Pitting Liz Truss against lettuce is offensive to lettuce, says man with trash bin helmet

It's not yet clear when the U.K. will have its next election, but when the time comes, Count Binface is ready to throw his helmet into the ring.

Binface, previously known as Lord Buckethead, is a satirical British political figure portrayed by comedian Jon Harvey. The character, in its various iterations under different actors, has a long history of running against prime ministerial candidates in U.K. elections.

And there may soon be a new opening for him.British Prime Minister Liz Truss announced her resignation on Thursday just six weeks after taking the ruling Conservative Party's leadership.

The Daily Star poked fun at the troubled leader by asking whether she could outlast a head of lettuce. Truss resigned before the leafy green veggie wilted on the newspaper's livestream.

Binface spoke to As It Happens host Nil Kksal about Truss's rapid turnaround and what it means for his own political ambitions. Here is part of their conversation.

Count Binface, who are you and what are your intentions for the British people?

I am a space warrior from the Sigma Nine planet in the Sigma Quadrant. And my hobby, such as it is, is to leave my world and to travel to yours, because it's a very, very curious little planet that likes to indulge in democracy. Well, some countries do. Others just like to invade other big European countries and be complete well, you know the word. I don't need to say.

But anyway, democracy is an endangered species, as I'm sure you know. And so I love coming down to Earth and having fun in the most deranged country of all, which is the United Kingdom.

Well, what do you make of the state of democracy in the U.K. right now?

It really is a complete you know, I'm going to have to bleep myself because I'm imagining you have a family show. But it's pretty bad. It's pretty much the worst word you can think of right now.

And for me, it's perfect because it means there's a power vacuum. And nature and, indeed, bin-like space warriors abhor a vacuum. And, hence, I'm coming to fill it.

A few years ago, we had a Lord Buckethead on this program. He was running against [former U.K. prime minister] Theresa May in her constituency of Maidenhead. So any relation here?

It was, in fact, me.

I'll tell you a little story. In fact, it's an excellent time to be telling you this because, believe it or not and listeners, I guarantee Nil hasn't been put up to this but my book, my debut book on planet Earth, has literally just been released. And in it, there's a massive scoop where I tell this exact story that I'm about to relay for you now.

When I first came to Earth on Earth Year 2017, I thought: You know what? If a space warrior just moseyed down to the United Kingdom the humans might be a little bit weirded out, a bit freaked out, by Count Binface being there in all his regalia.

So I thought, why not adopt a disguise? And so I did a bit of research and discovered that some cyborg had stood as Lord Buckethead in a previous elections in 1987 against [Margaret] Thatcher, in '92 against [John] Major. But then the title had lain dormant for 25 years. So I thought: Ah ha! I'll just take on that costume.

And so I put on a bucket and reversed my cloak from silver to black and thought: They'll never know! And it worked a treat. And it's how I got to talk to you in the first place. I went viral. It was lovely.

What do you think of these last 44 days that Liz Truss has been prime minister?

It's been such a blink in the visor,I can't even believe that you Canadians have even registered that Liz Truss is or was the prime minister.

But you have to give her some credit, don't you? I mean, the fact that her leadership has taken less time than the leadership election took to actually make her the leader is pretty darn special, wouldn't you say? So I give her credit for that and, indeed, for detonating what's left at the Tory Party.

So in 44 days, to destroy the British economy, to destroy the Tory Party, to possibly kill the Queen who knows? That's an allegation and the rest, you know, she's pretty special.

Not proven, the allegation about the Queen, in any way.

It's all allegedly. I can't prove it. You're absolutely right. I can't prove it.

What do you make of this other human ritual we've seen and we've talked about a bit on our program that the British people have been watching to see if Ms. Truss would last longer than a head of lettuce? It's so cruel, really.

Absolutely. It's very, very, very cruel on the lettuce. Because what it does is it suggests that British produce has a potentially short sell-by date.

Now, British farmers have had a very torrid time, and I want to stick up for them and say that even the notion that an average lettuce might not last longer than Liz Truss is quite offensive. And so I want to stick up for the lettuces in Britain and beyond, and to say I am not surprised by the outcome of that contest one little bit.

All I would say is that I am, like most lettuces, a romaine-er.

There are some calls now that there should just be a general election rather than, you know, another Tory leadership race.

I think that's a little bit unlikely simply because [of] all those Tory MPs who would get wiped out in an election. You know, turkeys don't vote for Christmas unless they're insane and can somehow master opposable thumbs and put an X in a box.

So I've got a funny feeling that Britain is in for about 18 months to two years of yet more drudgery until, finally, the polls open.

But you never know. You never know.

Well, I was going to say [when is] your next run for office? What's next for you?

I'm just sitting pretty up here in orbit in my spaceship and I'm waiting to find out who the next PM might be.

All I can tell you is I'm ready and waiting to visit any of their constituencies and take them on fair and square.