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Introducing the Participants

Steve, sixty-four, Canvey Island

Occupation: Retired underwriter

Political history: Typically Conservative, except when he resided in a left-leaning London borough and voted for the SDP

Interesting fact: His specialty in underwriting was hostage situations: “Everyone always says that insurance is boring, but it’s not when you’re planning rescuing people from South Korea because the North Koreans have opened the weapon systems”

Evie, twenty-five, London

Occupation: Psychology graduate

Political history: In her home country, New Zealand, she supported both progressive parties

Amuse bouche: Eva has been employed as a singer on cruise ships; her most extended voyage was six months, which is a long time to be at sea

Initial impressions

Eva: Steve appeared there to have a nice time, to be receptive

He: She came across as a very bright, well-spoken, pleasant person

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

Key disagreement

She: He was definitely on the side of immigration being curtailed. He thinks that British people who are native to the area, not just Caucasian Britons, don’t have as much access to the things that they need, because more and more people are arriving. Whereas I just disagree that the numbers are so problematic

He: I’m for qualified migrants, 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 can’t get people to do without raising wages. Pay are kept low, so taxes have to be kept low, so we are unable to improve services – spend more money on childcare, on education, on technology

Eva: I don’t have that much knowledge of the EU referendum, because I was 16 and not living here when it happened. He clarified it to me in a different perspective. He informed me about “posted workers” – people could arrive in the UK and receive solely the wage of the their nation of origin

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

Sharing plate

Steve: It would be great 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 oil and gas profits soared after Ukraine started, they allocated those funds 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 supportive 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 use planes. We both think we should be advancing to greener solutions, windfarms and water power

For afters

Eva: We touched on Islamophobia, though we avoided labeling it. He seemed worried by radical ideologies entering – he did note that a many individuals in Middle Eastern countries were extremist, which I felt was not accurate. 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. Obviously, I would say that: populated by professionals. But when I go down that local market, I look like a foreigner. People gaze at me because it’s become predominantly Islamic. She gave a slight glance at me about that. I used the word “ghetto”. Eva’s got Eastern European roots – she objects to the term, to her it denotes poverty. I said, “No, it’s an area that becomes their own.” I agreed to use a different word – maybe enclave?

She: I believe that Muslim people are really overrepresented in the media as engaging in misconduct. It appears a little bit racist, or xenophobic

Conclusion

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

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