Meeting the Participants
Stephen, 64, Canvey Island
Profession: Former insurance professional
Political history: Usually Tory, except when he resided in a left-leaning London borough and voted for the SDP
Interesting fact: His focus in insurance was kidnap and ransom: “Everyone always says that insurance is boring, but it’s not when you’re discussing rescuing people from South Korea because the North Koreans have opened the weapon systems”
Eva, 25, the capital
Occupation: Psychology graduate
Voting record: 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 long time to be on a boat
For starters
She: Steve seemed focused on enjoying the meal, to be open
Steve: She came across as a very intelligent, well-spoken, pleasant person
Eva: I had a tomato and mozzarella dish, mushroom pasta, and a creamy dessert thing, it was delicious
The big beef
She: He was definitely on the side of immigration being curtailed. He thinks that UK residents who already live here, not just Caucasian Britons, don’t have as much access to the essential services, because increasing numbers are entering. Whereas I just disagree that the numbers 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 maintain that authorities have exploited immigration to occupy positions they struggle to staff without raising wages. Wages are suppressed, so levies have to be kept low, so we can’t do things better – allocate additional funds on child support, on schooling, on innovation
She: I don’t have that much knowledge of Brexit, because I was sixteen and not living here when it happened. He explained it to me in a different perspective. He informed me about EU labor migrants – candidates could come here and only be paid the salary of the their nation of origin
Steve: The French president spent two years getting the EU to abolish the scheme; it was reformed in two thousand eighteen. Previously, posted workers coming in were undermining British workers. Under the former PM, it was oil workers that were imported; later it’s been service industry, 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
Steve: It would be great to have a different energy source, come off of oil. I don’t like pollution, 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 oil and gas profits skyrocketed after Ukraine started, they allocated those funds to build green infrastructure
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 limited quantity we’ll need 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 greener solutions, turbine fields and water power
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 lot of the people in Middle Eastern countries were radical, which I felt was not accurate. I think it’s discriminatory to make judgments based on religion
Steve: I hail 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 that local market, I appear out of place. People gaze at me because it’s become very Muslim. She gave a slight glance 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 deprivation. I said, “No, it’s an area that becomes theirs.” 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 appears a little bit discriminatory, or xenophobic
Takeaway
He: 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
