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Introducing the Participants

Steve, 64, Essex

Profession: Former insurance professional

Political history: Typically Tory, apart from when he resided in a left-leaning London borough and voted for the Social Democratic Party

Interesting fact: His focus in insurance was hostage situations: “Everyone always says 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 activated the weapon systems”

Eva, 25, London

Occupation: Graduate in psychology

Voting record: In her home country, New Zealand, she voted a combination of progressive parties

Amuse bouche: Eva has worked as a singer on ocean liners; her most extended voyage was six months, which is a long time to be on a boat

For starters

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

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

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

The big beef

Eva: He was certainly on the side of immigration being reduced. He believes that British people who are native to the area, not just Caucasian Britons, face limited access to the things that they need, because more and more people are arriving. However I just don’t think the numbers are so problematic

Steve: I’m for skilled immigration, I don’t want to live 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. Wages are kept low, so levies have to be minimized, so we can’t do things better – spend more money on child support, on education, on innovation

She: I am not deeply informed of the EU referendum, because I was sixteen and not living here when it happened. He clarified it to me in a different perspective. He told me about “posted workers” – candidates could arrive in the UK and receive solely the wage of the country they came from

He: The French president spent two years getting the EU to abolish the scheme; it was reformed in 2018. Previously, posted workers coming in were undermining British workers. 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 earning significantly higher than workers from other countries

Common ground

Steve: It would be great to have a different energy source, transition from fossil fuels. I disapprove of environmental harm, I value fresh atmosphere, 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 the conflict began, they used that money to build eco-friendly systems

Eva: So we’re dependent on their petroleum. You can see that’s not a good way to proceed. He was in favour of continuing our own oil exploration for the small amount we’ll require in the coming years. I kind of agree with him. We’re still going to rely on air travel. We both think we should be moving towards environmentally friendly options, windfarms and hydro

Dessert topics

She: We touched on Islamophobia, though we avoided labeling it. He seemed worried by extremism coming here – he did note that a many individuals in the Arab world were radical, which I didn’t think accurate. I think it’s prejudiced to make judgments based on religion

Steve: 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 appear out of place. People stare 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 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 consented to substitute a alternative term – maybe enclave?

She: I feel like followers of Islam are really disproportionately shown in the media as doing things wrong. It seems a little bit racist, or xenophobic

Takeaway

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

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