To think 1 Government U turn is accepabtable but 3 in a week looks like carelessness

[enimmead]

Pasty tax
Caravan tax
Charity contributions

I'm not sure if there were anymore before that.

Doesn't the Treasury think through what might happen, consult with people who might be affected and listen before they announce?

Short answer - no

Nooooooooo, I need them to do one more u turn amendment and make work on listed properties VAT exempt again. But fear that will be seen as a step too far

Treasury does. Politicians don't.

They're quite minor u turns, aren't they?

They need to u turn on their economic policy that's for sure.

YABU to think that a u-turn is always a bad thing.

It would be much worse if a government didn't change their policy if new evidence came to light.

Evidence like a double dip recession you mean?

We thought that A was the right thing to do, but things have changed and now we are going to do B.

Perfectly sensible behaviour. Gets called a U-turn.

We thought that A was the right thing to do and we are going to do A no matter what.

What they would have to do in order to never be accused of doing U-turns. Not sensible at all.

Isn't it more a case of:

We thought A was the right thing to do. We still do but are very surprised at the level of opposition and even ridicule we have experienced regarding these issues.

They're not exactly U turns though are they.
More like badly executed 3 point turns

Pasty tax, you won't pay vat if its straight from the oven, you will pay tax if it's kept warm though, so still taxed

Caravan Tax- they were going to add 20% VAT on new static caravans its now going to be 5% VAT, so still taxed

YABU if you didn't think these very minor but highly inflammatory measures weren't included in the budget in order that they could be u-turned at a later date. Their inclusion served two purposes:

The furore about them, in particular the pasty tax meant that no-one paid any attention to some of the more serious changes such as the tax relief for pensioners being removed, the further increase in fuel duty and the continuation of the dismantling of the benefits system. They were a very successful smokescreen.

They were such minor issues that would have generated a minute amount of revenue for the treasury, but got made such a big deal of, that the government can reverse the decision without impacting too much on the countries financials, but can then say: "Look, aren't we great, we listened to public opinion and acted by reversing these unpopular decisions"

It's all manipulation and spin