McIlroy's gig by Cream

Cream (featuring Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker) are arguably the best ever group to emerge from the Sixties after The Beatles. In their short career, they played a number of gigs around the UK before focusing on North America, and amongst their earliest shows was an appearance at McIlroy’s Ballroom in October 1966.

I am researching a ‘people’s history’ of Cream and would love to hear from anyone who may have seen this show or any of their other performances. I can be reached at iwasatthatgig@gmail.com.

Richard Houghton

Author: Jimi Hendrix: The Day I Was There

Totnes Road

Manchester

Do the right thing

Most of my working life was spent delivering clean water, safe sanitation and hygiene to some of the world's poorest people. Often that meant living and working in remote, unstable and sometimes dangerous places.

So, I have seen for myself the positive impact of Britain's aid on transforming the health and lives of people that need our help. It was a very proud day when in 2013 our Government ‎agreed to dedicate 7p in every £10 of our tax to such vital work. Our international standing soared. It was also the right thing to do morally.

Labour first stated the intention of reaching 0.7% GDP on overseas development assistance during the Blair Brown years. It was put into law by the Lib Dems in the coalition and honoured by successive Conservative Governments, until now.

The Government's cut to aid, just like its public sector pay freeze and the failure to commit to sustaining the higher levels of Universal Credit, is foolish and self-defeating. In purely cash terms it is dwarfed four times by the £16.5 billion increase to the MOD. Chancellor Sunak has committed to the aid cut for just one year, we must hold his feet to the fire on this.

Times are tough. Money must not be wasted. It has been by Tory cronies with no experience getting hugely lucrative contracts to manufacture substandard unusable PPE and COVID test kits.

The poorest people in Britain and around the world must not pay the price for the pandemic. The Government should lift its pay freeze, sustain Universal Credit at decent levels and reinstate the previous commitment to funding aid. These are the right things to do for humanity, our fellow citizens and for Britain.

Dr Brian Mathew

Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Spokesperson for North Wiltshire

& Wiltshire Councillor

Cheap insults

I note a new organisation against democracy has raised its head under the guise of campaigning for a Western Alliance for Europe. Having set out their ‘wish list’ resort to cheap insults

The spurious claim that anyone wants ‘no deal’ is clearly incorrect, what both sides want is ‘the best deal for them’ and sadly it appears that in three specific areas there appears to be little ‘wriggle room’ in which to work.

The self styled Western Alliance for Europe appears to be focussed on the UK submitting to and accepting EU demands as being the only way forward. I don’t think the members of the Alliance are nihilist or deranged in their thinking, they are simply wrong in their belief that it is the UK which has to conform to EU thinking.

Apart from claiming the so-called ‘No Deal’ supporters are deranged nihilists, the Alliance called them a cabal. The definition of a cabal is ‘a secret political clique or faction.’ Still, it’s nice to read such good fictional work from people who think of themselves as being intellectually superior to people like me.

Des Morgan

Caraway Drive

Swindon