THE MINISTRY OF SILLY ELECTIONS

Form 27B: Democratic Aptitude Assessment — UNOFFICIAL

SOURCES & CORRECTIONS

Every factual joke in the game is traceable to an entry below. Satirical framing is ours; underlying facts must be sourced. Entries marked Needs review are being re-verified and the related copy is treated as parody until confirmed. Invented lines spoken by synthetic versions of public figures are always labelled as invented parody in-game and are listed in the voice-line manifest.

Some games are invented on purpose and cite nothing: the brown envelope, the vacancy list and the planning map are fiction, are labelled as fiction in-game, and name no real donor, developer or private individual.

Spotted an error? Write to hello@campaign-games.co.uk. Corrections are applied promptly and noted here.

⚠ REQUIRES THE PUBLISHER'S ATTENTION

These items cannot be settled by checking a link. They need a decision from whoever publishes this site, and they are listed here so they cannot be quietly scrolled past.

NOT RE-VERIFIED IN THE LAST 14 DAYS

These entries are still marked active but nobody has confirmed them recently. Open each link, confirm the claim still stands, then bump its checked date in content/editorial-sources.json.

The Clacton by-election of 13 August 2026 was caused by the sitting MP resigning the seat in order to stand for it again.

Source ID
source_by_election_premise_010
Source
13 August 2026 — Election of Member of Parliament to the Clacton Constituency — Tendring District Council (Acting Returning Officer)
Published
2026-07-09
Last checked
2026-08-05
Status
Active
Used in
The whole premise: hero line, Press Resign, Stand Again, Avoid Clacton, the Ministry lines.
Notes
PREMISE — the load-bearing claim for the entire game. Verified 30 July 2026: Nigel Farage announced his resignation on 7 July 2026, it took effect on 8 July on his appointment as Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead, the writ was moved on 9 July and the poll is 13 August 2026. Corroborated by the 2026 Clacton by-election record (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Clacton_by-election). The resign-and-stand-again framing is therefore accurate. The game does NOT assert any reason for the resignation — see source_standards_scrutiny_023. If the real-world position changes, update the hero copy and this entry the same day.

A record number of candidates — reported as 34 — are standing in the Clacton by-election, and the full list was published by the Acting Returning Officer in the Statement of Persons Nominated on 17 July 2026.

Source ID
source_candidate_list_016
Source
Record number of candidates confirmed as Clacton voters prepare to choose next MP — Tendring District Council
Published
2026-07-17
Last checked
2026-08-05
Status
Active
Used in
Hero line, candidate disclaimer, Ministry lines, interstitial cheers — all via {candidates} in content/copy.json.
Notes
Also the basis for candidate_list_published: true in election.json, and for the sitewide 'the official candidate list' link. Statement of Persons Nominated: https://legacy.tendringdc.gov.uk/sites/default/files/documents/council/elections%20%26%20voting/2026/Aug13/UKPGE%20-%20NOP%20SOP%20SOPN.pdf

Nigel Farage has held numerous declared outside roles and employments alongside his elected roles, as recorded in the Register of Members' Financial Interests.

Source ID
source_second_jobs_001
Source
Register of Members' Financial Interests — Nigel Farage — UK Parliament
Published
2026-05-29
Last checked
2026-08-05
Status
Active
Used in
Apply for Your 13th Second Job.
Notes
Use only 'multiple declared outside roles'. Do not assert a specific number of jobs as fact in copy; the game's 13 applications counter is framed as fiction. Reporting on 30 June 2026 put declared outside income since the 2024 election above £2m, the largest single source being GB News (https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/nigel-farage-london-gold-dealer-second-jobs-fee-407369/). The register is the primary source and is updated fortnightly — re-check it rather than the reporting.

Nigel Farage was a Member of the European Parliament from 1999 to 2020.

Source ID
source_farage_mep_002
Source
Nigel Farage — MEP profile — European Parliament
Published
2020-01-31
Last checked
2026-08-05
Status
Active
Used in
Identify the Establishment (CV entry).
Notes
Supports 'long-serving former MEP'. Historical fact, low staleness risk.

Nigel Farage has worked as a television presenter/broadcaster (GB News).

Source ID
source_farage_broadcaster_003
Source
Nigel Farage joins GB News — BBC News
Published
2021-07-17
Last checked
2026-08-05
Status
Active
Used in
Identify the Establishment (CV entry).
Notes
Supports 'Broadcaster' CV entry.

