UK 'joke' candidate Count Binface makes serious point about politics

British politics has a long-cherished reputation for attracting the weird and wonderful. But in a pantheon of colourful characters, Count Binface, a man wearing a rubbish bin over his head, is stealing the show. The self-described "intergalactic space warrior" from the fictional planet Sigma IX takes on hardline anti-immigrant politician Nigel Farage on Thursday in the Clacton by-election, triggered when the Reform UK leader resigned in a shock move. With Farage running again for his seat, none of the UK's mainstream political parties is fielding candidates, having dismissed the move as a stunt designed to stall a parliamentary inquiry into his finances. That has left the door open to Count Binface, and a host of other independent and parody candidates. While polls give Farage a clear victory with more than 70 percent of the vote, Binface, the alter ego of comedian and comedy writer Jon Harvey, is grabbing all the attention and could win as much as 20 percent. During almost a decade as the joke candidate in UK politics, Binface has fully embraced the absurd. He arrives at election counts wearing a metallic dustbin-shaped helmet, a silver cape and silver-and-black armour and brandis...