How dare Boris Johnson belittle the simple joy of the hobby?

Hobbies are the backbone of this country and what starts as a hobby can end up changing a neighbourhood. Personally, I don’t trust a middle-aged man who doesn’t know how to enjoy himself when he’s not doing the day job

How many last straws does it take for a member of the Tory party to think: “I’m not voting for that fool”? If I was in that position – and believe me, I’m not – the camel-breaking straw would have been Boris Johnson’s embarrassingly silly waffle about “bus building” last week.

As we are all aware by now, when asked what he did to “relax, to switch off” Johnson launched into a terrible ramble about making buses out of old wine boxes. It was a routine that collectively made the entire country’s sphincter tighten en masse (seriously, you could hear the collective clench as suddenly an entire nation developed bum holes you could sharpen pencils with).

For me, it wasn’t just the lazy incoherence of the exchange, but also the subtext. Johnson couldn’t even be bothered to take the question seriously and his response essentially dissed the hobby. He was disregarding something that actually has a massive impact on the nation as a whole: the ability to unwind, to let go of stress and anxiety, to release the tension of the buttock clench. We should never underestimate the importance of a hobby: they can be lifesavers, relationship savers and sanity savers.