Profession: Former insurance professional
Voting record: Typically Conservative, except when he lived in “the socialist republic of south Hackney” and supported the Social Democratic Party
Amuse bouche: 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 weapon systems”
Profession: Graduate in psychology
Political history: In her home country, Aotearoa, she voted a combination of progressive parties
Amuse bouche: Eva has worked as a singer on cruise ships; her longest trip was half a year, which is a significant duration to be at sea
She: Steve seemed focused on enjoying the meal, to be receptive
Steve: She seemed like a very bright, articulate, pleasant person
Eva: I had a caprese salad, pasta with fungi, and a rich sweet treat, it was very good
Eva: He was certainly on the side of immigration being reduced. He thinks that UK residents who already live here, not just white British, face limited access to the things that they need, because more and more people are arriving. Whereas I just disagree that the numbers are that bad
He: I’m for skilled immigration, I don’t want to live in a homogeneous, WASP country with tepid ale. But I believe that authorities have exploited immigration to occupy positions they struggle to staff without increasing salaries. Pay are suppressed, so taxes have to be minimized, so we can’t do things better – allocate additional funds on child support, on education, on innovation
She: I don’t have that much knowledge 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 EU labor migrants – people could come here and only be paid the salary of the their nation of origin
He: Macron spent 24 months getting the EU to do away with the scheme; it was reformed in 2018. Before that, posted workers coming in were undermining local employees. Under the former PM, it was petroleum staff that were brought in; since then it’s been hospitality, agriculture. She grasped that, because she’d worked on a cruise ship and said she was earning significantly higher than international colleagues
Steve: It would be ideal to have a different energy source, transition from fossil fuels. I don’t like pollution, I value fresh atmosphere, I love the countryside. We agreed 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 develop green infrastructure
She: So we’re using their oil. You can see that’s an unfavorable approach to proceed. He was in favour of maintaining domestic drilling for the limited quantity we’ll need in the coming years. I partially concur with him. We’re still going to rely on air travel. We both think we should be advancing to greener solutions, windfarms and hydro
Eva: We briefly discussed anti-Muslim sentiment, though we didn’t call it that. He seemed concerned about radical ideologies entering – he did note that a many individuals in Middle Eastern countries were extremist, which I didn’t think accurate. I think it’s prejudiced to form opinions 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 Chrisp Street market, I look like a foreigner. People stare 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 doesn’t like that word, to her it denotes poverty. I said, “No, it’s an area that becomes their own.” I agreed to use a alternative term – maybe community?
Eva: I feel like followers of Islam are really disproportionately shown in the news outlets as doing things wrong. It seems a somewhat racist, or xenophobic
Steve: I think we separated amicably. We had a hug at the station
She: We both said that we’d had a wonderful evening
A seasoned journalist with a passion for uncovering stories that matter in the Czech Republic and beyond.
