This effort from Labour's Elizabeth Hughes cunningly uses her glasses to obscure the dearth of warmth in her eyes, but she's fooling no-one.
However, for lack of sincerity she pales to nothing alongside this magnificently effortless beam from UKIP candidate George Curtis.
If that's what he looks like when he's smiling, what does he look like when he's cross?
As an aside, I'm a little disappointed with the lack of some candidates' awareness of the Internet. None of the ones who have solicited my vote so far (not that they're going to get it anyway) have their own web sites. Tony Clover (Con) has an email address by virtue of his already being on the council for which he is seeking re-election. Elizabeth Hughes (Lab) has a Hotmail address, and although the Guardian thinks she has a home page, that belongs to a different Elizabeth Hughes (Lab) standing for a different constituency (but who also seems to have a nice line in insincere smiles). George Curtis (UKIP) doesn't have an email address, but his party is well-organised enough to have their own Colchester web site. This would impress me more if I lived in the Colchester constituency (I don't, I live in North Essex), but I guess it's close enough. Amusingly, UKIP's site is built by an outfit called Manic Monday, who have chosen to plaster their name at the bottom of every page on the site. Bye bye gravitas...