The Sunday Supplement

What do we really want from our politicians? Good schools and a well-run NHS? Or something altogether more complex and personal?

We all of us, it seems, demand things that can't be reconciled. We want politicians who listen, and yet who are prepared to offer clear leadership. Cognitive polyphasia, it's called.

In a new two part series called 'The Voter on the Couch,' David Aaronovitch discovers that when it comes to the people that lead us, we don't always want what we think we want - and he's no exception.