Rudeness and the lack of manners are never acceptable.

Last night, on Question Time, the panel consisted of Anna Soubry Tory MP, Douglas Alexander MP Labour, a Lib-Dem woman, Medhi Hassan, editor of Huffington Post and David Starkey , historian and presenter.

There is no doubt that David Starkey is often controversial and even, maybe, deliberately provocative. That said, it is clear that what he says, he actually believes, whereas the politicians, almost without fail, say what they think we, the electorate, want to hear. It often feels too, as if there is a battle in progress, as to which of the panel members can damn atrocities the most. In addition, they battle for first place in the 'who can be the most feeling panel member.' Honestly - do they think we are stupid? Sanctimony stinks and should be avoided. In all seriousness, they underestimate the voters at their peril.

The sanctimony battle involves serious, sonorous tones aligned with facial expressions which convey,  simultaneously,  their complete horror, shock, outrage. They have it off to a fine art. Except, that is, for David Starkey. Of course, he is not pursuing votes so he does not have to employ histrionics in the way the vote seekers do. But, if the politicians would stop this 'I'm all heart' charade, then I,for one,  would respect them more. Like the truth, pretension will always out.

What particularly struck me though, last night, was the appalling manners of the people on the panel. They interrupted each other, were particularly personally offensive to each other and were a perfect example of how not to behave. What I found especially offensive was the treatment meted out to David Starkey. There had been much vacuous talk about respect - how all of us should treat each other with respect. Medhi Hassan was particularly vocal on this matter. However, as Suzanne Moore pointed out, writing in the The Guardian yesterday, it is hard to respect a religion which doesn't respect women, and sees them as second class citizens.

Still on respect, it seemed that David Starkey was fair game. He is small, old, right wing, gay and cuts quite an odd figure. There are not many men left who are like him. For some, mainly idiots, these characteristics make him fair game - how foolish they are.

Last night Twitter carried several insults for him, calling him an  old queen, mocking how he spoke and exclaiming that he had 'lost it'. I found this unfair and offensive. The tone of the tweets was 'senile old bastard - no one need respect him.' Other panel members were rude to him, muttering as he spoke, eye rolling and pulling faces. Starkey did not do this to anyone, except for telling Anna Soubtry that she was very good at stating the obvious - impolite but true. ( Many thought the same regarding MsSoubry. One person on Twitter preferred to watch paint dry and received 22 favourites.) I wondered if any of her thoughts and words had any originality at all. Her answers were predictable and often swerved the real question. She perhaps had a ticker tape transplanted into her head.

Douglas Alexander was all bleeding heart, Mehdi Hassan deigned to admit that the atrocities in Paris last week were horrific and bleated a little about his faith being hijacked. The LibDem woman was so unmemorable that I cannot recall one word she said. I would not care if I never hear another word from any of them.

The one person from Question Time in whose answers I was interested, was David Starkey. He was knowledgable, spoke eloquently and was for the most part polite. He was, by far, the one from whom, I wanted to hear more - much more. Judging from the audience applause, I was not alone. From him, I actually learnt something.