(I am still slowly recovering from my leg and related health issues. I am restarting my posting on a limited basis, with short items, when there is interesting news to relate)

The seaside town of Clacton-on-Sea, in Essex, is getting the attention of the world’s media. This Thursday, August 13, 2026, the controversial leader of the Reform UK party, Nigel Farage, is standing in a by-election for the British Parliament.

This story is personal even though I am half a world away. Clacton was my father’s hometown, where he lived as a boy and young man, before serving in the Second World War and eventually coming to Canada.

Earlier this year, Farage resigned his seat representing Clacton after allegations of financial conflict of interest and possible money laundering in his relations with wealthy people including a £5 million payment from a Thailand-based British businessman and cryptocurrency investor Christopher Harborne. Those allegations triggered an investigation by a parliamentary committee and the UK National Crime Agency.

Farage, who has denied any wrongdoing, then said he would stand again in the by-election. The mainstream British political parties called it a “stunt” and refused to nominate candidates.

That means the main opposition to Farage is a comedian and novelty candidate using the name Count Binface, Jonathan David Harvey. In British terms a “bin” is a trash can, and the Count wears a modified bin or trash can over his face.

While comedic candidates are a feature of British politics, Count Binface has seen support from many in the British political establishment, including a handful of endorsements

Due to campaign rules, the British media has had to interview and cover Count Binface as a legitimate candidate.

On Sunday, a pilot (identity unknown) flew in a pattern that created a flight tracker “bin” on the ocean off Clacton, the Guardian reported.

Count Binface campaign website

I first visited Clacton-on-Sea on my post university back packing trip to the UK and Europe fifty years ago in August 1976. My father’s sister, Hilda, was still living in nearby St. Osyth at the time.

Two branches of my family, the Rowlands and the Pennells were master stevedores on the London docks from the 1850s to the 1950s. They were among the first to get away from London and settle in Clacton in the late nineteenth century, investing in local properties.

A land developer began promoting Clacton-on-Sea as a beach resort as earlier as 1865. Clacton Pier opened in 1871, first to bring visitors by steamship. The town became a major holiday destination when the Great Eastern Railway reached the town in 1882.

From that time, Clacton-on-Sea was one of the largest seaside resorts in eastern England, with 20,000 residents by 1939.

In 1914, my great grandfather Frederick Pennell purchased Clacton’s Palace Theatre, The 1500 seat theatre built in 1906, with ornamental oriental domes, was part of what was known as the “Palace of Light,” a promenade with the then new electric lightning. The original owners ran into financial trouble because the theatre could not afford upkeep in the off season. It closed for the first time in 1909.

For a number of years the theatre was a skating rink, it later was used as a repertory theatre and events. It was converted to a cinema in 1933, by my great uncles Edward and Arthur Pennell. It closed at the start of the Second World War in 1939 and was demolished in 1980s.

Edward Robert Pennell (1894-1974) was a First World War Royal Air Force ace with five victories. After the First World War he was one of the family who developed property and owned a restaurant and the Palace and a second cinema, the Kinema Grand. He was active in local politics.

I revisited Clacton-on-Sea and Aunt Hilda a second time the year I was living in London in 1981.

Clacton remained popular until the 1970s when cheap flights, mostly to the Mediterranean, drew the visitors away. Clacton is now one of the poorest towns in England. That is why Clacton is a key constituency for the populist Reform UK party.

Clacton Pier says it is the “pleasure pier in Europe” with various attractions that changed over the decades.

Links
New York Times (paywalled)

Can a Man With a Trash Can on His Head Save Britain?

Farage’s Act of Political Theater Risks Becoming Farce

Guardian

He goes a bit funny if you use his real name’: the unstoppable rise of Count Binface

Farage’s got to come clean or clear off’: what voters on Clacton beach think about their MP – and the country

Farage has turned Clacton into a human zoo. Here’s the truth about what’s happening here

Global News (video)

Count Binface takes on Farage in UK byelection.