Shush, Little People

Britain's Conservative Party is attempting to make its proposal to lower the upper age limit on abortions, from the current 24 weeks after conception to 20, an issue in the general election campaign. Solicitor General Harriet Harman [who serves at the pleasure of the ruling Labour Party, to which she belongs -- the distinction between politicians and bureaucrats is not so pronounced in the UK as in the US] does not want it to come to a vote, and most certainly does not want feedback from the populace.

"This has always been a matter of individual conscience. If something is a free vote it cannot be in a general election campaign. We can debate it later."

[Emphasis mine.] The more one scrutinizes that sentence, the more dishonest it appears. Ms. Harman says, in essence, that we cannot let the will of the people interfere with the expression of conscience of the governing class.