I knew Adrian best when we both lived in East London in the early 1980's. Adrian had decided to join the Social Democratic Party (SDP) roughly at the same time as two of his other friends, Lee and Davinder. I decided to join just a bit later - and, hey presto, we had our own 'gang of four'. At the time of the local elections in the London Borough of Newham in 1982, Adrian and I, were advised by more experienced Party officials that Bemersyde Ward (the area that I lived in at the time) was not a winnable seat and resources would not therefore be targeted there. As relative novices, Adrian and I disagreed. The only trouble was - we were quite literally a two man team! All we had was ourselves and our passion. Undeterred, we ploughed on - using every spare moment to leaflet and canvas local voters. We must have walked miles around the neighbourhood and at times we wondered whether we should give up expending so much energy.  Retiring to a local pub for a driink at the end of the evening was always an added incentive. Giving up was not really an option as we both wanted to prove that we were right all along. On election day, we were out and about around the polling stations showing off our SDP/Alliance rosettes. By the time of the count we were both shattered! When the result came in Adrian had just missed out on being elected by 79 votes! Adrian had secured 43.1% of the vote - no mean feat in a longstanding Labour-dominated Ward. We also felt good about being able to show what a bit of passion and hard work can in fact achieve. This was the start of a period of political activism for us. In those days, we had high (and probably unrealistic) expectations about 'breaking the mould' of the British political system. In later years, we would be able to reflect on the relative naivety of our youth - but, hey, we had a great time getting involved and I would not want to change a thing. Most importantly, I don't think Adrian would either!