In government, cabinet secretaries are usually perceived to take the effort to have some inside knowhow of the field his department or ministry oversees. So when Jeremy Wright, UK State Secretary for Culture, Media and Sport, mentioned in recent interviews that he relied solely on aids summarizing reports on culture and media rather than subscribing to publications, he was put through the wringer by British media for seeming pop-cultural ignorance.
A week after this initial blowup, another interview with Wright, 46, on AOL UK the publicly beleaguered State Sec somehow managed to rehabilitate his rep – with the British LEGO-building fandom at least – by revealing both his LEGO collection and AFOL-ness.
In his own words, Jeremy Wright reveals that building with LEGO bricks was his own personal way of de-stressing from the pressures of government work. Where many people have different ways to “switch off”, Wright declares that his is LEGO.
Despite his wife commenting that his LEGO collection was getting “too large”, the State Sec of Culture, in his words, just can’t stop collecting and building. “In my view it’s a great way of putting your brain into neutral, which sometimes we all need to do.” Then again, he’s saying that when one of his completed sets is the LEGO Star Wars Death Star (75159).
It can be a lot to think about, when you feel yourself therapeutically relaxing from your job at the UK Cabinet by assembling a planet-destroying battle station. But hey, he may have proven himself as being savvy in culture and media after that earlier mishap.