When a waitress in a Cardiff restaurant briefly mistook him for a child and brought him a colouring book he roared with laughter and his fiancée shared the joke.

Where others would have got all offended – up and ranted about dwarfism before suing for hurt feelings – James Lusted took it all in his stride. No wailing about humiliation, no looking miserable for a press shoot, no ruderies about the restaurant.

He and fiancée Chloe even had a kind word for the embarrassed waitress who realised her mistake when she heard James’ deep voice as he politely thanked her for the colouring book. “I felt a bit sorry for her,” said Chloe.

How refreshing this all is in an age when reasonable reactions are increasingly the exception, taking offence has become a national sport and “hurt feelings” can be the precursor to a handsome compensation payout.

Councils seriously consider banning the word overweight to avoid causing offence to fat people and demand that small children use unisex loos in a primary school to avoid offending any who might be “transgender”.

Earlier this year two women police firearms officers were given a payout because the guns they were expected to use were too big for their hands and their complaints  to senior staff were ignored.

So hurt were their feelings that they were awarded £35,000 each.

And even if Mr Lusted hadn’t taken his complaint further with a view to receiving compensation he could have been – as so often happens – affronted on behalf of people of restricted growth and demanded apologies all round.

Regrettably victimhood can be the key to success in modern Britain. Yet though Mr Lusted also spoke of the bullying he received when he was a child because of his condition he is clearly not about to use that to gain sympathy and has not let it hold him back in his career as an actor and motivational speaker.

James Lusted may be a few feet short of the normal quota but he towers over many a giant when it comes to common sense and humour. I wish him and his fiancée a lifetime of happiness and laughter.

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If I see one more report of the latest goings-on at Downton Abbey I really will be convinced that we have lost our ability to distinguish fact from fiction.

The characters are no more real than Rupert Bear or Bugs Bunny.

They are the product of a skilled writer not of actuality, yet their doings are recounted as if they were important enough to affect the future of the nation, while much that does exactly that is marginalised.

How politicians would love their speeches to be covered in half the depth of the dowager’s put-downs!

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Dawn Moore , a primary school headmistress, wants to ban small children being given homework. Would she include reading in that or small challenges such as finding six things beginning with A?

At that age learning and fun should be indistinguishable.

I had homework every day when I was at junior school in Singapore. It was never a chore because my mother did not make it so but then she didn’t rush in from work and get ready for “quality time”.

Instead she was always there and, in ways I never realised, was also always teaching me. Thanks mother.

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In the 1980s the SDP was also hailed as a sea change in British politics

U kip if you want to but I am staying wide awake and my waking nightmare is a chap called Ed Miliband who, if enough Tories vote for Ukip, will tax and spend this country back into the problems from which we have spent the last five years so painfully escaping.

Furthermore the certain way to ensure that we don’t get an EU referendum is to return to power the major party which has refused to promise one.

Ukip may well be taking votes from Labour as well but come a general election the votes will largely revert. In the 1970s there was a massive revolt against the power of the trade unions.
Seemingly impregnable Labour seats such as Workington and Ashfield returned Conservative MPs in by-elections but at the general election they reverted to the norm.

In the 1980s we had the founding of the SDP, which was hailed as a sea change in politics. They too won by-elections but that was all they did other than keep their former party out of office for 18 years. That does not mean however that the surge of Ukip should be ignored, rather the opposite.

When people voted Conservative in those Labour strongholds at by-elections they were expressing an opinion about socialism which was reflected in the election of Mrs Thatcher. The SDP was never more than a rump in Parliament but eventually forced Labour to adopt a more moderate approach to the economy and to free enterprise.

David Cameron should therefore act now to allay concerns about rampant immigration, which is one of Ukip’s biggest selling points.

He should also tackle benefits tourism and build bridges with his own party workers. They resent his haughtiness and feel betrayed but I think that, sheltered by advisers, he even now has no clue as to the depth of that feeling.

Finally he must firm up that promise of a referendum. I trust him to deliver it but too many don’t.

The Conservatives can and must win. The alternative is too horrible to contemplate.

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Wrongly accused are facing hell

Paul Gambaccini is the latest celebrity to be told he will face no charges in relation to allegations of sexual abuse.

He says he has endured 12 months of trauma and indeed he has but those who laid the allegations are shielded by anonymity.

The law is in desperate need of reform so what say the politicians? Nothing as far as I can make out.