Election debates up and running
It was a lively and busy first Politics Show debate in Berwick on Sunday.
The 25 minutes flew by and we didn't get to all the issues we wanted to cover.
But we got some good debate going about what the parties can offer older voters - the demographic group who may well decide the election.
I'm not sure we're any nearer to knowing what the solution will be to the issue of funding long term care, apart from the parties agreeing that the current system's reliance on people selling their homes cannot continue.
Labour's Dave Anderson departed from his own party's policy in saying that people should have to pay more in general taxation to fund it, but might he be right?
Guy Opperman from the Conservatives insisted the solution is their plan for a voluntary insurance scheme, in which people would pay a one-off £8,000 for their care costs.
The Lib Dems' Simon Reed says the party, like Labour, wants a Commission to come up with a cross-party solution that the public can buy into.
, we still don't have a definitive solution, and it'll be one of the big challenges facing any new government.
It was a beautifully sunny Sunday in Berwick, and I must admit it was nice to get out of the studio, even if we did retreat inside to The Maltings arts centre for the debate.
It was great to get a chance to bring the public face-to-face with the politicians, something that happens too rarely in the carefully stage-managed events which the parties often organise.
We've got three more debates to go, and again I'm hoping the audience will ask more questions than me.
Next stop is Stockton this coming Sunday where we'll focus on the other end of the age scale - the education of our children.
More on that later in the week.
I'm Richard Moss, the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ's Political Editor for the North East and Cumbria. Welcome to my irreverent - but hopefully insightful - northern take on reporting politics for Look North and the Politics Show.
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