Dining across the divide: ‘I thought, Oh God, I hope I don’t get a dyed-in-the-wool Scottish Tory’
Kevin, 50, Edinburgh
Occupation Pensions consultant
Voting record Conservative, Lib Dem, and Labour at the next election. The only party he hasn’t voted for is the SNP
Amuse bouche Kevin is a scout leader and led his first camp in November, in Fife, in -5C. They had to remove a layer of ice from the inside of the tent to get out
Svein, 45, Edinburgh
Occupation Co-director of a strategic brand agency
Voting record He has voted SNP and Green. Never Conservative
Amuse bouche He’s been on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, got to £32,000, and found Jeremy Clarkson “an enormous … insert your favourite rude word here”
For starters
Kevin We met at a vegetarian restaurant. I was nervous he’d be a dyed-in-the-wool leftwing independence voter, but we got on like a house on fire.
Svein I did think, “Oh God, I hope I don’t get a dyed-in-the-wool Scottish Tory!” but we hit it off.
Kevin The starter was a lovely vegetable soup, we both had vegetarian haggis, and I had a lemon meringue pie sundae.
Svein My dessert was a chocolate mousse which was out of this world.
The big beef
Svein We’ve gone on opposite journeys on Scottish independence. I was living in London during the referendum, but I would have voted for independence. Then Brexit happened and I was devastated: I have European family and I immediately saw the danger nationalism posed. But if the EU were to promise entry to Scotland, I’d vote for independence on that basis instead.
Kevin I was willing to be convinced on independence, but wanted proposals – how would you structure parliament, for example? But the debate was similar to Brexit: if you didn’t want independence you were unpatriotic or a doom-monger. I voted no because there was no attempt to convince me of what it would look like.
Svein I really respected how he approached it. It’s admirable to say, “I want to hear both sides and only when I’m satisfied will I make my mind up.” He came without any preconceived notions, whereas I knew I wanted independence, thank you very much – William Wallace and all that! I’ve grown up a bit now, hopefully.
Kevin Now, nobody could convince me to change my vote, and funnily enough, hating Brexit is my reason, too. If Scotland was independent, you’d be unwinding 300 years of economic and legal unity with the UK, compared with 50 years with the EU. It’d be a chaotic nightmare for decades.
Sharing plate
Svein As a business owner I’ve always advocated, weirdly, for higher taxes: public services need the cash. To be talking about cutting taxes ahead of the election is completely irresponsible. I’ve got family in Norway and the welfare system is fantastic – but Kevin made the excellent point that they have a sovereign wealth fund.
Kevin I agree we need to increase the tax take; the roads up here are potholed and the fly-tipping’s a disgrace. But I don’t think we could replicate the Norway model without a sovereign wealth fund. I’d rather companies got tax breaks for creating jobs: a targeted incentive, not a loophole.
For afters
Kevin I assumed there were already laws that say you can’t harass, bully or discriminate, but if there’s a need for a hate crime law in Scotland, that’s great. What I don’t like is there were 7,000 complaints in the first week after it was introduced and a lot of them were just mischief-making.
Svein The lawmakers have said people won’t be prosecuted for telling offensive jokes or hurting feelings, it’s about protecting vulnerable minorities from hate speech, which is good.
Kevin We’ve got to understand people’s motivations. I know people who use the term “coloured” because they think it’s the same as “person of colour” and they grew up being told “black” was offensive. It’s good to correct people, but don’t assume they are out to offend.
Takeaways
Kevin One thing we took away was each other’s phone numbers. Where we did disagree, our essential motivation was often the same. My assumption that I’d be meeting an independence voter who wouldn’t listen to reason was totally unjustified. Don’t listen to your first thought, review your thoughts.
Svein I feel so lucky to have experienced this. It’s a cliche, but when you sit down and talk to someone you find commonality. He’s a lovely man and we’ll definitely meet up for a cycle.
Additional reporting: Kitty Drake
• Kevin and Svein ate at Hendersons in Edinburgh.
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