More about activism and politics, please

When I'm like this it's difficult to stand, let alone walk, so my one saviour from boredom is reading the Morning Star.

Is there a lack of news about the struggles in these countries of ours, or am I expecting too much? Our paper as of late seems more and more to be filled with either trivia or more photos than the Sun.

Take last week. Now, I have a garden back and front. The back is all slabbed over - we have a 10-stone dog. The front is a no-maintenance garden, but every month we have Mat Coward telling us how to grow something like mange tout or, as we call 'em in the Black Country, "pays."

Perhaps you think that all your readers are retired and pottering about rather than involved with the struggle?

Last Tuesday's paper was no different. Why did we have a feature from Ian Sinclair dedicated to speeding? We all know it's wrong, except when your being chased down the road by four cars loaded with neonazis.

Could I suggest that our journalists get out from behind their desks, unless they have my problem, and get in their cars (without speeding) or on their bikes and look for the news we all expect and know they're capable of - about trade union, political and community issues.

Next month, at Unite national policy conference, I am moving the resolution in support of our paper. What do I say when confronted with the state of my rocket and two veg, rather than the attack on the welfare state?

It's like my best mate Derek Robinson said. "How do you recognise an activist's house? Look at the likes of yours and mine's front garden."

George Hickman
Sandwell