Excessive Brake Pedal Travel/Poor Braking Response

Externally it looked like rubber/ plastic but as I used the clamp it became obvious there was reinforcement inside. 
My car is from 1998 and later cars had the traditional flexi hose as found on the front callipers compared to the set up on my car.  
This pipe does not flex in the true sense but the rubber/plastic  coated pipe linked the hard metal brake pipe to the calliper. 
It was my mistake but no warning in my Haynes or the installation videos I gleaned tips from prior to doing the job. In fact some of the videos I watched used an identical tool to mine in exactly the same place. 
Learning is often a negative experience which was certainly the case here.