Thinking back fondly of Hammersmith days, I remembered Dave, who unofficially ran a branch of the London Health Emergency from an upstairs office, objecting to the cuts in the NHS. Dave, a self-confessed reformed football hooligan, was a very charming young man, and very lively and effective. While there, he interviewed Benazir Bhutto, who was very young at the time, and had rather a crush on her.
My friend Victorine, though an actress, was frequently 'resting', and spent a year or two working for me in the office in the Fulham Palace Road. We had a shopfront, with the attendant dangers: one man broke our front door, showering us with glass before the police arrived; we had to calm down several transexuals who were very angry with psychiatrists at Charing Cross Hospital when refused the 'op', and who came in to complain bitterly; and many others among those just requiring basic information about the NHS provisions.
Still, the meetings were highly civilised, perhaps because they were public meetings open to all with the local press in attendance.
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