THE author Tom Hodgkinson, speaking at the Swindon Festival Of Literature yesterday, revealed that when he was at school with a certain Nick Clegg, the now Deputy Prime Minister had tried to smash his head into a light socket while being kept waiting for his turn on a pool table.

Thankfully, no lasting damage was done to Tom’s brain and he went on to study at Cambridge and become a journalist.

However, after a few years of working long hours in the city, he became disillusioned with the work ethic and started a campaign advocating the importance of being idle.

Hodgkinson, who started a magazine called The Idler in 1993 and has written many books on being idle since, spoke to an audience at the Arts Centre, in Devizes Road, about how our attitudes to work have changed since the Reformation and later the Industrial Revolution.

He advocates a return to the old ways of living, where we are not tied to our desks from 9am to 5pm and, more importantly, where naps after lunch are permitted.

The former punk rocker’s talk was interspersed with tunes on the ukulele, including one surreal version of the Sex Pistols’ Anarchy In The UK.

Hodgkinson told the audience he had wondered whether to send a copy of one of his books to the Liberal Democrat leader reminding him of their school days together.

But whether Clegg will have any time to be idle these days is another question.