U-turns are not always benign
U-turns have been happening with surprising regularity for a government with an 80-seat majority. This week ministers reversed their opposition to the wearing of face masks in schools. Last week, they followed Scotland’s lead in scrapping the A-level algorithm. They climbed down over free school meal vouchers after a campaign by the footballer Marcus Rashford, backed away from allowing Huawei into the UK’S 5G infrastructure, and abandoned plans to reopen schools in June, amid a slew of other shifts from policies that, often just hours previously, the Government had been defending as the right ones.
Many of these about-turns were justified. There is also an argument that they do not really matter: that voters prefer governments to reach the right decisions eventually, rather than pile error upon error in pursuit of goals that are unrealistic or that carry disproportionate political cost compared to the benefit. While a series of missteps have dented trust in the Government somewhat, it retains a healthy lead over Labour.
Criticism from opposition politicians of such conduct is also inevitable. They do not have to contend with the realities of high office, and have developed a habit of opportunistically calling for the Government to change course only when it is already clear that ministers plan to do exactly that.
Warnings from Conservative backbenchers are more serious. Senior Tories are concerned that ministers are making policy up on the hoof, bending with the political wind rather than being in command of events, and are shifting responsibility for failures onto quangos when they should be accepting their own share of the blame.
The problem is that the consequences of U-turns are not always benign. On a number of occasions, ministers have stepped back from withdrawing elements of the support they extended at the height of lockdown, the latest example being the decision to extend the ban on evictions even as the property market returns to health. This is also the danger inherent in the new plan to pay some of those affected by local lockdowns to stay at home: what is the Government’s exit strategy?
As ministers admit, there are tough and unpopular decisions ahead and it will not always be possible to be guided by the opinion polls. They might want to reflect on the question: why are we U-turning so often?