GUEST - 22 Dec 15 - 06:17 AM Then that shows you how much you know then - perhaps you should do some reading - I'd suggest actual history not the scripts from a television series or a film.

Jim Carroll - 22 Dec 15 - 06:35 AM All over the place again Jom. Your piece on Liverpool was all about setting up a basic welfare system, Liverpool being only one of the cities where different approaches were compared - That being the subject of the paper - who would be entitled and who would not - OF COURSE IT BLOODY WELL FOCUSES ON THOSE REQUIRING ASSISTANCE AND THE CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH THEY LIVED - Belcham merely points to the rapid expansion of the city, the projects underway and the fact that there was work to be had for those that wanted it.

Care to to tell me how Keith A can provide quotes from Paxman to camera yet you cannot Jom?

August to December 1914 1.2 million VOLUNTEERS - none needed to be tricked into joining - none were made false promises regarding what they would get out of it - They VOLUNTEERED in time of war to do their duty to their country, they VOLUNTEERED knowing that they would not only be expanding the Army to face the Germans but also to make good the numbers lost at Mons, Le Cateaux and on the Marne.

"When we used to visit the borders in the 80s and 90s we drank in pubs with beer mats saying "out of a job - join the Army; they didn't mention Northern Ireland, Afghanistan, The Falklands, Iraq... and all those other exotic places where you were expected to go and fly the flag and slaughter the residents."

Quite frankly couldn't care less, but:

1: In Northern Ireland it was Irishmen killing the residents as I recall - check the Sutton Index of deaths for details

2: Afghanistan - What?? In the 1980s and 1990s?? - Don't think so - try 2001 Jom - what were the beer mats saying then? I prefer my information from better and fuller sources.

3: The Falklands?? I am absolutely dying to hear Jom the infallible tell us all about the residents our Task Force slaughtered. I am interested you see as I was under the distinct impression that that Task Force sailed in response to an act of aggression perpetrated by the ruling military Junta in Argentina, who at the time were involved in the disappearance of tens of thousands of their own citizens and who could possibly come up with a similar solution for the British Subjects of the Falkland Islands.

4: Iraq - UN Operation that one Jom again in response to the naked aggression of a despotic ruler who was killing his own countrymen at a rate of somewhere between 154 and 282 per day

None of the above has got anything to do with the subject in hand, neither does your book about why Irishmen joined the British Army. If you can't stick to the point don't waste my time - it's hard enough wading through your appallingly presented meandering rants.