🔗 Share this article

Introducing the Individuals

Steve, 64, Canvey Island

Occupation: Former insurance professional

Voting record: Usually Tory, except when he resided in “the socialist republic of south Hackney” and supported the Social Democratic Party

Amuse bouche: His specialty in insurance was hostage situations: “Everyone always says that insurance is boring, but it’s not when you’re planning evacuating people from South Korea because the DPRK have opened the weapon systems”

Eva, 25, the capital

Profession: Psychology graduate

Voting record: In her home country, New Zealand, she voted a combination of Labour and Green

Interesting fact: Eva has been employed as a singer on ocean liners; her longest trip was half a year, which is a significant duration to be at sea

For starters

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

Steve: She came across as a very bright, articulate, pleasant person

She: I had a caprese salad, mushroom pasta, and a creamy dessert thing, it was delicious

The big beef

She: He was definitely on the side of immigration being reduced. He thinks that British people who are native to the area, not just white British, face limited access to the things that they need, because more and more people are arriving. Whereas I just don’t think the figures are that bad

He: I’m for skilled immigration, I have no desire to reside in a white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant country with tepid ale. But I believe that authorities have exploited immigration to fill the jobs they struggle to staff without raising wages. Wages are kept low, so levies have to be minimized, so we are unable to improve services – spend more money on child support, on education, on technology

Eva: I am not deeply informed of the EU referendum, because I was 16 and not living here when it happened. He explained it to me in a new light. He told me about EU labor migrants – people could come here and receive solely the salary of the their nation of origin

He: Macron spent 24 months getting the EU to do away with the system; it was revised in 2018. Previously, posted workers coming in were undermining local employees. Under the former PM, it was petroleum staff that were imported; later it’s been hospitality, agriculture. She understood that, because she’d worked on a cruise ship and said she was paid a lot more than workers from other countries

Common ground

He: It would be great to have a different energy source, come off of oil. I disapprove of environmental harm, I value fresh atmosphere, I love the countryside. We found consensus on a lot of that. But I said, “What do you think of Norway?” Their oil and gas profits soared after Ukraine started, they used that money to build 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 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 advancing to environmentally friendly options, windfarms and water power

For afters

She: We touched on anti-Muslim sentiment, though we avoided labeling it. He seemed worried by extremism coming here – he did note that a many individuals in Middle Eastern countries were extremist, which I didn’t think fair. 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 Whitechapel, and she said it had been modernized. Naturally, I would say that: full of yuppies. But when I go down Chrisp Street market, I look like a foreigner. 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 Eastern European roots – she objects to the term, to her it implies poverty. I said, “No, it’s an area that becomes their own.” I consented to substitute a different word – maybe enclave?

She: I feel like followers of Islam are really disproportionately shown in the media as engaging in misconduct. It seems a little bit discriminatory, or xenophobic

Conclusion

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