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Meeting the Participants

Steve, 64, Canvey Island

Occupation: Former underwriter

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

Interesting fact: His specialty in underwriting was hostage situations: “Everyone always says that insurance is boring, but it’s far from it when you’re discussing rescuing people from the Korean peninsula because the North Koreans have activated the missile silos”

Evie, 25, the capital

Profession: Graduate in psychology

Voting record: In her home country, Aotearoa, she supported both progressive parties

Interesting fact: Eva has worked as a singer on ocean liners; her longest trip was half a year, which is a long time to be at sea

Initial impressions

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

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

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

Key disagreement

Eva: He was certainly on the side of immigration being reduced. He thinks that British people who are native to the area, including non-white white British, don’t have as much access to the essential services, because increasing numbers are arriving. However I just don’t think the numbers are so problematic

He: I’m for skilled immigration, 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 increasing salaries. Pay are kept low, so taxes have to be kept low, so we are unable to improve services – allocate additional funds on child support, on education, on innovation

She: I don’t have that much knowledge of Brexit, 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 only be paid the wage of the country they came from

Steve: The French president spent 24 months getting the EU to do away with the system; it was revised in 2018. Previously, posted workers coming in were undermining British workers. Under the former PM, it was petroleum staff that were imported; since then it’s been hospitality, agriculture. She understood that, because she’d worked on a passenger vessel and said she was earning significantly higher than workers from other countries

Common ground

He: 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 found consensus on a lot of that. But I said, “What do you think of the Scandinavian nation?” Their energy revenues soared after the conflict began, they allocated those funds 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 supportive of maintaining domestic drilling for the small amount we’ll require in the coming years. I kind of agree with him. We’re still going to use planes. We both think we should be moving towards greener solutions, windfarms and water power

For afters

Eva: We touched on anti-Muslim sentiment, though we avoided labeling it. He seemed worried by extremism coming here – he did mention that a lot of the people in Middle Eastern countries were extremist, which I didn’t think accurate. I think it’s prejudiced to make judgments based on faith

Steve: I come from the eastern part of London. 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 look like a foreigner. People stare at me because it’s become very Muslim. She had a little look at me about that. I used the word segregated area. 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 theirs.” I consented to substitute a different word – maybe community?

She: I believe that Muslim people are really overrepresented in the media as doing things wrong. It seems a somewhat racist, or prejudiced against foreigners

Takeaway

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

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