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Meeting the Participants

Stephen, 64, Essex

Profession: Former underwriter

Voting record: Typically Tory, apart from when he lived in “the socialist republic of south Hackney” and supported the Social Democratic Party

Amuse bouche: His focus in underwriting was hostage situations: People often claim that insurance is boring, but it’s far from it when you’re planning rescuing people from the Korean peninsula because the North Koreans have opened the missile silos”

Evie, twenty-five, the capital

Profession: Graduate in psychology

Political history: In her native land, New Zealand, she supported both progressive parties

Interesting fact: Eva has been employed as a singer on cruise ships; her most extended voyage was half a year, which is a significant duration to be on a boat

Initial impressions

Eva: Steve appeared focused on enjoying the meal, to be receptive

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

Eva: I had a caprese salad, pasta with fungi, and a rich sweet treat, it was delicious

Key disagreement

She: He was certainly on the side of immigration being curtailed. He believes that UK residents who are native to the area, not just Caucasian Britons, face limited access to the essential services, because increasing numbers are entering. Whereas I just disagree that the numbers are that bad

He: I’m for skilled immigration, I have no desire to reside in a homogeneous, WASP country with tepid ale. But I maintain that governments have exploited immigration to occupy positions they struggle to staff without raising wages. Pay are kept low, so taxes have to be minimized, so we are unable to improve services – spend more money on child support, on education, on technology

She: I am not deeply informed of the EU referendum, because I was 16 and abroad when it happened. He explained it to me in a different perspective. He told me about EU labor migrants – people could arrive in the UK and receive solely the wage of the country they came from

Steve: Macron spent 24 months getting the EU to do away with the scheme; it was revised in 2018. Previously, migrant laborers coming in were undermining British workers. Under Gordon Brown, it was petroleum staff that were brought in; later it’s been hospitality, agriculture. She understood that, because she’d worked on a cruise ship and said she was earning significantly higher than workers from other countries

Common ground

Steve: It would be ideal to have a different energy source, transition from fossil fuels. I disapprove of environmental harm, I love the clean air, I love the countryside. We agreed on a lot of that. But I said, “What do you think of Norway?” Their energy revenues skyrocketed after Ukraine started, they used that money to develop green infrastructure

She: So we’re dependent on their petroleum. You can see that’s not a good way to proceed. He was in favour of maintaining domestic drilling 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 greener solutions, turbine fields and hydro

For afters

She: We touched on Islamophobia, though we didn’t call it that. He seemed concerned about radical ideologies entering – he did note that a lot of the people in Middle Eastern countries were radical, which I felt was not accurate. I think it’s prejudiced to form opinions based on faith

Steve: I hail from the East End. I asked her if she’d been to that district, and she said it had been gentrified. Obviously, I would say that: populated by professionals. But when I go down Chrisp Street market, I appear out of place. People gaze at me because it’s become predominantly Islamic. She had a little look at me about that. I used the word “ghetto”. Eva’s got Polish-Jewish ancestry – she objects to the term, to her it implies poverty. I said, “No, it’s an area that becomes theirs.” I consented to substitute a different word – maybe enclave?

Eva: I believe that Muslim people are really disproportionately shown in the news outlets as doing things wrong. It appears a little bit discriminatory, or xenophobic

Conclusion

Steve: I think we parted on good terms. We had a hug at the train stop

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