These are Tories.
Or maybe they're not.
They could be extrovert remainers.
What do you think?
Should we test it?
Excuse me!
Do you know how you'll vote?
We need a majority, ideally …
A majority for Boris? - Boris needs a majority.
Do you know who you're going to vote for?
Not sure just yet, still making my mind up.
People often say, oh, of course, how do you select the people that you talk to?
When you do vox pops …
There's no answer, as I suppose today we're looking for people
who maybe are outwardly, you think, are Conservative voters
who voted to remain and therefore might be minded to do something different this time.
Not having much success so far, I got to be honest.
They could be extrovert remainers.
Excuse me!
How do you feel about the election?
That's how you feel?
That's how I feel, definitely.
I don't trust Boris so …
I don't know what to think and some of the ones that I might have trusted slightly more,
have been booted out anyway.
How have you voted in the past?
Tory or Lib Dem usually.
Did you vote remain in the referendum?
I did.
What kind of country do you want to live in?
As much as I have voted Tory in the past,
I'm saddened by the divide and, you know, the rise of food banks …
It's all too easy to get there nowadays and I think the divide's much bigger.
I'd like to think we cared more but unfortunately all these things cost money
and people have got to be prepared to pay the extra money to pay for the things for that.
Thank you, that was a fascinating conversation.
It was really great, thank you so much.
Have a nice day.
That's the sort of person I'm interested in talking to.
Political parties change, you know, it comes with costs …
They risk losing people and they've lost her, the Tories, which is really interesting.
Guildford in Surrey was won by the Tories with a huge majority two years ago.
But politics here is now a lot more complicated.
I think from the outside some people, probably including me,
have this idea of Surrey being this very sort of affluent leave place.
Brexit has exposed the growing gap between conservatism at places like this.
Can I ask you a very, very quick question?
How do you feel about the election?
Something's got to happen or you just keep going around in circles.
So, to assist that process, who are you gonna vote for?
Lib Dems. – Lib Dems.
And have you voted Lib Dem in the past?
Possibly, but recently has been more likely the Conservatives.
I don't know whether you noticed, if you switch on the television,
and people like me upholding microphones to people in the street,
they tend to be leave voters.
And they tend to be angry.
Yeah.
But half the country voted remain and we don't often hear from them.
And that's you.
Well, I guess it's possibly because the editor is just putting the leave interviews.
Oh, well done.
And to have a bit of mea culpa, we probably haven't come to places like Guildford nearly enough.
We are not angry but we are a little bit sad.
Nearly half the people who voted, voted remain
and three years on I want to hear from them as well.
I'm glad I've come here, I mean, they were the reason we came to Guildford.
Let's be honest …
I liked the way she said, 'I'm not angry but sad.'
There's one party making a strong pitch for these voters.
Good evening. Sorry to intrude, my name is Zoe Franklin,
I'm the Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate in the general election.
Just came around this evening to meet local residents
and also ask the question, how you might be voting?
I've never canvassed with a torch before.
Any particular issues that are going to steer your decision?
I'll be voting tactically against the Tories.
We need a street light,
so we can take a selfie.
OK. – Awesome.
I mean, sight unseen you would think this was the sort of place
that if it wasn't voting Tory, the Tories were in trouble.
To be honest, the Lib Dems seem to be the only centrist party left.
Who have you voted for in the past?
Conservatives mostly.
You voted remain presumedly. – Yes.
Thank you. – Bye.
Do consider us, thank you!
This is really interesting.
What is it?
As a bit of fieldwork, yeah, it's fascinating.
You're joking, or are you being sarcastic?
No, I'm being totally sincere.
I'm an ex-Tory. – Are you?
Yes.
Always voted Tory, parents had, grandparents had
and I was absolutely livid.
What were you livid about?
That we are going to leave the EU, this is an absolute catastrophe.
I'm sure there's lots like me. – No, I'm sure there are.
Who are very angry.
We've become an angrier country, though.
We have, unfortunately, it's ripping us apart and it will go on for generations.
Things are changing, aren't they?
I grew up in Tory suburbia, right, so I have all these preconceptions
about it I guess.
That people who are Conservative, they wouldn't be interested in things like climate change …
That's not true, you know.
Suburbia evolves as well.
This is a hell of a winter election, isn't it?
You get up in the morning and your car's covered in ice.
Winter election!
We then go to Surrey University,
half expecting to find young people who don't want Brexit
and are open to the Lib Dems' election message.
Excuse me, do you know where the Student Union is?
Things have changed, you see.
I don't think I ever bought a single item of fruit or vegetables when I was a student.
The world is better in many ways, it really is.
What's it like in Guildford?
It's different.
Yeah, like, when you come from London to here,
it's quiet but it's nice.
What's your sort of emotional sense of where this country's going?
I think it's stuck, I am not going to lie.
It's just in an endless cycle.
Do you know what the Conservatives stand for?
I don't know but I just know they don't represent me.
That's all I'm saying.
The whole debate about the EU should be sped up,
like, I don't see why it's taking us this long.
Just get it done.
I thought you were the generation that was going to,
that A is opposed to it, B might save us from it, you know?
Come on, they're snatching your future away.
They are but I respect …
But I respect what my country chose.
Do you know who you're not going to vote for?
The Lib Dems.
You're not going to vote Lib Dems? – Yeah.
Why not?
You got straight there!
What do you want to be?
I want to be a stockbroker.
Do you? You want to be a stockbroker!
Why?
I like money.
Can you blame me?
That's the best explanation anyone's ever given me, that's perfect.
Well, we of all people should know this after 10 years of making these films,
politics now is not made up of these sort of monolithic blocks of people
who behave exactly as you would expect.
