USUALLY, we have to wait until Tuesday to read something from the Reverend Peter Mullen, but this week he reviewed a book by a man who lived in the Soviet Union and was opposed to the Soviet system (Books, Feb 24).

In the immediate post-war years we were fed with a constant diet of views Mr Mullen would approve of.

Its immediate effect on me was to incline me to the Communist Party and I visited countries behind the iron curtain. Mr Mullen would have been convinced I was mad or foolhardy.

There were those about who gave me a hard time.

I was toughened up and now I regard with scepticism what I am told. I didn’t stay in the Communist Party because I didn’t think it capable of bringing about the changes I still think are needed to make this country a really good place to live in.

I am an avid reader of Karl Marx, but I do not regard his writings as gospel.

What Mr Mullen writes about the Soviets is a comment on a past I don’t think he understands any better than I do.

I am confident about the analysis I can make of the conditions here and now and, with the time I have left, I will argue for social justice from a grassroots viewpoint.

G Bulmer, Billingham.