By all means Musket let's look at the jobs it created and the political, social and economic changes it brought in. Take a good look at how it managed to shrink the world.

Your reference to grass cutting is beneath contempt.

OWALW should be left as it was - largely forgotten - crap based on crap - it is a complete and utter travesty that insults the memory of the generation who endured loss and fought in the First World War.

Simon Heffer - Read his piece in the New Statesman - it would appear from that, that he and I are in agreement on many things related to this topic.

"As far as I am concerned, it was a bloodbath in which millions of young men were tricked into giving their lives by a whole lot of tricks and by circumstances beyond their control - there is little if any evidence of them joining in any significant numbers out of support for either the war or for the glory of Empire."

In the Summer of 1914 the British Army including all Reserves and Territorials numbered roughly 400,000 men. By December 1914 roughly an additional 1,300,000 men had volunteered for service - What would you call a significant number Christmas? I would venture the opinion of an increase in strength of over 300% pretty significant.

"The "liar" we recorded said he and his mates joined on the promise of a short, easy war that would be over by Christmas"

Another of your dearly cherished MYTHS Christmas. Here are the words of the man "who took Great Britain and her Empire to war" the then British Foreign Secretatry Sir Edward Grey:

"The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our life-time"

That was said to a friend and colleague on the eve of Britain's entry into the First World War. First published in Grey's memoirs in 1925, the statement earned wide attention as a correct perception of the First World War and its geopolitical and cultural consequences.

So much for promises of it being "over by Christmas". Again old ground that has been raked over before - you were shown to have been in error then by repeated examples of leading figures - yet IIRC you were unable to identify anyone in the military or political establishment who is on record of making any such promise. Don't feel too bad about that Christmas neither could Paxman.