Lior, 45, Brighton
Occupation Consultant, author, artist, coach
Voting record Is not eligible to vote in the UK; in Germany, voted Green or SPD (broadly equivalent to the Labour party)
Amuse bouche Trained as a war zone correspondent with the German army. They have a mock sniper village and blow up ditches so trainees know what that feels like
Darren, 53, Lancing, West Sussex
Occupation Unemployed
Voting record Has ânever voted for the Monster Raving Loony party or Lib Demâ. Otherwise, quite a lot of ways
Amuse bouche Used to keep koi, and hand-feed them prawns, âwhich feels a bit weirdâ
For starters
Darren The food was lovely: strangely enough, as much as we were very different, our food choices were the same. We started with beef carpaccio.
Lior I think he was really surprised IÂ wasnât a vegetarian. He was mentally placing me in the tofu corner.
Darren I didnât know what to expect; everyoneâs a nomad in Brighton â thatâs one of the things I love about it.
Lior He was gentler than I imagined. His positions were really quite punchy. I imagined him to be punchy as well.
The big beef
Darren We couldnât agree on Brexit: Lior is very pro-European. I said IÂ didnât like the way leavers were all made to look like racists. Iâve got no issue with immigration, and I donât think 99% of those who voted leave did. They might have a problem with the boat people coming over every day, but Brexit was about who rules our country.
after newsletter promotion
Lior He said he didnât like decisions that applied to this country being made elsewhere, and he was worried about EU overreach. Some of what he said was factually not correct. I had to explain how the euro and the pound were completely separate currencies. He doesnât like âthe manâ, anyone above, making decisions for him.
Darren Our parents and grandparents who joined the Common Market did it for trade, not to be governed. I tried to explain thatâs why I wanted out, and since coming out, the government has made it more difficult than it should have been. Weâre the United Kingdom: we can get whatever deal we want.
Lior I think Brexit was a mistake. Complex bodies are always a bit messy in terms of bureaucracy, but the EU is achieving what it set out to do. A lot of countries in Europe have been at each otherâs throats for millennia. And that seems to have quietened down.
Sharing plate
Lior It wouldnât have come up naturally, but I thought I should tell him I go by they/them pronouns. That was all new to him. I did not expect that. He was super sweet, but existentially confused.
Darren Iâm none the wiser. I donât understand it. I completely donât get it. Maybe Iâm refusing to. Maybe because Iâm older and Iâm a bit more stubborn. But I canât wrap my head round it.
Lior We had to unpick the entire thing: biological sex versus how you identify, how you express that, who are you attracted to? The whole alphabet soup. His stance was really: let people be who they are and do what they want. That felt perfectly genuine.
Darren I get really frustrated when someone just closes up and says: âNo, this is the only way. You are 100% wrong, Iâm 100% right.â
For afters
Darren There was fighting in Ukraine before Putin got involved. Over the years, countries have joined Europe and Nato has quickly followed up by putting its tanks and missiles in those countries, so the border with Russia has got closer and closer. Itâs been us provoking them for many years.
Lior He said Putin was provoked. I said: âNo, none of the ex-Soviet states joined the EU, and they were in Europe all along.â My stance is that Putin might well have felt provoked, but he has no business being outside his own country. And itâs questionable what heâs doing in his own country, to his own population.
Takeaways
Darren The endâs the best: everything was really pleasant. She was laughing â sorry, they were laughing. I was laughing. Then I brought up Covid, and we were never going to agree. We just left it at that and walked off.
Lior He thinks the government is hiding excess deaths because of the vaccine, and said I should look up the statistics. I was like: âYou know what, thatâs not a conversation.â I literally just stopped it and walked away.
Additional reporting: Kitty Drake
Darren and Lior ate at Tutto in Brighton
Want to meet someone from across the divide? Find out how to take part
