Boris: Your country needs you to shop

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Mr Johnson said people should cut back on waste but not give in to irrational fears about the downturn and that those who could afford to shop should do so.

Mr Johnson's thoughts, in today's Daily Telegraph, came as he pondered whether to give all his friends and family jars of his apple chutney.

"There is no doubt that the act of making and giving chutney is in keeping with the mood of the times. It is in this mood of financial self-disgust, you might argue, that it is entirely fitting that an otherwise prosperous member of the middle classes should get a load of apples from the garden, boil them up, add Demerara sugar and vinegar, together with onions, walnuts, apricots and all sorts of other top-secret ingredients, and hand them round to his loved ones for Christmas. And if they are so rash as to complain that this is a bit tight-fisted, I can always point out that it is the thought that counts, eh?"

"Well, I am not so sure If everybody gives everybody else nothing but chutney, then the economy will completely seize up, and by this time next year no one will have enough money to pay even for the sugar or the vinegar."

He added: "I think I can probably just about afford to buy some presents. I should do my patriotic duty by going to the shops".

Mr Johnson stressed that the public should not allow their loathing of banking and ministerial excess to deter them from investing in the high street.

"We should continue and indeed step up our investment in infrastructure projects that will be of long-term benefit to the economy, and improve the competitiveness of the United Kingdom."