Dining across the divide: ‘I don’t think she recognised how much things have improved, like pollution’
Bob, 76, Portishead
Occupation Retired, former IT director
Voting record Conservative in the last general election, but stood as an independent councillor, believing independents are better on local issues
Amuse bouche Has a model railway, but is more interested in cars and motorsport
Zuhura, 40, Oxford
Occupation Campaign director
Voting record Labour, Labour, Labour
Amuse bouche Lived on a boat for seven years with a cat called Captain Fishfingers
For starters
Bob Zuhura was a very pleasant lady, she wasn’t in any way aggressive or argumentative.
Zuhura Bob was a nice, pleasant, ordinary person. I thought he would be quite patronising and smarmy, and he wasn’t either of those things.
Bob I don’t normally eat at midday, so I had a child’s portion of gammon and chips, and an ice-cream.
Zuhura I had a mushroom on sourdough, fish and chips, and a slice of cheesecake. Bob went for the gammon, which I thought would be quite funny if he was gammon-y. But he wasn’t.
The big beef
Bob She was adamant that large cars should be taxed very highly to deter people from having them. My view is that if people make them, and people buy them, then that’s fair enough.
Zuhura I think SUVs are the most selfish thing in the world. It’s like a certain group of people are eating five times or 100 times as much cake as everybody else. If you take the axle weight of a Range Rover, that’s an extraordinary level of damage. Everyone goes on about potholes, but the thing that’s causing the potholes is these cars. I think they should be banned completely except for people who need them for work.
Bob I live next to a school, so I see exactly what she says: every day you see the mums coming in with a 4x4 containing little Jonny. Is that the best car to use for that journey? Probably not. But SUV drivers are paying more now. They’re very expensive, taxed at a higher rate and use more fuel. Her view was that wasn’t enough and they should be taxed out of existence.
Zuhura He agreed they were selfish, but mostly from an engineer’s point of view. I did really try to push him – you agree they’re not great, but you don’t think we should have any policy on this? He kept saying, “It’s not democratic, it’s not democratic.” I also saw a man who really loves cars, who associates them with freedom. Whereas I see them as an impingement on freedom.
Sharing plate
Zuhura I did at one point mention the “C” word. He immediately picked up on it and said that he definitely agrees climate change is happening and it’s getting worse. But he’s kind of a techno-optimist. He also thinks the UK isn’t really that responsible. I think it’s very convenient that climate change denial has gone from “the science is wrong” to suddenly being, “OK, maybe it is happening but it’s too late to do anything about it.”
Bob I don’t dispute there’s climate change, but there has been since the world started. My question is whether humans can control it, because I don’t think they can. I don’t think we have that power. I think we have to be doing more to work with the climate as it changes, rather than try to change it ourselves, backwards.
For afters
Bob I don’t think she recognised how much things have improved, with things like pollution. You don’t get the fogs you used to. In the 70s, you could get completely lost, you couldn’t see in front of your face. The younger ones in society just don’t know what that was like.
Zuhura We did talk about air pollution. He thinks it’s not that bad compared with what it used to be. I think that’s a bit of a cop-out. If you know it’s still damaging people, why not make it better? He doesn’t have any grandchildren, and I wonder if that relates to his stance on green issues. Deep down, he thinks it’s not going to be that bad and he’s not going to be around to see it.
Takeaway
Zuhura There was a very lovely man sitting in front of me in many ways. I stayed twice as long as I’d planned to. But at the end of the day, when I think about that view on climate change, I think, “Eurgh, really?”
Bob She wasn’t what I expected. I thought it would be more of a dyed-in-the-wool leftwing person. But she wasn’t. She was a very nice lady.
Additional reporting: Kitty Drake
• Bob and Zuhura ate at The Harrow Inn, Swindon
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