Dinner Across the Divide: Two Men With Different Views Share a Meal and a Conversation

Edward, a 40-something English teacher from Bristol, and Martin, 55, a personal trainer from Brentford, do not usually agree on politics. Edward tends to vote Labour or Green, while Martin has mostly voted Conservative. But the two men recently sat down together for dinner at Citro restaurant in London to talk about big issues — and they ended up having a surprisingly friendly evening.

Both men admitted they were a little nervous before the meal. Martin worried the evening might turn into an argument, while Edward thought Martin would hold much more extreme views. Instead, the conversation stayed open and calm. They both finished dinner with an affogato — a dessert made of ice cream and espresso coffee.

The biggest disagreement of the night was about net zero — the goal of cutting carbon emissions to nothing to fight climate change. Martin said he believes net zero is basically impossible to reach, and that people give up when given a goal they cannot achieve. He also said that carbon capture technology has not been proven to work on a large enough scale to make a real difference.

Edward pushed back on that idea, saying that without any target at all, nobody works toward anything. He agreed that climate spending needs to be managed well, making sure money goes to things that will have the biggest impact. Still, he was troubled by the suggestion that since the world will probably warm by 3 degrees Celsius anyway, there is no point in trying.

The two men also talked about the size of the UK's civil service, which employs more than 550,000 people. Martin thinks that number is too large and that technology could replace many of those jobs. Edward disagreed, saying the workforce is not unreasonable given the size of the UK's population and the scale of its problems.

On defence, the two men found surprising common ground. Both agreed that future threats to the UK are more likely to come from cyberattacks or drone attacks than from soldiers or bombs. Edward made a point Martin found fascinating: some future defence costs may actually be caused by climate change, as warming leads to conflicts over resources and mass migration.

Edward also argued that becoming energy independent is one of the best ways to protect the UK from foreign threats. He pointed out that the UK has access to ocean energy, sunlight, wind, and nuclear power. Martin was surprised to learn that Edward supports nuclear power, since he had assumed environmentalists were against it.