[news.bbc.co.uk]

Voters are becoming more rude to politicians – and the BBC’s Jeremy Paxman is to blame, a senior Tory says.

Caroline Spelman said she was “shocked” by the hostility she encountered from the public during the general election.

“The practice of not allowing people to finish their sentences has really caught on,” she told a fringe meeting at the Tory conference in Blackpool.

“I think the public feel it is perfectly OK to be just as rude as Jeremy Paxman,” she said.

Yes, of course. Everyone in the UK watches Newsnight. Certainly. It’s all Paxman’s fault. Politicians being members of a useless, spineless, in-fighting opposition, ill-deserving of respect – and/or of a toady, primping, nannying Government, ill-deserving of respect – would be nothing to do with it at all.

It’s all Paxo’s fault.

Certainly.