ED Miliband’s suggestion that a people’s question time be substituted for the current format of the weekly session of Prime Minister’s questions does not appeal to me.

The Prime Minister is not a president, he isn’t elected directly by the people. The only voters who could vote for David Cameron at the last election were the ones who lived in his constituency of Witney.

Prime ministers hold office because they have a majority in Parliament, it is proper that they are accountable to Parliament by answering questions there.

Question time was not always as rowdy as it is now.

I once sat on the Procedure Committee during an inquiry into the conduct of Prime Minister’s Questions. I recall the veteran Labour MP Tam Dalyell telling us that Attlee and Churchill treated each other with enormous courtesy. That, in opposition, Churchill very rarely asked a question, leaving it largely to the backbenchers.

In those days, however, the proceedings were not broadcast. Possibly even more significant, “open” questions were not allowed, backbenchers had to stick to a specific question printed on the order paper in advance. The fact that the PM knew exactly what was coming, I suspect, rather lowered the temperature.

Things are very different now but, in my experience, every new leader of the opposition and prime minister begins by insisting that they will not indulge in the “Punch and Judy” knock-about of Prime Minister’s Questions. Soon enough, however, they get into the swing of it.

What is surprising about Mr Miliband is that his renunciation comes after nearly four years as an eager participant, who has hitherto fully entered into the spirit of it.

The Speaker is always telling us that people write to him by the hundred agreeing how awful it is and how we ought to be so much better behaved.

They rarely write to me in those terms. On the contrary, I am inundated with requests to see if I can provide tickets because people want to enjoy it live. I rather suspect that the demand would fall off sharply if we all sat quietly while Mr Miliband politely put his questions to Mr Cameron. I’d bet that soon enough nobody would watch it at all. It would be as soporific as any continental legislative assembly.

Prime Minister’s questions is a bit of theatre, a bear pit if you like. Or a gladiatorial contest, where you want to see your champion beat the hell out of his opponent.

It has a very important purpose, however. The Prime Minister spends hours and hours being briefed on every aspect of government just in case he is challenged on any of it.

If the environment were not quite so unforgiving, if the stakes were not so high, if we were all polite and well-behaved, would he put quite so much effort into mastering the detail of all that briefing?

By degrees we might end up being governed by a Prime Minister who wasn’t entirely on top of the detail of what the government is actually up to.