Why politics is divorced from reality in one picture

Someone, somewhere for some reason thought this was a good look for chairman Grant Shapps as he opened the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham.

Much of politics is said to exist in a vacuum and, judging by this setup in the conference hall at least, the Tories couldn't be more divorced from reality unless they just replaced "Securing a better future" with a banner that said "Bow down to your imperial masters".

Politicians have this strange habit of giving speeches with rows of dead-eyed people arrayed behind them.

By way of a public service announcement, this looks totally ridiculous.

And people in the auditorium were suitably unimpressed/nonplussed/thinking about defecting to Ukip.

(Pictures: Getty)

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