Dining across the divide: ‘I think the electric car is going to be the most enormous white elephant’
Stuart, 61, Staffordshire
Occupation Works in a car dealership
Voting record Labour in every election
Amuse bouche Is a vinyl collector whose prize possessions are two original copies of Queen’s A Day at the Races – one to listen to, one to keep pristine
Stephen, 61, Birmingham
Occupation Retired drama teacher
Voting record Normally tactically and left of centre. Really wants a change to everything about our electoral system
Amuse bouche Has a podcast called Vita Anima in which his alter ego, Emanuel le Brocq, interviews people
For starters
Stephen My first impression of Stuart was really good. Not that it would have been bad if it had been somebody at the opposite end of the spectrum, but he wasn’t like that at all.
Stuart We actually bumped into one another at the bar. He was a very sociable person and I enjoyed his company.
Stephen Stuart didn’t drink and I don’t really drink. I mostly don’t eat any dead things either, though I occasionally eat fish.
Stuart We both had fish and chips – it wasn’t an exciting choice, but we saw someone have some delivered to another table and it looked stunning.
The big beef
Stuart On sustainability, Stephen’s all for major pushing forward, trying to get everything right now, whereas I think we’re all being pushed too quickly. I think the electric car is going to be the most enormous white elephant. You look at where all the minerals come from to produce the batteries: that is a hidden scar on the landscape. The amount of poisons that are being thrown back into the ground is unbelievable.
Stephen He came up with some very valid points why he was against electric cars: the costs; the extraction of the metals that are used in battery manufacture; and the fact that the companies making them are screwing working people and putting the price up and so on.
Stuart I look at life logically. You consider the infrastructure, especially in London where you’ve got families living in high-rises – how the hell will they all charge their cars? My belief is that people at the top have vested interests in those electric vehicles. They’re benefiting from it financially.
Stephen I’m a great advocate for mass transport, and I’m against all cars, really. Whether it’s electric or petrol or diesel, I’m just not a fan. So he’s against the transition and I believe in the transition, but not like this. It’s a wider issue about capitalism. I’m against this whole reliance on replacing something with something else that’s more or less the same. I’m against private car ownership. Why don’t we have a system where you can rent a car in a community hub?
Sharing plate
Stuart Stephen is of a similar age to me, and we talked about the 80s. A lot of my friends were gay, and we discussed how the Conservatives went so huge on homophobia and their advertising campaigns about Aids. I think they did exactly the same with Covid: they created this huge spectre when they should have channelled money into looking after vulnerable people and let reasonably fit people get on with life.
Stephen I grew up through the Aids period and lost a lot of my friends. That brought us together; he was really horrified by how people were treated. You couldn’t really grieve. If you said you were going to a funeral, people would back off. I was lucky in that my parents were very supportive. That was the one silver lining in a pretty dire time. I think there’s a lot of guys my age who have PTSD from that.
For afters
Stuart We were in agreement about the Tories. Stephen is from a socialist background; he supports the Greens because Labour backtracked on its £28bn green efficiency plan.
Stephen I’m not a diehard socialist, I’m probably a Marxist. I’ll just take anything that challenges the Tory hegemony. I’d vote Lib Dem – it really depends who’s going to win the support of the people.
Takeaways
Stuart I wouldn’t say Stephen changed my views, but he got me to look at things from a different angle. My dial is still pretty much where it was.
Stephen I’m performing in the play Charley’s Aunt and we’re doing a mini-tour of the Midlands. Stupidly I forgot the flyers, otherwise I would have liked to get Stuart to come along.
Additional reporting: Kitty Drake
• Stephen and Stuart ate at The Old Joint Stock in Birmingham
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