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Introducing the Individuals

Steve, sixty-four, Canvey Island

Profession: Former underwriter

Voting record: Typically Conservative, except when he lived in “the socialist republic of south Hackney” and supported the SDP

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

Eva, twenty-five, London

Profession: Psychology graduate

Political history: In her home country, Aotearoa, she supported both Labour and Green

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 at sea

For starters

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

Steve: She came across as a very intelligent, articulate, pleasant person

She: I had a tomato and mozzarella dish, pasta with fungi, and a creamy dessert thing, it was very good

Key disagreement

She: He was definitely on the side of immigration being curtailed. He believes that UK residents who are native to the area, including non-white white British, face limited access to the things that they need, because more and more people are arriving. However I just don’t think the figures are that bad

He: I’m for skilled immigration, I don’t want to live in a white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant country with warm beer. But I believe that governments have exploited immigration to occupy positions they struggle to staff without raising wages. Pay are suppressed, so taxes have to be minimized, so we can’t do things better – allocate additional funds on childcare, on schooling, on technology

She: I don’t have that much knowledge of Brexit, because I was sixteen and not living here when it happened. He clarified it to me in a new light. He told me about EU labor migrants – people could come here and only be paid the wage of the their nation of origin

He: The French president spent 24 months getting the EU to do away with the system; it was reformed in two thousand eighteen. Before that, posted workers coming in were undercutting British workers. Under the former PM, it was oil workers that were brought in; later it’s been hospitality, farms. She understood that, because she’d worked on a cruise ship and said she was paid a lot more than workers from other countries

Common ground

Steve: It would be ideal to have a alternative power, come off of oil. 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 energy revenues soared after the conflict began, they allocated those funds to build green infrastructure

She: So we’re dependent on their petroleum. You can see that’s not a good way to go about things. He was supportive of continuing our own oil exploration for the small amount we’ll require in the coming years. I partially concur with him. We’re still going to rely on air travel. We both think we should be moving towards environmentally friendly options, turbine fields and water power

For afters

She: We briefly discussed Islamophobia, though we avoided labeling it. He seemed worried by extremism coming here – he did note that a many individuals in Middle Eastern countries were radical, which I didn’t think fair. I think it’s discriminatory to form opinions based on faith

Steve: I hail from the East End. I asked her if she’d been to Whitechapel, and she said it had been modernized. Obviously, I would say that: full of yuppies. But when I go down Chrisp Street market, I appear out of place. People gaze at me because it’s become predominantly Islamic. She gave a slight glance at me about that. I used the word segregated area. 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 enclave?

She: I feel like Muslim people are really disproportionately shown in the news outlets as engaging in misconduct. It appears a somewhat discriminatory, or prejudiced against foreigners

Takeaway

He: I think we separated amicably. We had a hug at the train stop

She: We both said that we’d had a wonderful evening