Programme 1 Paxman to camera.
"But it seems to me remarkable that a country which considered itself in the grips of a struggle for national survival, none the less allowed individual citizens to decide whether they could reconcile that struggle with their personal conscience. It didn't happen elsewhere in Europe."

He could have added USA.
"The COs who endured the worst experience were absolutists who rejected any form of military service. Most of the absolutists ended up being sentenced to federal military prisons such as Leavenworth or Alcatraz. Prison guards chained incarcerated COs to the bars or grates in their cells for eight hours a day. One of the cruelest instances of mistreatment occurred when an objector in Alcatraz was transferred to Leavenworth and later died. He had refused to wear a military uniform and was given no other clothing option. In the damp and chilly cell, he contracted pneumonia, received no medical care, and died. For his refusal to compromise his beliefs, the Army sent his body home in a military uniform.

The First World War stood as an example of what not to do with conscientious objectors. As a result, when war clouds loomed during the 1930s, both sides resolved to rectify some of the problems created by hostility, inexperience, and ambiguity that had marked the World War I experience for COs."