The world of politics is fast paced and relentless (apart from during recess- thanks for that Parliamentary Bureau, that’s really helped our analytics!), so politicians don’t really have much time to do normal-person things.
Of course they don’t want us, their adoring British public, to see them as cyclical emotionless robots, despite Rishi Sunak’s poor efforts to hide it.
Indeed public image is crucial to the success of an MP’s time in office, so if it arises that one of them has a particularly kooky pastime, there is always a chance that it is in fact bollocks and nothing more than a popularity grab!
Such suspicions were in the air in 2019 when then-PM and current bulbous irk Boris Johnson admitted to crafting and painting model buses as a means to relax, a claim not perhaps received as lovingly by the British people as intended, as people theorised every possible reason for this bizarre disclosure.
We tried Bojo’s supposed hobby with great success, which you can watch here:
An equally stunning apparent revelation came from serial raver Michael Gove- but not about himself. The former education-demolition specialist exposed Chancellor Jeremy Hunt as a lover of dance- Brazilian dance the Lambada to be precise. Gove said Hunt’s moves were ‘something amazing’, non-consensual injecting the image of the gangly Hunt’s swivel-tastic hips into the minds of many.
Not all politicians’ ‘hobbies’ can be as enigmatic as the terrible Tory twosome- Keir Starmer did himself no favours in beating the worldwide allegations of dullness by saying his hobby is simply football, claiming he has played the beautiful game ‘at least once a week since the age of 10’. I like to think Starmer plays a simple game, tiring out his opponents with his repetitive but effective sideways passing before bursting forward from deep in the 90th minute to win the game, only to tamely toe punt the ball straight into the goalkeepers arms. He is an Arsenal fan after all!
Sunak’s ‘hobby’ is of course an offspring of his crippling coke addiction, as he also apparently collects merchandise from the fizzy behemoth, which is strange as I imagine that choice of drink would get his circuit board all sticky. The PM also enjoys running (away from his responsibilities) and Star Wars, saying he wanted to be a jedi as a kid and causing a great disturbance in the force in doing so.
Like this? Read more Punching Up here:
https://punchingup.jusmedia.shef.ac.uk/2023/06/01/a-review-of-the-labour-partys-merchandise/