John, 41, St Austell<\/p>\n
Occupation Automotive engineer<\/p>\n
Voting record Mebyon Kernow<\/a> [a Cornish nationalist party] when that\u2019s an option, though it\u2019s not often an option. Voted Green last time, sometimes Lib Dem<\/p>\n Amuse bouche John is a hardcore raver, and once went to a 24-hour rave in Birmingham<\/p>\n Jeremy, 54, Wadebridge<\/p>\n Occupation Works for a charity<\/p>\n Voting record Normally votes Lib Dem. Voted Labour once, in 1997<\/p>\n Amuse bouche For a short time, he was deputy leader of Cornwall council, in a Lib Dem\/independent coalition. They found themselves in the throes of austerity, making horrible decisions<\/p>\n For starters<\/p>\n Jeremy I found John quiet. He was very\u00a0pleasant, very warm.<\/p>\n John Jeremy seemed smiley and approachable, and less nervous about meeting a\u00a0random stranger than I did.<\/p>\n Jeremy I had a chicken and pistachio terrine with piccalilli, and then Mexican braised beef with basmati rice. I was tempted by the fish and chips, and cast envious looks at John\u2019s.<\/p>\n John I had pitta and hummus as a\u00a0starter.<\/p>\n The big beef<\/p>\n Jeremy All the issues he identified about Cornwall are the same as the ones I\u2019d identify \u2013 cost of housing, low\u00a0wages, lack of opportunity. If\u00a0you\u2019re a go-getter of a certain age, you have to get out. Now it\u2019s a place people retire to, which skews the house prices even more. You can stay and work in the service industry and enjoy going to the beach, but you\u2019ll never have much income to create a life for a\u00a0family. We agreed that power should be exercised at a more local level, but, for me, that\u2019s a purely functional thing \u2013 you devolve power to the highest level necessary and the lowest level possible. For him, the organising principle was Cornish national identity.<\/p>\n John Because of the decline of mining over the last 200 years, Cornwall is a\u00a0lot more sparsely populated than all the other counties. And that leads to different requirements, especially when it comes to things like public transport. If I had taken any kind of public transport to this dinner, I would have had to allow three and a half hours. We need the ability to control policies in a way that\u2019s more in tune with the needs of Cornwall, because our challenges are so different.<\/p>\n Jeremy He wasn\u2019t saying, \u201cWe don\u2019t want certain people here.\u201d It was more\u00a0the nationalism you would see\u00a0in\u00a0Scotland and Wales, not a\u00a0Tommy Robinson version. But I\u00a0still don\u2019t see national identity as a\u00a0helpful\u00a0principle.<\/p>\n John We were aligned on devolution; he just didn\u2019t agree that nationhood would be the best way of getting it.<\/p>\n Sharing plate<\/p>\n Jeremy Men of a certain age, it\u2019s very easy to trip over terminology. My\u00a0daughter\u2019s constantly pulling me\u00a0up on it, and I\u2019m always willing to\u00a0be told. I feel that the word \u201cwoke\u201d can be used as a lazy term of abuse for somebody else\u2019s argument. Whereas what I understood it to mean is that you were respectful of other people\u2019s views and feelings.<\/p>\n John I think we both felt that some things have gone too far, woke-wise, even though most of our views in that area were what you\u2019d describe as\u00a0left wing. He was talking about the amount of time he spent in a meeting once discussing whether it should be chairman or chairperson. From my point of view, the more extreme things go in that direction, the easier it is for\u00a0the right to shoot it down.<\/p>\n For afters<\/p>\n Jeremy We disagreed on tariffs, and I\u00a0never saw that coming. I went into a\u00a0little homily about how Trump was creating such a problem for future presidents, but he said, \u201cI\u2019m not sure I\u00a0agree with that.\u201d<\/p>\n John This is the one thing I agree with Donald Trump on. If you impose tariffs, in the short term it increases costs. But in the long term, it protects jobs. I\u2019m not talking about extreme tariffs, or announcing them overnight on Truth Social. But the whole concept makes you more insulated from global economic incident.<\/p>\n Takeaways<\/p>\n John There were a couple of areas where we both said we didn\u2019t have enough information to have a strong opinion. And we both wished more people would just admit it when they didn\u2019t know enough.<\/p>\n Jeremy We exchanged phone numbers in case we wanted to have a pint when we\u2019re not doing dry January.<\/p>\n Additional reporting: Kitty Drake<\/p>\n Jeremy and John ate at Hicks Bar<\/a> in St Austell<\/p>\n