Nigel Farage has written newspaper columns (including for The Telegraph).

Source ID
source_farage_columnist_004
Source
Nigel Farage — author page — The Telegraph
Published
2026-01-01
Last checked
2026-08-05
Status
Active
Used in
Identify the Establishment (CV entry).
Notes
Supports 'Newspaper columnist' CV entry.

Nigel Farage has led political parties (UKIP, the Brexit Party and Reform UK).

Source ID
source_farage_party_leader_005
Source
Nigel Farage returns as Reform UK leader — BBC News
Published
2024-06-03
Last checked
2026-08-05
Status
Active
Used in
Identify the Establishment (CV entry).
Notes
Supports 'Party leader' CV entry.

Since being elected MP for Clacton, Nigel Farage has made repeated paid or donor-funded trips to the United States, including a paid speech to a Washington DC lobby group in March 2026.

Source ID
source_farage_us_018
Source
Nigel Farage Paid £27,000 to Speak at Pro-Trump U.S. Think Tank — DeSmog
Published
2026-02-26
Last checked
2026-08-05
Status
Active
Used in
Stamp the Passports (the UK/USA 'dual-allegiance work placement' framing). Also the real-world backdrop to Count Binface's 'more time in Clacton than Washington DC' pledge (source_binface_manifesto_2026_015).
Notes
The satire targets the division of an MP's working time between the constituency and overseas engagements — a matter of public record — never nationality, loyalty or allegiance in any literal sense. Do not let the game imply dual citizenship, which is not claimed and is not true. The 'special relationship' gags in Catch the Fag and Stamp the Passports must stay at the level of political theatre.

Nigel Farage has undertaken paid international speaking and media appearances, and recorded paid personalised video messages on Cameo.

Source ID
source_farage_speaking_012
Source
Farage tops list of MPs' outside earnings, making £43,000 for filming Cameo videos — ITV News
Published
2026-03-25
Last checked
2026-08-05
Status
Active
Used in
Apply for Your 13th Second Job; Read the Safe One.
Notes
Supports the satirical premise of the second-job games. The specific job titles in the game are generic and fictional; do not present them as a literal list of real employments. NOTE (checked 30 July 2026): the Cameo account was reported as paused in March 2026. Read the Safe One is therefore a joke about a thing he did, not a thing he is currently doing — keep the copy in the past tense or tense-neutral.

Personalised Cameo videos from Nigel Farage were listed from roughly £71 for a personal message, rising to a far higher business rate.

Source ID
source_cameo_fee_017
Source
Farage tops list of MPs' outside earnings, making £43,000 for filming Cameo videos — ITV News
Published
2026-03-25
Last checked
2026-08-05
Status
Active
Used in
Read the Safe One — the '£75 TO SAY A NAME OUT LOUD!' title card and the 'FEE: £75' prop.
Notes
The reported personal-message list price was £71.17; the in-game £75 is a rounded, illustrative figure for a title card, not a quoted price, and the platform listing has since been paused. Keep it approximate. If the exact figure is ever stated as fact in copy, cite this entry beside it. All names in the game are invented.

Nigel Farage has acted as a paid brand ambassador for a gold bullion company, declaring £270,000 from Direct Bullion in May 2026.

Source ID
source_gold_promotion_013
Source
Nigel Farage was paid £270,000 to promote London gold dealer — The London Economic
Published
2026-06-30
Last checked
2026-08-05
Status
Active
Used in
Apply for Your 13th Second Job — the 'Gold spokesman' vacancy label.
Notes
Re-verified 30 July 2026 and promoted from needs_review to active: the role is current, declared in the Register of Members' Financial Interests on 29 May 2026, reported as 12 hours' work over three months. The game uses the generic label 'Gold spokesman' and names no company — keep it that way; the vacancy list is fiction.

Count Binface publishes satirical manifestos including pledges such as capping the price of a 99 Flake, restoring Ceefax, nationalising Adele, action on speakerphones in public, and requiring cyclists who break the Highway Code to ride unicycles.

