"I said that the government did not control the press"
The military controlled the press, the Government controlled the military = censorship.
The Daily Mail was an avid supporter of the war effort.
You have yet to produce one scrap of evidence that one single historian supports your jingoism - not one. All you have produced is fine tuning to certain aspects of the war on different by different unconnected historians. Your case is entirely SMOKE AND MIRRORS - NOTHING MORE - YOU HAVE NO SUPPORT WHATEVER - NO CASE NECESSARY FOR ANY HISTORIAN TO ANSWER - YOU ARE A FAKE
Last night's programme was a damning indictment of how the war was being conducted on the home front.
Inadequate sea defences failed to prevent U-boats from devastating British shipping - putting Britain in a state of siege.
A squadron of German planes flew into Britain undetected in broad daylight and bombed London - Londoners thought they were British planes and waved at them until the bombs dropped.
Rationing was introduced; the 'People's Cookbook' was issued advising the less well off how to prepare meals from inferior scraps of meat and grain - the more well off were advised to refrain from eating grain, leave that for the poor and continue with their usual diet.
Despite this, the well-off diet was not affected in any way - they continued to eat bread and cakes.
Food hoarding, despite being made a punishable offence, was common among the wealthy.
A wealthy poplar author, Marie Correlli was found to be hoarding food, charged and fined.
The newspaper 'Herald' sent in an undercover reporter into a well-known restaurant in London - he was able to order anything he wished and was urged to eat as much bread as he wanted with his meal.
He reported leaving the restaurant and finding starving women huddled in nearby doorways.
Prostitution was rife and syphilis became a major problem among the troops.
Soldiers were coming on leave and finding that back home there was no sign that there was a war on - life had not changed in any way except among the working people - whose sons were fighting at the front.
The reports of what was happening at home given by the returning troops began to spread dissention among those fighting the war.
The Government began to stamp down on on any sign of opposition and criticism in Britain.
A family of three women opposing the war, Suffragettes, pacifists and Socialists, were suspected of harbouring fleeing pacifists.
A secret agent was sent to lodge with them and his evidence caused them to be arrested and charged.
At their trial, the prosecution did not produce the agent as a witness because he was found to have a criminal record and a record of mental illness - the Government shipped him to South Africa out of harms way.
Despite the fact that his was the only evidence the women were found guilty - the mother received a sentence of ten years hard labour and one of the daughters five years - the mother was released after the war but died within a year because of her experiences in prison.
Siegfried Sassoon, a passionate patriot and decorated war hero became disillusioned and began writing damning indictments of the war.
The military spread the rumour that he was insane, and when he was wounded they confined him in a mental institution in Scotland treating shell-shocked patients, instead of a regular military hospital.
He wrote that he understood that if he continued opposing the war he would have to spend the rest of his life there, so he toned his opposition down, was released and returned to the from "to be with my men".
The battle of Passchendaele was shown - a bloodbath - it took the army four months to advance five miles.
Another passionate supporter of the war and virulent anti-German, a clergyman, was there and began to damn the war in his diary describing it as futile and inhuman.
His sentiments were echoed by the troops he fought with.
Dissention began to set in at home and abroad, even among some politicians.
The only outright successes in the war were the newly acquired tanks.
The situation on the home front was quashing morale among the troops - an utter shambles
There was no comment throughout the programme as to whether the war as being conducted well or badly, but as those involved, like Paxman, are supporters of the War, we can draw our own conclusions.
OH WHAT A LOVELY WAR was played during the programme.
Jim Carroll