"The question is not one of abstract rights. No one denies that, in the abstract, women have a perfect right to the franchise, just as they have a right to every other human privilege. The question is one of practical policy — whether, in the present stage of political development, the extension of the franchise to women would be conducive to the welfare of the community and the stability of the state. I am not convinced that it would. The introduction of women into the electorate at this stage would import into our political life a vast and uncertain force, the direction and the effects of which no man can predict with confidence. Women as a sex lack that training in political affairs which long years of responsibility have given to men. Their judgement on great Imperial and foreign questions, involving force and the ultimate arbitrament of war, may be affected by considerations and influenced by emotions which might impair its soundness."

Herbert Henry Asquith, statement on women's suffrage, April 1908. Asquith had just become Prime Minister. He remained the principal political obstacle to women's suffrage throughout his premiership, despite his own Liberal Party containing many suffrage supporters.