Moral Maze - 24/02/2010

How much should the personality of our leaders influence our vote? Politics has always been about making a connection with the voter, but with the prime minister and party leaders giving increasingly personal interviews and a US presidential-style TV debate on the cards, is politics turning into the X Factor? Have spin doctors destroyed politics or are we part of the problem? Are we increasingly unwilling to devote the time and intellect, to engage fully with political debate and the tough moral and ethical choices that poses? Witnesses: George Pascoe Watson, former political editor of The Sun, now partner at Portland Public Relations. Mark Vernon, co-editor Citizen Ethics Iain Dale, political blogger Mehdi Hasan, senior editor The New Statesman.