Britain | Party time

Why on earth would anyone go to a British party conference?

A short guide to an odd political ritual

Delegates attend the second day of the Conservative Party Conference at Birmingham ICC Arena.
Photograph: Getty Images
|Birmingham, Brighton and Liverpool

There are bow ties and waistcoats, blazers and cigars. The men have pink faces, smooth cheeks and the air of people who would get bread rolls thrown at them in an Evelyn Waugh adaptation. Almost everyone looks as though they were bullied at school, or at the very least should have been. Absolutely everyone seems drunk. It is evening at the Tory party conference.

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