Chris Fuller

Among those groups urging voters to stay in the EU in next month’s referendum are the Greens and Friends of the Earth (FoE). The Greens state, “It’s only by working with our European neighbours that we can tackle climate change, protect wildlife and reduce pollution.” FoE argue that the EU has created cleaner beaches and drinking water, reduced air pollution and protected wildlife. Both organisations enter some caveats. The FoE website is littered with accounts of EU environmental disasters. The Greens say that the EU needs to be reformed, saying it can be changed “for the common good”.

One hundred years ago the British ruling class took a desperate gamble by introducing military conscription. The move was accompanied by huge opposition from below and spurred resistance to the war.

In November 1914 Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, asked the question, “What would happen if the armies suddenly and simultaneously went on strike?” He was soon to find out.

The revolt by soldiers on all sides of the Western Front during and after Christmas 1914 was on a huge scale and took forms that represented a fundamental challenge to the ability of the high commands to conduct the war.

The carnage of the First World War has been seen by many commentators as different from any conflict that went before. In fact there were hints as to how terrible a war between the rival imperial powers of the early 20th century might be. At the battle of Omdurman in 1898 the British had deployed the Maxim gun for the first time and slaughtered 10,800 Sudanese rebels. However, the war mindset was still that of the "cavalry charge"; few people envisaged the scale of the horror that was 1914-18.