Sorry Homebase, not even Bob the Builder could fix Gen Z’s lack of DIY skills

About two decades ago, I decided that it was time to transform myself from a soft-handed, martini-quaffing, media-dwelling young thing into, well, a sort of grown-up. I felt pretty manly by the time I’d packed away my gear, and only then realised I had nowhere in our small flat to actually store the toolbox. Unlike the toolbox, the tale of my first unsuccessful attempt at DIY still gets pulled out at family gatherings with remarkable regularity. Even my dad has always appeared capable of doing things himself, especially in the garden, where he seemed to spend half of my childhood building fruit cages and pergolas, or creating elaborate trellis networks. Ironically, they had ditched the soft furnishing and chic fittings which had previously marked Homebase out from the likes of B&Q, and had focused instead on the kind of no-nonsense DIY products its rivals were known for.