Finding a voice

Sir William Robertson, the chief of the imperial general staff from December 1915, recognised that the nature of trench war would shape the course of the conflict - that it would be dependent on material resources and would be a slow process of attrition.

Appointed at the same time, the commander-in-chief of the army in France, Douglas Haig, continued to believe that a breakthrough would be possible, but his steadfast conviction in ultimate victory bound him more tightly to the prime minister than either of them cared to acknowledge.

Such a war could not be waged without conscription, adopted in 1916. For its liberal opponents, compulsion threatened Britain with self-defeat, forcing it to militarise society and so become too like its principal enemy, Germany.

War reduced debate to slogans, but it widened politics.

But in practice the issues were not that clear-cut. The war was fought by citizens - temporary soldiers anxious to return home when the fighting was over. They were also determined to exercise the political voice which the popular press - thriving on international crisis - had helped them find.

The war may have reduced debate to slogans, but it also widened the political constituency, and its memory shaped much of the discourse of the succeeding years.

(http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/britain_wwone/overview_britain_ww1_01.shtml)