Don't stereotype people, you know, that applies just as much to students at Surrey University
as it does to Workington man.
How on earth do you make sense of it?
We're talking about this idea like, oh how are you going to call the election?
How could you even begin to call this election? Forget it!
What are you studying in here?
I'm doing a PhD in quantum physics. – Are you?
Wow!
How do you feel about the election?
The only people with an actual plan are Labour
with the green new deal.
Screw it, the whole thing about tactical voting,
I can't give a toss anymore.
Like, why not just do what you believe in and vote in what you believe in?
I'm tired of like, dishonesty and insincerity. We need to move beyond that and honestly,
it's at a stage where either the human race is going to like topple into the flames of oblivion
because we just can't pull our fingers out of our arses
or we're going to do something about it
and start being honest and start being constructive and say,
you know what, climate change, it's a problem, let's actually do something about it …
Let's actually come together …
Carry on and I'll stand over there.
– Yeah, that's good, carry on.
I think the media think that there's some kind of narrative or they're desperately
trying to create a story.
By doing physics, I know that there's just chaos generally.
We got to go up to High Street and cross the river.
It's over here somewhere.
We're going to meet the woman who up until the election was announced was
the sitting MP for Guildford.
And up until earlier this year was a Conservative MP.
God, politics is complicated.
She's one of the famous 21 MPs who wasn't having no deal.
Three of whom were Surrey MPs and she's now contesting this election
as an independent and she's in the pub.
I'm John Harris from the Guardian. – Hi John Harris.
Anne Milton, independent candidate for Guildford.
Is that still funny?
I think, am I really doing this?
And why are you doing it?
It would have been very easy to say, walk away, go into something else with my life …
But I thought, no, I'm going to fight this one.
Yeah, we'll get you a cup of tea.
You go home!
Is that your dog?
If you get to chunked out of a party, it's a bit like a divorce.
You've been married to the same person for 20 years,
you look back at the person you married and you think,
you know what, all these things irritated me.
All these things they did were bad.
I will be honest, I feel really liberated.
I can tell the truth.
I will support any policies from any of the political parties that I think are sensible.
I actually think the Labour party, with their attitude to how to fund social care,
I think is entirely reasonable and probably the only option.
I would love to win to prove to the political parties that they need to be very careful
because there is another route that people can take and that is getting independent MPs.
All the political parties, they're so entrenched but they've narrowed their boundaries.
Right, lovely, thank you.
Nice to see you. All the best!
Take care.
I don't have the same politics as Anne Milton but she's a sort of quite flexible, open,
interesting politician.
She just says well I think the Labour party's policy on social care is entirely right.
She's not a sort of doctrinaire, ideological person,
she sort of reflects the complexities of the world and
there's not room for her in the modern. Conservative party.
Brexit is an anti-modern revolt essentially, isn't it?
And places like this have got a lot more modern then they were 30 or 40 years ago.
Another change is occurring here.
The fraying social fabric has led to a greater awareness of poverty and inequality.
We've come to a 'sort' is the official term,
of the North Guilford food bank.
One is conscious of the inequalities in society these days and
if you can do a little bit to make it better, you can.
And I don't know if this does very much but it's a little bit.
Well, I think it's a direct help.
And you'll notice as well, in line with our previous observation we made that
by and large people trying to make a difference to this country at the grassroots are always winning.
People from different social groupings come together.
I think it brings it home in a way that just reading an article,
or something, you know, that seems theoretical
but when you meet real people who are struggling.
Yeah, it definitely brings it home.
Hello!
Chia seeds.
You get all sorts of things at harvest time.
All sorts of luxury things that people don't know what they are.
Initially, I was quite poor so I came here for the food
because my illness and I come here once or twice a week
just to connect with people.
And I've been coming here for a couple years.
Right.
It's like, building me up as a person.
Someone we spoke to yesterday who was a volunteer here said that one of the
things that have been good for them in volunteering here was they met people
from backgrounds and in circumstances that they wouldn't have met otherwise.
I'm aware of the give and take within it.
I've benefited from it and I think the people
that come in here get to see the other side almost.
Can I ask you a strange question?
There's a general election in about a month's time …
You're laughing!
Do you know who you're going to vote for?
Yeah. – Go on.
No.
Do you know who you're not going to vote for?
Yeah … – Go on.
Lib Dems, Green …
Labour.
Yeah, and why not them? Why not those three?
Because they are all against Brexit.
But why is Brexit important?
Do you know what I mean? I sit here and …
It's been in the news for three years so get it done.
But should we get homelessness done and
feeding people done, and houses built and all that, do you know what I mean?
I live with going back 30 years so like quite aware of both sides
and I keep up with the news.
Even though I don't like it much.
It was lovely talking to you, man.
All right. – Thank you.
At this point in the film I suppose we are meant to wrap things up with
a relatively straightforward story about
what's going on here.
Maybe even some hint of the idea we are forecasting the election …
Well, forget that, we can't do it because everything is so complicated.
What sits in people's heads when they come to vote is really complicated.
Because society is complicated.
All these buzz phrases and cute terms that rattle round politics and have done
for the last sort of 15 or 20 years, I think most of them are pretty useless and
more to the point, they do no justice to how complex human beings are.
So forget about Workington man and Worcester woman and Mondeo man …
Have you got any?
True blue suburbia.
The Labour heartlands.
Centrist dad is another one.
Squeezed middle!
Forgotten about the squeezed middle.
Trots, Corbynistas …
Should we make up a new one? NK woman.
There you go. This election depends on Space NK woman.
Jigsaw Jane. – Jigsaw Jane!