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Introducing the Individuals

Steve, 64, Essex

Profession: Retired underwriter

Voting record: Typically Conservative, apart from when he resided in “the socialist republic of south Hackney” and voted for the SDP

Interesting fact: His focus in underwriting was hostage situations: People often claim that insurance is dull, but it’s far from it when you’re discussing evacuating people from South Korea because the North Koreans have activated the missile silos”

Evie, twenty-five, London

Occupation: Graduate in psychology

Political history: In her home country, Aotearoa, she voted a combination of progressive parties

Amuse bouche: Eva has been employed as a singer on ocean liners; her most extended voyage was half a year, which is a long time to be on a boat

Initial impressions

She: Steve seemed focused on enjoying the meal, to be receptive

Steve: She seemed like a very intelligent, articulate, pleasant person

Eva: I had a tomato and mozzarella dish, pasta with fungi, and a creamy dessert thing, it was delicious

The big beef

She: He was definitely on the side of immigration being curtailed. He believes that British people who already live here, including non-white white British, don’t have as much access to the essential services, because more and more people are arriving. Whereas I just disagree that the figures are so problematic

Steve: I’m for skilled immigration, I have no desire to reside in a white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant country with warm beer. But I believe that authorities have exploited immigration to fill the jobs they can’t get people to do without increasing salaries. Pay are kept low, so levies have to be minimized, so we are unable to improve services – allocate additional funds on child support, on schooling, on innovation

Eva: I am not deeply informed of Brexit, because I was 16 and abroad when it happened. He explained it to me in a different perspective. He told me about “posted workers” – people could come here and receive solely the wage of the their nation of origin

He: Macron spent 24 months getting the EU to do away with the system; it was reformed in two thousand eighteen. Previously, posted workers coming in were undercutting local employees. Under Gordon Brown, it was oil workers that were imported; later it’s been hospitality, farms. She understood that, because she’d worked on a passenger vessel and said she was earning significantly higher than workers from other countries

Common ground

Steve: It would be great to have a alternative power, transition from fossil fuels. I disapprove of environmental harm, I value fresh atmosphere, I love the countryside. We found consensus on a lot of that. But I said, “What do you think of Norway?” Their oil and gas profits soared after the conflict began, they allocated those funds to develop green infrastructure

She: So we’re using their oil. You can see that’s not a good way to proceed. He was supportive of continuing our own oil exploration for the small amount we’ll require in the future. I partially concur with him. We’re still going to use planes. We both think we should be moving towards greener solutions, turbine fields and hydro

Dessert topics

Eva: We briefly discussed Islamophobia, though we didn’t call it that. He seemed concerned about radical ideologies entering – he did note that a many individuals in Middle Eastern countries were extremist, which I felt was not fair. I think it’s prejudiced to make judgments based on religion

He: I come from the East End. I asked her if she’d been to that district, and she said it had been modernized. Naturally, I would say that: full of yuppies. But when I go down Chrisp Street market, I look like a foreigner. People stare at me because it’s become very Muslim. She gave a slight glance at me about that. I used the word “ghetto”. Eva’s got Eastern European roots – she doesn’t like that word, to her it denotes poverty. I said, “No, it’s an area that becomes theirs.” I consented to substitute a alternative term – maybe community?

She: I feel like followers of Islam are really overrepresented in the news outlets as engaging in misconduct. It seems a somewhat discriminatory, or xenophobic

Takeaway

Steve: I think we separated amicably. We had a embrace at the station

She: We both said that we’d had a lovely time