Andy, 43, Sussex
Occupation Works in the City
Voting record Previously Conservative, now looking for a home
Amuse bouche Has a metal plate in his elbow from when he was knocked off his bike
Miranda, 46, Sussex
Occupation Student nurse
Voting record Labour until 2015, Green in the Miliband era, back to Labour under Jeremy Corbyn
Amuse bouche Has created a Britpop geolocated audio tour. You listen on your phone and walk around London, recreating the mid-90s
For starters
Andy I was trying to work out what the opposite of me would look like. I wasn’t sure if I was going to get an ultra-crazy tie-dyed vegan type.
Miranda He presented me with these Hotel Chocolat chocolates, saying, “Look, they’re vegan.” It was so sweet. I’m not vegan though.
Andy I had black-pudding-stuffed loin of rabbit, with nettle and black garlic. Then pork with fancy sauce.
Miranda I had asparagus and eel. I’m from Essex and jellied eel is quite a big thing.
Andy We come from different political starting points. She’s more on the Corbyn left, I’m more of a small-state conservative. But neither of us are headbangers.
Miranda He was a lot softer round the edges than I thought he would be. I thought someone working in the City would be a bit Gordon Gekko.
The big beef
Miranda We both voted remain, but I asked his opinion on how he thought Brexit was going, and he was saying it could work. He painted this ideal scenario, describing a socialist utopia, saying we didn’t have to have lower standards than Europe – the standards could be higher.
Andy In the 1960s, the Chinese premier was asked about the impact of the French Revolution and said, “It’s too soon to tell.” [Later historians determined that Zhou Enlai was actually referring to the 1968 protests.] That’s my view on Brexit – it’s far too soon to form an opinion.
Miranda He was trying to appeal to my sensibilities by talking about animal welfare. But I’ve always known this was an excuse to rip up the protections the European Union gave us. If we had a whole different world, a whole different government, maybe – but that’s not the world we’ve got.
Andy It’s like getting directions to Gatwick airport – you come from different places, but you get to the same end point. So we agreed we should be eating better meat, and less of it. And I said: “One upside of Brexit is we can legislate for that.” We both see possibilities in it.
Miranda I don’t see any possibilities.
Sharing plate
Andy We find parliament un-diverse, full of PPE degree clones, the same people who’ve done a bit of lobbying, then become an adviser and an MP. I’m bland and middle-class myself, but I really believe diversity is meaningless unless it includes class diversity.
Miranda We agreed that having some life experience outside politics, maybe having had another career before that, would make for better politicians. He was very keen to talk about the company he works for and how diverse it is in terms of its intake – it’s all about the person and not where they went to school or university. I think he wanted to smash any preconceptions I might have about the old-boy network.
For afters
Andy Miranda’s view is we should have cycle lanes virtually everywhere, even on country lanes. They’re not really used, they take up a lot of space and create a pretend barrier where you’re saying cyclists don’t belong on the road. Drivers think: get out of the road, you belong in a cycle lane.
Miranda But having separate cycle lanes would encourage more people on to their bikes. It’s quite terrifying, on a country lane, knowing there’s traffic building up behind you.
Takeaways
Miranda He’s a big fan of Times Radio and kept telling me to listen to it. So I told him, “You should have a listen to James O’Brien on LBC, if I’m going to listen to Times Radio.” I haven’t yet. I should give it a go. I did say I would.
Andy We exchanged contact details, in a nice, noncommittal way. I really felt we got along. Neither of us was so absolutist that we couldn’t see the other’s point of view.
Additional reporting: Sarah Hooper
• Andy and Miranda ate at Camellia at South Lodge in Sussex. Want to meet someone from across the divide? Find out how to take part
