Democracy depends on history to sustain it

JUST about now, 100 years ago, the scale of the carnage of the opening day of the Battle of the Somme was becoming apparent.

Though the families of those swept away or just broken forever could still hope that their loved ones had not fallen in front of the scythe that terrible July day in France was the start of a battle in which over one million men were killed.

It was a catastrophic, epoch-defining event and became a catalyst for the great social changes demanded after WWI.