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Can we separate pop from politics?

Live debate examining the moral issues behind one of the week's news stories. #moralmaze

Ed Sheeran says he tries to keep politics off the stage.

But politics gate-crashed his stadium tour anyway -- when the American rapper Macklemore was removed as a support act for delivering a pro-Palestinian speech.

Now Sir Bob Geldof, the man behind Live Aid, says Ed Sheeran's preferred silence isn't political.

Fame, he says, is a currency, and artists get to choose how to spend it

Is he right? Can any artist, whether a musician, a writer, or a painter, stay out of politics? Or is silence itself a kind of political statement too?

This week’s Moral Maze: Can we separate pop from politics?

Presenter: William Crawley
Panel: Andrew Copson, Ash Sarkar, Ella Whelan, Giles Fraser
Witnesses: Tom Phelan, Daniel Rachel, Angela McRobbie, Nick Asbury
Producer: Catherine Murray
Editor: Chloe Walker

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57 minutes

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  • Wed 23 Sep 202620:00
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The Evidence Toolkit

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