Heat up the pasty! U can turn if you want to
‘You turn if you want to: the lady’s not for turning’. Yes, the mother of the odium surrounding U-turns was almost certainly Mrs. Thatcher herself, speaking at a Tory party conference at the zenith of her power.
Her speech writers wallowed in their conjuring of Christopher Fry’s ‘The lady’s not for burning’.
Yet in that one vainglorious moment they incinerated any lurking respect there might be for changing one’s mind in public life.
Far from attempting any U-turn on U-turns, Labour used the fear of loss and of eighteen more years in the wilderness, to consolidate the Thatcher view of being caught changing one’s mind. Find ‘U-turn’ in any newspaper headline in Labour’s warrior age, and it heralds bad news indeed.
Last night, the gentle scent of heating pasties indicated that we are indeed entering a new era. The coalition government appears to have lit the Jubilee bonfires ahead of time. But the scent is not that of sizzling meat battling to break out of thick crusts of pastry, but of pig headed recent history in which changing ones mind on an often bad idea was seen as an act of cowardice. So, all the signs are that the unpopular idea of charging VAT on a hot pasty, but not on a cold one, has perfectly reasonably been binned. So too proposed plans for the level of VAT on fixed caravans.
I Googled this government’s U-turns in its first two and years in office. I counted 45 before giving up for lack of justifiable time. These included one of the most celebrated – that of the decision earlier this month to change the type of plane to put on Britain’s new aircraft carriers. Those who whine that there is an even more rewarding U-turnavailable – that of scrapping the entire aircraft carrier project altogether, are quite simply getting ahead of the curve, and becoming carried away themselves.
So let’s hear it for the U-turn; the listening turn; the pragmatic turn; the turn that accepts that sometimes, even politicians are allowed to accept that the original idea was, quite simply, bonkers.
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There are 10 comments on this post
When is a U turn not a U turn but the sensible listening to popular opinion.NEVER,with one exception.A policy U turn means the government is running scared of the effects of the policy they have put in place.A done deal is perceived to be a vote loser and is dropped,despite standing up in Parliament and defending it.It means a very weak government,unless the dropping is done during debate and it is shown to be bad or wrong.
The only exception and strong U turn,is where it is part of a consultative programme and opinion shows it to be wrong.
The problem with the Pastry and Caravan tax was that the government is not strong enough to carry through on what were sensible taxes,bringing anomolies into line with the tax system.By the same argument you could argue that the U turn on the carriers was sensible with regard to the fighting efficiency of an expensive defence project,but it does show poor earlier research
There are ‘U’ turns and deliberate acts of deceit which state I said or did one thing , when in fact it was the opposite was true , and then when caught in the act, change the goal post and say it was a change of mind. I have experienced these shifts in ideology for many many years now , particularly in academia , where goals have been set so one can get on in life, we go ahead with a plan to meet the criteria , it becomes old fashioned upon completion and achievement and another goal is set which we again meet and the same thing happens again . This U turn or change of mind is a problem we have all been facing and a ploy to keep us down from financial success.
So is there an honest U turn where there is an actual admission of a wrong decision and a change in that respect? NO it is all in the power game.
“The listening turn” – I don’t think so. More like the we’ve been twigged, people are kicking up and the chances of winning another election are dying fast turn!
For a government to make an occasional U-turn may show that they are listening and may show some humbleness that they are humans like the rest of us and are there to serve us not for us to serve them but for a government to have to keep on doing it shows that they never listened in the first place and at the best are completely out of touch with the hard working people who put their trust in them and at the worst never had any regard for them in the first place.
“My faith in the people governing is, on the whole, infinitesimal; my faith in the People governed is, on the whole, illimitable.” Dickens
Perfectly put Mel.
Occasional u-turns ok, continual stream of them – proof of incompetency in planning and researching policy in the first place. As if we need any more proof…
Jon,
Oh good. A U turn on pasties and caravans.
That’ll ease the pain for over two and a half million unemployed and fifteen million living in admitted poverty.
Keep up the good work Jon. You and the C4 News editors may yet learn to love Big Brother.
It is, indeed, wise to admit when you have made a mistake and change your course.
However, if you’re constantly admitting you’ve made a terrible mistake, and lurching the steering wheel around and back and forth, it might be a signal that you’re just not very good at making decisions in the first place, and thus perhaps not really cut out for government.
This U-turn only happened because of the stench coming from the expenses scandal involving Baroness Warsi. Had that not come out the tax would have stayed, this is more of a cover up than a U-turn
Pathetic…
Three years until the next General Election, not to mention one year before the tiresome County Council Elections = no need for this panic.
Guessing we will have to wait until the 2015 ‘mini’ (post election victory ?) budget – to ‘iron-out’ some more tax anomalies ?
No political party could hope to win an election promising to increase taxation ? especially upon the ‘little people’ ??
Probably true.
This Republican finds oneself in agreement with King Charles I (according to the film about his ‘tormentor’) – “democracy sir, presupposes extraordinary abilities in very ordinary people” – here, here, here !
Was this a U-Turn?
I do feel that they have added confusion with the not of it’s cold clause makes the nonsense they were trying to clear up, even greater.
Far more interesting, is that the austerity that Osborne expects us all to endure has not kicked in fully yet; We are going to be asking for more it looks like.
History has a strange way of writing itself. I do believe this government will only get one term. They are so out of touch with the public and the sign of our times.
Forget the tax on Pasties! I want the tax break for millionaires to be U-turned. Or how about the NHS stuff?
Consult & reflect then take decisions – then the number of u-turns will be significantly fewer. The only thing that limits the arrogance of power is the fear of losing it.
The problem with this government is that it is a coalition – less of ConDems, but of people who want to do things (generally quite right wing neo-con stuff for the Tories, environmentalist stuff – which many Tories regard as “socialist” – for the LibDems) & the Cameroons who have no particular beliefs or desire to do anything other than to be in power & stay in power. By & large the coalition suits the latter as the other two laregly neutralise each other. It’s a pity that there wasn’t proper consultation & reflection before the government embarked on the NHS reforms though