Daily photos no. 75: Waiting For David

I read somewhere that Clement Attlee's idea of political campaigning involved standing on the roof of the modest car his wife drove them around the country in and making a speech to anyone who gathered around it.

Modern political campaigning is much more sophisticated. The newspapers are briefed that the PM is making a speech in somewhere sufficiently grimy. Some shiny SUVs and badly-dressed men with guns appear to convey the importance of the visitor, designed by someone who watched The West Wing in a state of considerable arousal. Seven minutes of banalities with a googled reference to the local football team/delicacy/former industrial base are delivered to a group of resting actors and hand-picked local party members in a strongly defended remote warehouse, some of whom have been given high-vis jackets for prole points and the convoy of SUVs high-tails it out of there, another ghastly chore done. Nobody - politician, audience or public - gets a chance to see or hear anything uncomfortable or indeed meaningful. It's a ritual designed to make it look like democracy is still a thing rather than a style.

These shots are of David Cameron's 'visit' to The Dark Place in 2013, an event lovingly described in the local rags as something between a Royal Progress and a Papal Visit despite the whole affair lasting no longer than a Love Island marriage - the politician and the press collude to make it seem meaningful while nobody else knows it's happened. It's essentially a record of a non-event in a non-place, to steal Marc Augé's terminology.