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Meeting the Individuals

Steve, sixty-four, Canvey Island

Profession: Former insurance professional

Voting record: 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: People often claim that insurance is dull, but it’s not when you’re discussing evacuating people from South Korea because the DPRK have activated the missile silos”

Eva, 25, the capital

Profession: Psychology graduate

Political history: In her home country, New Zealand, she supported both Labour and Green

Interesting fact: Eva has worked as a singer on cruise ships; her longest trip was half a year, which is a significant duration to be on a boat

For starters

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

He: She seemed like a very bright, well-spoken, pleasant person

Eva: I had a caprese salad, mushroom pasta, and a rich sweet treat, it was delicious

The big beef

She: He was definitely on the side of immigration being curtailed. He thinks that British people who are native to the area, including non-white Caucasian Britons, face limited access to the things that they need, because more and more people are arriving. However I just disagree that the figures are that bad

Steve: I’m for qualified migrants, 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 occupy positions they struggle to staff without increasing salaries. Wages are kept low, so taxes have to be kept low, so we can’t do things better – allocate additional funds on child support, on education, on technology

Eva: I am not deeply informed of Brexit, because I was 16 and not living here when it happened. He explained it to me in a new light. He told me about “posted workers” – candidates could arrive in the UK and receive solely the wage of the country they came from

Steve: The French president spent 24 months getting the EU to abolish the scheme; it was revised in 2018. Before that, migrant laborers coming in were undercutting British workers. Under the former PM, it was petroleum staff that were imported; since then it’s been service industry, agriculture. She grasped that, because she’d worked on a cruise ship and said she was earning significantly higher than international colleagues

Common ground

He: It would be ideal to have a alternative power, 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 energy revenues skyrocketed after Ukraine started, 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 continuing our own oil exploration for the small amount we’ll require in the future. 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 hydro

For afters

Eva: We briefly discussed Islamophobia, though we didn’t call it that. 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 faith

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

She: I feel like Muslim people are really disproportionately shown in the media as engaging in misconduct. It seems a little bit discriminatory, or prejudiced against foreigners

Takeaway

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

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