Source ID
source_binface_manifesto_006
Source
Count Binface — Manifesto — countbinface.com
Published
2024-06-01
Last checked
2026-08-05
Status
Active
Used in
Restore Ceefax; Price the 99; Collect the Rubbish; Who Gets Conscripted? (the speakerphone target).
Notes
These are satirical pledges by a satirical candidate: treat as comedy, never as policy claims. The 2026 Clacton manifesto explicitly stands by the earlier ones (point 20 — see source_binface_manifesto_2026_015), which is what keeps Ceefax, the 99 Flake and the speakerphone gags current. Publisher URL updated: the old /manifesto path now 404s.

Count Binface's twenty-point manifesto for the Clacton by-election includes pledges to make arcade grabber games fairer, cap bus fares at £1.99 and 99 Flakes at 99p, regenerate Walton Pier so it is as great as Clacton Pier, cut 'your' taxes while raising everyone else's, build at least one affordable house, move a badly positioned hand-dryer in a Southport restaurant, strip the licences of drivers with loud exhausts near Clacton station, represent the UK at Eurovision 2027, and (credited to Jack, aged 10) make oil and gas companies pay for solar panels for everyone.

Source ID
source_binface_manifesto_2026_015
Source
Count Binface's twenty-point Clacton by-election manifesto — Essex County News
Published
2026-07-27
Last checked
2026-08-05
Status
Active
Used in
The Grabber; Regenerate Walton Pier; Cut Your Taxes; Move the Hand-Dryer; Solar Panels for Everyone; Confiscate the Loud One; Build the Affordable House; Eurovision 2027; Price the 99.
Notes
Re-verified 30 July 2026 and promoted from needs_review to active: the twenty points were checked against two independent write-ups (Essex County News, above, and https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/what-is-the-count-binface-clacton-by-election-manifesto-408162/ of 27 July 2026), which agree on every pledge the game uses. CAVEAT: the campaign publishes the manifesto as an image rather than as text, so the wording here is second-hand from reporting. These are satirical pledges by a satirical candidate — comedy, never policy claims. The hand-dryer game deliberately does not name the real venue given in the manifesto; the solar-panel invoice names no real energy company; the pier art is invented and is not a survey of either real pier.

Count Binface has said that his appeal to Clacton voters is that he is not Nigel Farage.

Source ID
source_binface_not_nigel_008
Source
'Not Nigel Farage': Who is Count Binface, contesting as MP for Clacton, UK? — Al Jazeera
Published
2026-07-09
Last checked
2026-08-05
Status
Active
Used in
Whose Manifesto?
Notes
Re-verified 30 July 2026 and promoted from needs_review to active. Asked on BBC Radio 4's Today programme what his appeal to Clacton voters would be, Count Binface answered: 'That I'm not Nigel Farage.' Also reported by NPR (https://www.npr.org/2026/07/10/nx-s1-5887550/count-binface-the-intergalactic-warrior-who-could-upend-britains-strangest-election). The line as used in-game remains labelled parody, and the game still calls ctx.badge('invented', true).

Count Binface stood in Clacton at the 2024 general election against Nigel Farage.

Source ID
source_binface_clacton_007
Source
Clacton 2024 general election result — BBC News
Published
2024-07-05
Last checked
2026-08-05
Status
Active
Used in
Identify the Establishment; the general premise that both figures are associated with Clacton contests.
Notes
Supports 'Repeated electoral candidate'.

Jaywick (in the Clacton constituency) has repeatedly been named England's most deprived neighbourhood in the official English Indices of Deprivation.

Source ID
source_jaywick_deprivation_009
Source
English indices of deprivation 2019 — Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (GOV.UK)
Published
2019-09-26
Last checked
2026-08-05
Status
Active
Used in
Respond to Jaywick.
Notes
The satire targets political response and media framing, never Jaywick residents. All three in-game answers are invented parody paraphrases, not real quotes. This is the single most sensitive game in the build — if a line ever reads as mocking the place or the people rather than the politicians talking about them, cut it.

Nigel Farage had a milkshake thrown over him while campaigning in Newcastle in May 2019.

Source ID
source_milkshake_011
Source
Nigel Farage hit by milkshake during Newcastle walkabout — BBC News
Published
2019-05-20
Last checked
2026-08-05
Status
Active
Used in
Avoid the Milkshake; Recycle the Milkshake.
Notes
Context only. The games do not encourage throwing anything at anyone: the player avoids or recycles the milkshake. Keep it that way.

Constituency outlines used in Identify Clacton are simplified from official Ordnance Survey / ONS open boundary data.

