Dining across the divide: I think gentrification is a social good. He said you lose communities'

"My opinion of gentrification is I see it as basically a social good. It homogenises society, mixes communities up and avoids the creation of ghettoes that aren't diverse. I don't think it levels out society, but at least if people are living next to each other, they're more likely to treat each other as human beings. It's not changing the society we live in and it's not changing inequality."

"My first impression was he seemed a little bit difficult. Let me own that I found it a bit difficult to get the dialogue flowing. That might have been a general first-time interaction thing. He said something about being from a very well-paid job, and I noticed a resentment in me. Like, Why are you telling me that? Paul We both had the same thing: a french onion soup and a bavette steak. The big beef"

Two men, a psychotherapy trainee who once voted for David Cameron and a retired software engineer who usually votes Labour, meet for a meal and exchange personal histories and impressions. One performed comedy improv and prized the supportive "yes, and" culture; the other has skydived for twenty years and describes the fall as surprisingly like flying. Initial impressions included warmth and a flash of resentment when a well-paid past job was mentioned. Both ordered the same dishes. Their conversation moved to gentrification, with one calling it a social good for mixing communities and another lamenting the loss of unique local flavour and increasing predictability.

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