to ask why several prominent members seem to have vanished?!?

Why sad Jane10 surely just a bit of fun.

It's the sight of those young lads happily marching off to a dreadful war. The poor families, och everything about it all really.

Oh yes I see that Jane so sorry .
My grandson sings it to me sometimes when he goes home . They had a WW project at school last term and he rather took to some of the songs .

I had to sing it in a show years ago. So many of those WW1 songs are so cheery but the back story!!
Goodbye Dolly, Its a long way to Tipperary, Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag, and so many other great, but ultimately sad, songs.
Sorry to be a downer gillybob. Hope your DH is a bit better.

I was 'reprimanded' for saying I found it distasteful to call WW1 the 'Great' war- no-one, no-one ever, has ever been able to explain to me why it happened and why it escalated so. And yes, the young soldiers were brainwashed with honour and glory and duty - to walk into their 10000s to the most horrible of deaths- on all sides.

The epithet The Great War is perfectly acceptable as long as the capital letters are used, particularly in a historical context. World War I or the First World War may be more usual in everyday speech.

The Great means the large war, the massive war and not great as in wonderful jura.

That was just in case you didn’t realise!
It was called The Great War until the advent of WW2.

)jura2 I agree that the explanation that we were given in school that it it was about Archduke Ferdinand being assassinated in Sarajevo is unbelievably simplistic for the horrific loss of life & injuries incurred by so many young men. I have visited the battlefields & cemeteries in Belgium & France on a few occasions & the ages of those who died is heartrending. As my sons are similar ages I have found it even more upsetting.

There are booksful of reasons why WW1, The Great War, the war to end wars happened.

Indeed there are & historians are still arguing (meant in the best possible sense) about the cause in the centenary of the end of the conflict. Sadly we seem to be heading towards another international conflict (which we all truly hope won't happen) but I suspect in years to come opinions will differ as to the cause.

Granjura - I've been thinking about your use of 'prominent' - maybe you were thinking of 'prolific' ?

No Fennel - it was totally biased I suppose- they were prominent to me, in the sense that the views they put forward, were usually very well thought out, imho- and often backed with very interesting and informative links.

Even though I often did not agree- and without being a member of the LP and very frustrated by JC's sitting on the fence on Brexit.

I don’t think “prominent” can be used as a subjective value judgement.
Something/somebody either is prominent or they are not.

“Important” can have shade of relevance though, what is important to me may not be important to you. IYSWIM

I asked a while back what happened to a very active poster Jingle bells frocks, I was told she had been removed/deleted, for having quite strong , offending views , Wonder where she went ,

Message deleted by Gransnet. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

Lilypops a lot of GNs wanted Jinglebellfrocks reinstated, there were a few threads about that, she was a larger than life legend, she briefly came back under another guise but departed again quite swiftly.

I hope the politics and news threads become less polarised and that personally offensive or goading remarks lessen. I'm not criticising the three posters who have left, they were often well informed and usually interesting. However the level of anger often expressed between some on the left and some on the right did seem to discourage others from posting.
I'm using the terms left and right loosely, before anyone decides to shoot me down in flames.
Given the 'interesting times' in which we're living, the opportunity to discuss significant issues on line feels like a plus to me.

I'm using the terms left and right loosely, before anyone decides to shoot me down in flames.
I think the ones in the centre often got caught in the crossfire.

Well said iam

May I add those left of centre were target practice ?

Well said iam

Actually, although the news and politics threads will always engender strong feelings, Gransnet has already become a nicer place IMHO.
Great to suddenly see so many new posters all having their say on many threads.Perhaps they have been lurking for a while, and now they all feel confident to post comments.