Flora, 24, Shrewsbury
Occupation Live-in carer and part-time postgraduate student
Voting record Always Conservative
Amuse bouche Campaigned for the unionist side in the Scottish independence referendum, aged 16, in a bright pink tartan skirt suit
Ruth, 53, Birmingham
Occupation Assistant accountant for a housing association
Voting record In the past, mostly Labour or Green, but these days for the party that most needs a vote in order to get their deposit back
Amuse bouche Has a level two qualification in glassblowing
For starters
Ruth She was absolutely lovely. I’m autistic, so I can come across as a bit rude, and as if I’m not saying the right things. She’s 6ft 2in, very composed. I’m not sure I agree with very much of what she thinks.
Flora She seemed very nice. And it never got heated. The starter was octopus. The main course was short rib. I actually ordered two puddings because it was on somebody else’s dime. I had a three-milk dessert and a typical Peruvian pudding.
Ruth I had crab causa as a starter, then a hake plancha for the main.
The big beef
Flora Ruth strongly supports the policy of taking away charitable status from the public and private schools. That will force a lot of lower- and middle-ranking private schools out of business. In all likelihood it will force many middle-class children back into the state sector, which will create a lot of expense for the government.
Ruth My point was that to have charitable status you need to provide public benefit, and if it’s just for people who can afford it, with the odd bursary here or there, or you throw open your swimming pool to the public on the weekends in October, that isn’t the same as a public benefit.
Flora That kind of policy is basically about taking a shot at people who want to send their children to a better school, and it hurts everyone in the process. It comes close to vindictiveness.
Ruth She seems laissez-faire economically, a bit to the right of Liz Truss. I felt she wanted to leave everything to market forces. When it came to schools, she would do away with central control; all schools would be private: each child would have a certain amount of money attached to them, and then they can go to whatever school their parents feel like. She’s very much an ideologue.
Sharing plate
Flora I thought housing would come up, because of her job, and I was going to make the point about second homes – that there are, relatively speaking, not very many in our country. She wasn’t looking at it from the point of view of house prices, but what it does to local communities. Local people are priced out of the market, and you get to the point where the whole town is just a kind of holiday resort. If she made me realise anything, it’s that I seem to view everything through an economic prism.
Ruth I have strong opinions on second homes: we should tax them out of existence. I grew up by the coast – Lowestoft in Suffolk. People I was at school with can’t afford to live there now. They rent in winter but live in a van during the summer. Until everybody has a home, you can’t go taking up all the houses for second homes.
For afters
Flora I said: “I know you won’t like this, but I think we need a semi-privatised system of healthcare.” Obviously she disagreed, but we did agree that the problems were not down to the amount of money being spent, but the structure.
Ruth I had cancer a few years back and saw the NHS from a patient’s point of view: my impression is that it’s shattered into 1,000 tiny pieces because of internal market forces. I can’t see how going further down that road helps with the efficiency.
Takeaways
Flora In almost every context, and I say this with a great deal of respect, her solutions were that more money should be spent.
Ruth She didn’t have much real-world experience. She didn’t think austerity was a thing – she didn’t think people felt the effects of it. I don’t know enough about economics to counter exactly what she was saying: my takeaway is that my next evening class is going to be in economics.
Additional reporting: Kitty Drake
• Flora and Ruth ate at Chakana in Birmingham
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