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Introducing the Individuals

Steve, sixty-four, Canvey Island

Profession: Retired underwriter

Political history: Typically Tory, except when he lived in a left-leaning London borough and supported the Social Democratic Party

Amuse bouche: His specialty in insurance was hostage situations: People often claim that insurance is dull, but it’s not when you’re planning evacuating people from South Korea because the North Koreans have opened the weapon systems”

Eva, 25, the capital

Profession: Psychology graduate

Voting record: In her home country, Aotearoa, she supported both Labour and Green

Amuse bouche: Eva has been employed as a singer on cruise ships; her longest trip was six months, which is a long time to be on a boat

For starters

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

Steve: She came across as a very bright, well-spoken, nice person

She: I had a tomato and mozzarella dish, pasta with fungi, and a rich sweet treat, it was delicious

Key disagreement

She: He was definitely on the side of immigration being reduced. He believes that UK residents who are native to the area, not just Caucasian Britons, don’t have as much access to the essential services, because increasing numbers are entering. However I just disagree that the numbers are that bad

Steve: I’m for qualified migrants, I don’t want to live in a homogeneous, WASP country with tepid ale. But I maintain that authorities have exploited immigration to occupy positions they struggle to staff without raising wages. Wages are kept low, so levies have to be kept low, so we are unable to improve services – allocate additional funds on child support, on schooling, on technology

She: I am not deeply informed of the EU referendum, because I was 16 and abroad when it occurred. He clarified it to me in a new light. He informed me about “posted workers” – candidates could arrive in the UK and only be paid the wage of the their nation of origin

Steve: Macron spent two years getting the EU to abolish the system; it was reformed in two thousand eighteen. Before that, migrant laborers coming in were undercutting local employees. Under the former PM, it was petroleum staff that were brought in; since then it’s been service industry, farms. She grasped that, because she’d worked on a passenger vessel 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, transition from fossil fuels. I disapprove of environmental harm, I value fresh atmosphere, I appreciate rural areas. We agreed on a lot of that. But I said, “What do you think of the Scandinavian nation?” Their energy revenues skyrocketed after Ukraine started, they allocated those funds to build green infrastructure

She: So we’re using their oil. You can see that’s an unfavorable approach to go about things. He was supportive of continuing our own oil exploration for the small amount we’ll need in the coming years. I partially concur with him. We’re still going to rely on air travel. We both think we should be advancing to greener solutions, turbine fields and water power

For afters

She: We touched on Islamophobia, though we avoided labeling it. He seemed concerned about radical ideologies entering – he did mention that a many individuals in the Arab world were extremist, which I felt was not fair. I think it’s discriminatory to make judgments based on faith

He: I come from the East End. I asked her if she’d been to that district, and she said it had been gentrified. Naturally, I would say that: populated by professionals. But when I go down Chrisp Street market, I look like a foreigner. People stare 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 Polish-Jewish ancestry – she objects to the term, to her it implies deprivation. I said, “No, it’s an area that becomes their own.” I consented to substitute a alternative term – maybe enclave?

Eva: I believe that Muslim people are really overrepresented in the news outlets as doing things wrong. It seems a somewhat racist, or xenophobic

Takeaway

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