Source ID
source_boundaries_014
Source
Westminster Parliamentary Constituencies (July 2024) Boundaries — Office for National Statistics (Open Geography Portal)
Published
2024-07-04
Last checked
2026-08-05
Status
Active
Used in
Identify Clacton.
Notes
Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2024. Source: Office for National Statistics licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. The in-game shapes are heavily simplified caricatures traced from this data; attribution is also recorded in the asset manifest.

RESOLVED — 'Who Gets Conscripted?' used to open with the line 'National service is back', which read as a claim about somebody's actual policy.

Source ID
source_conscription_framing_024
Source
Editorial gap note — closed, no source needed — The Ministry of Silly Elections (editorial)
Published
2026-07-30
Last checked
2026-08-07
Status
Retired
Used in
Who Gets Conscripted? (historical)
Notes
Closed on 2026-08-07 by the recommended fix: the subtitle now says the Ministry has reintroduced national service, in a future the Ministry has invented for itself, so it is plainly the Ministry's own conceit and cites nobody. The joke that remains — the menace playing music out loud on a bench — targets a Count Binface manifesto pledge about speakerphones in public (source_binface_manifesto_006), which is the game's only real source. Kept as a retired entry so the decision is on the record.

In October 2022 the Daily Star livestreamed an iceberg lettuce beside a photograph of the Prime Minister to see which would last longer. The lettuce won.

Source ID
source_truss_lettuce_019
Source
The origin story of the Daily Star lettuce that outlasted Liz Truss — Semafor
Published
2022-10-20
Last checked
2026-08-05
Status
Active
Used in
Homepage hero line — '…a lettuce outlasted a Prime Minister.'
Notes
The stream began on 14 October 2022; the resignation followed on 20 October. Targets a political event and a newspaper stunt, not a person's circumstances.

During the Prime Minister's 2017 Conservative Party conference speech, letters fell off the slogan on the set behind her while she was speaking.

Source ID
source_may_slogan_022
Source
Theresa May speech marred by prankster Lee Nelson — CNN
Published
2017-10-04
Last checked
2026-08-05
Status
Active
Used in
Homepage hero lines — '…the letters fell off the slogan while it was being read out.' and '…strong and stable turned out to be a weather forecast.'
Notes
The 'F' then the 'E' fell from 'Building a country that works for everyone' on 4 October 2017. 'Strong and stable' was the 2017 general election campaign slogan. The joke is aimed at the slogan and the staging, not at the speaker's health — the coughing fit is off limits under EDITORIAL.md, and no hero line refers to it.

During the December 2019 election campaign, a Prime Minister walked into a walk-in fridge at a dairy depot while a live television programme was asking him for an interview.

Source ID
source_johnson_fridge_020
Source
Boris Johnson accused of hiding in refrigerator to avoid interview with Piers Morgan — Axios
Published
2019-12-11
Last checked
2026-08-05
Status
Active
Used in
Homepage hero line — '…a Prime Minister took shelter from an interview in a fridge.'
Notes
CONTESTED DETAIL, handled deliberately. What is not in dispute: on 11 December 2019 a Good Morning Britain correspondent asked for a live interview during a milk round in Yorkshire and the Prime Minister walked into a walk-in fridge. His team said he was simply carrying on with the delivery. The hero line says 'took shelter from an interview', which describes what viewers saw without asserting intent. Do not sharpen it into 'hid from' — that states a motive nobody has established.

At the 2017 general election a candidate wearing a bucket on his head stood beside the serving Prime Minister on the declaration stage in Maidenhead, broadcast live.

Source ID
source_buckethead_may_021
Source
Who is Lord Buckethead, the man who stood against Theresa May? — BBC News
Published
2017-06-09
Last checked
2026-08-05
Status
Active
Used in
Homepage hero line — '…a man with a bucket on his head stood beside a serving Prime Minister on live television.'
Notes
Lord Buckethead polled 249 votes in Maidenhead on 8 June 2017 and appeared alongside the Prime Minister at the declaration. Lord Buckethead and Count Binface are separate characters played by different people — do not conflate them anywhere in copy, and note that the hero line names neither.

OFFICIAL ELECTION INFORMATION

OFFICIAL ELECTION INFORMATION THE OFFICIAL CANDIDATE LIST

Vote. The Ministry does not care who for. It merely insists that democracy is funnier when people turn up.