"I wasn't sure quite what to make of him he seemed a nice guy. I maybe thought his views were going to be stronger than they turned out to be. Look, we've got ourselves here a reformed Tory, and myself rather more to the left. But we both disaffected with where politics has gone in this country. We both recognise that the biggest problem we've got is this massive inequality, and neither of us think the parties we used to be aligned with are addressing it."
"I was once a shop steward for Unison. Forty years of self-employment later, I'm no longer an expert. But I can see how important trade unions are, how they support and prop up democracy. He's from a reasonably well-to-do, middle-class, Tory background. He remembers his parents and his grandmother saying: Trade unions, they'll bring the country down. And I pointed out that it is absolutely necessary for people to have bargaining power. Socialism isn't about the violent expropriation of people's properties, it's about a little bit of redistribution."
Andrew and Jonathan come from different political backgrounds: Andrew voted Labour for fifty years and is now disillusioned; Jonathan was Conservative until 2024 when he voted Labour. Andrew is a retired acupuncturist and herbalist and was once a Unison shop steward; Jonathan is a global programme manager who travels frequently. Both identify massive inequality as the country's biggest problem and believe traditional parties fail to address it. Both stress the importance of worker bargaining power. Andrew defends trade unions and modest redistribution, while Jonathan supports worker representation on boards and workers' councils, drawing on experience in Germany and concern about workers' rights abroad.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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