Echoes from the past

The Guardian newspaper is currently giving away 'Great speeches of the 20th century' booklets, one of which is a speech made by Emmeline Pankhurst in 1913. Of course, we are in the middle of an election campaign, so I've not yet had the chance to sit down and read it properly. But it has sparked a thought nonetheless.

One of the many arguments thrown at the suffragettes, from those who sought to deny women the right to vote, was that there was no point to female suffrage - because women would vote the way their husbands did anyway!

In Scotland today, similarly ludicrous arguments are being made in an attempt, by those parties that support the retention of the union, to deny the people of Scotland a vote on their future. I have heard many a politician claim that there is no point to holding a referendum on independence because voters in Scotland would say no anyway! They actually believe that they can predict the result of a popular vote on independence, and that this gives them a right to deny this vote in the first place!