, punning on "seeing facts") was the world's first teletext information service and a forerunner to the current BBC Red Button service. Ceefax was started by the BBC in 1974 and ended, after 38 years of broadcasting, at 23:32:19 BST ( ...
, the teletext
A British Ceefax football index page from October 2009, showing the three-digit page numbers for a variety of football news stories
Teletext, or broadcast teletext, is a standard for displaying text and rudimentary graphics on suitably equipp ...
service. He had previously promised to bring back the service in 2017 as Lord Buckethead.
*Returning 20,001 police officers to the street, a reference to the Conservative pledge of 20,000 more police officers.
*Nationalising model railways.
*Holding a referendum on holding a second referendum on the United Kingdom's membership in the European Union.[
*Allowing any Czechs on the Irish Border to remain.][
*Nationalising ]Adele
Adele Laurie Blue Adkins (, ; born 5 May 1988), professionally known by the mononym Adele, is an English singer and songwriter. After graduating in arts from the BRIT School in 2006, Adele signed a reco ...
, the English singer.
*Abolishing the House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...
.[ He had previously pledged the same in 2017 as Lord Buckethead.
*Giving free broadband to everyone,][
*Stopping the sale of arms to repressive regimes.][
*Making ]Piers Morgan
Piers Stefan Pughe-Morgan (; né O'Meara; born 30 March 1965) is a British broadcaster, journalist, writer, and television personality. He began his Fleet Street career in 1988 at '' The Sun''. In 1994, aged 29, he was appointed editor of the ...
zero emissions by 2030.[
*Renaming ]London Bridge
Several bridges named London Bridge have spanned the River Thames between the City of London and Southwark, in central London. The current crossing, which opened to traffic in 1973, is a box girder bridge built from concrete and steel. It r ...
to "Phoebe Waller-Bridge
Phoebe Mary Waller-Bridge (born 14 July 1985) is an English actress and screenwriter. She is best known as the creator, head writer, and star of the BBC sitcom ''Fleabag'' (2016–2019), which was based on her one-woman show of the same name. ...
".[
*Introducing a minimum voting age of 16 and a maximum of 80.][
*Sending £1 trillion a week to the ]NHS
The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...
,[
* Proroguing ]Jacob Rees-Mogg
Jacob William Rees-Mogg (born 24 May 1969) is a British politician serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for North East Somerset since 2010. Now a backbencher, he served as Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council ...
,[
*Banishing ]Katie Hopkins
Katie Olivia Hopkins (born 13 February 1975) is an English media personality, columnist, far-right political commentator, and former businesswoman. She was a contestant on the third series of ''The Apprentice'' in 2007; following further app ...
to the Phantom Zone
The Phantom Zone is a prison-like parallel dimension appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. It is mainly associated with stories featuring Superman. It first appeared in '' Adventure Comics'' #283 (April 1961), and was created ...
.[
*Moving the ]hand dryer
A hand dryer is an electric machine which might make use of a heating element and an air blower to dry the hands after hand washing. It is commonly used in public toilets as a cost-effective alternative to paper towels.
It may either operate wit ...
in the men's toilet at Uxbridge
Uxbridge () is a suburban town in west London and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Hillingdon. Situated west-northwest of Charing Cross, it is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. Uxbrid ...
's Crown and Treaty
The Crown and Treaty is a pub on Oxford Road in Uxbridge, London, England, where Charles I and his Parliamentary opponents during the English Civil War held negotiations (the Treaty of Uxbridge) between 30 January and 22 February 1645. It is a ...
pub to a "more sensible position".[
]
London mayoral election
Binface announced his intention to stand for the London Mayoral Election, which was originally scheduled for 2020, but was delayed until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
. He announced a suite of
21 policies
which "marries fiscal responsibility, social awareness, and not being an anti-vaccine nutjob", including:
*Finish Crossrail
Crossrail is a railway construction project mainly in central London. Its aim is to provide a high-frequency hybrid commuter rail and rapid transit system crossing the capital from suburbs on the west to east, by connecting two major railway ...
,
*Free parking for electric vehicle
An electric vehicle (EV) is a vehicle that uses one or more electric motors for propulsion. It can be powered by a collector system, with electricity from extravehicular sources, or it can be powered autonomously by a battery (sometimes cha ...
s between Vine Street
Vine Street is a street in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California that runs north–south between Franklin Avenue and Melrose Avenue. The intersection with Hollywood Boulevard was once a symbol of Hollywood itself. The famed intersection fell into ...
and the Strand
Strand may refer to:
Topography
*The flat area of land bordering a body of water, a:
** Beach
** Shoreline
* Strand swamp, a type of swamp habitat in Florida
Places Africa
* Strand, Western Cape, a seaside town in South Africa
* Strand Street ...
, in reference to where the Free Parking space is located on the British Monopoly board,
*London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
to join the European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
,
*Renaming London Bridge
Several bridges named London Bridge have spanned the River Thames between the City of London and Southwark, in central London. The current crossing, which opened to traffic in 1973, is a box girder bridge built from concrete and steel. It r ...
to "Phoebe Waller-Bridge
Phoebe Mary Waller-Bridge (born 14 July 1985) is an English actress and screenwriter. She is best known as the creator, head writer, and star of the BBC sitcom ''Fleabag'' (2016–2019), which was based on her one-woman show of the same name. ...
" and Hammersmith Bridge
Hammersmith Bridge is a suspension bridge that crosses the River Thames in west London. It links the southern part of Hammersmith in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, on the north side of the river, and Barnes in the London Borough ...
to "Wayne Bridge
Wayne Michael Bridge (born 5 August 1980) is an English former footballer who played as a left back.
A graduate of the Southampton Academy where he made his debut in 1998, Bridge also played for Chelsea, West Ham, Manchester City, Fulham and ...
".
*All government ministers' pay, including that of the mayors should be tied to that of nurses for the next 100 years.
*Loud snacks to be banned from theatres.
*The use of the speakerphone
A speakerphone is a telephone with a microphone and loudspeaker provided separately from those in the handset. This device allows multiple persons to participate in a conversation. The loudspeaker broadcasts the voice or voices of those on the ot ...
function on mobile phones to be banned in public. Any offenders caught will be forced to watch the film version of ''Cats'' every day for a year.
Binface started a fundraiser to raise £10,000, the amount necessary to allow him to stand for Mayor of London
The mayor of London is the chief executive of the Greater London Authority. The role was created in 2000 after the 1998 Greater London Authority referendum, Greater London devolution referendum in 1998, and was the first Directly elected may ...
. The excess money was donated to charity Shelter
Shelter is a small building giving temporary protection from bad weather or danger.
Shelter may also refer to:
Places
* Port Shelter, Hong Kong
* Shelter Bay (disambiguation), various locations
* Shelter Cove (disambiguation), various locatio ...
to help combat homelessness
Homelessness or houselessness – also known as a state of being unhoused or unsheltered – is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and adequate housing. People can be categorized as homeless if they are:
* living on the streets, also kn ...
.
He finished 9th with 24,775 votes in the mayoral election.
Electoral history
See also
*Vermin Supreme
Vermin Love Supreme (born 1960 or 1961) is an American performance artist and activist who has run as a candidate in various local, state, and national elections in the United States. He served as a member of the Libertarian Party's judicial c ...
, an American satirical candidate.
References
External links
Official website
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Binface, Count
Living people
Independent politicians in England
Independent British political candidates
British political satire
Year of birth missing (living people)
Fictional characters introduced in 2018
Fictional counts and countesses
Fictional extraterrestrial characters
British political party founders